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Matthew Henry |
S E C O N D C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. VII.
In this chapter we have God’s answer to Solomon’s prayer.
I. His public answer by fire from heaven, which consumed the sacrifices
(ver. 1),
with which the priests and people were much affected,
By that token of God’s acceptance they were encouraged to continue the
solemnities of the feast for fourteen days, and Solomon was encouraged
to pursue all his designs for the honour of God,
II. His private answer by word of mouth, in a dream or vision of the
night,
Most of these things we had before,
| God’s Gracious Answer to Solomon. | B. C. 1004. |
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1 Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came
down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the
sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.
2 And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD,
because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD‘s house.
3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came
down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed
themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and
worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for
his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before
the LORD.
5 And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two
thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the
king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
6 And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also
with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had
made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever,
when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded
trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.
7 Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was
before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt
offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brasen
altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt
offerings, and the meat offerings, and the fat.
8 Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and
all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering
in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.
9 And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they
kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven
days.
10 And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he
sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart
for the goodness that the LORD had showed unto David, and to
Solomon, and to Israel his people.
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s
house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the
house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously
effected.
Here is,
I. The gracious answer which God immediately made to Solomon’s prayer:
The fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice,
v. 1.
In this way God testified his acceptance of Moses
(Lev. ix. 24),
of Gideon
(Judg. vi. 21),
of David
of Elijah
and, in general, to accept the burnt-sacrifice is, in the Hebrew
phrase, to turn it to ashes,
The fire came down here, not upon the killing of the sacrifices, but
the praying of the prayer.
1. This fire intimated that God was,
(1.) Glorious in himself; for our God is a consuming fire,
terrible even in his holy places. This fire, breaking forth (as it is
probable) out of the thick darkness, made it the more terrible, as on
Mount Sinai,
The sinners in Sion had reason to be afraid at that
sight, and to say, Who among us shall dwell near this devouring
fire?
Isa. xxxiii. 14.
And yet,
(2.) Gracious to Israel; for this fire, which might justly have
consumed them, fastened upon the sacrifice which was offered in their
stead, and consumed that, by which God signified to them that he
accepted their offerings and that his anger was turned away from
them.
2. Let us apply this,
(1.) To the suffering of Christ. When it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, and put him to grief, in that he showed his good-will to men,
having laid on him the iniquity of us all. His death was our life, and
he was made sin and a curse that we might inherit righteousness and a
blessing. That sacrifice was consumed that we might escape. Here am
I, let these go their way.
(2.) To the sanctification of the Spirit, who descends like fire,
burning up our lusts and corruptions, those beasts that must be
sacrificed or we are undone, and kindling in our souls a holy fire of
pious and devout affections, always to be kept burning on the altar of
the heart. The surest evidence of God’s acceptance of our prayers is
the descent of the holy fire upon us. Did not our hearts burn within
us?
Luke xxiv. 32.
As a further evidence that God accepted Solomon’s prayer, still the
glory of the Lord filled the house. The heart that is thus filled
with a holy awe and reverence of the divine glory, the heart to which
God manifests himself in his greatness, and (which is no less his
glory) in his goodness, is thereby owned as a living temple.
II. The grateful return made to God for this gracious token of his
favour.
1. The people worshipped and praised God,
v. 3.
When they saw the fire of God come down from heaven thus they did not
run away affrighted, but kept their ground in the courts of the Lord,
and took occasion from it,
(1.) With reverence to adore the glory of God: They bowed their
faces to the ground and worshipped, thus expressing their awful
dread of the divine majesty, their cheerful submission to the divine
authority, and the sense they had of their unworthiness to come into
God’s presence and their inability to stand before the power of his
wrath.
(2.) With thankfulness to acknowledge the goodness of God; even when
the fire of the Lord came down they praised him, saying, He is good,
for his mercy endureth for ever. This is a song never out of
season, and for which our hearts and tongues should be never out of
tune. However it be, yet God is good. When he manifests himself as a
consuming fire to sinners, his people can rejoice in him as their
light. Nay, they had reason to say that in this God was good. “It is
of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, but the sacrifice
in our stead, for which we are bound to be very thankful.”
2. The king and all the people offered sacrifices in abundance,
With these they feasted this holy fire, and bade it welcome to the
altar. They had offered sacrifices before, but now they increased them.
Note, The tokens of God’s favour to us should enlarge our hearts in his
service, and make us to abound therein more and more. The king’s
example stirred up the people. Good work is then likely to go on when
the leaders of a people lead in it. The sacrifices were so numerous
that the altar could not contain them all; but, rather than any of them
should be turned back (though we may suppose the blood of them all was
sprinkled upon the altar), the flesh of the burnt-offerings and the fat
of the peace-offerings were burnt in the midst of the court
(v. 7),
which Solomon either hallowed for that service or hallowed by it. In
case of necessity the pavement might be an altar.
3. The priests did their part; they waited on their offices, and the
singers and musicians on theirs
(v. 6),
with the instruments that David made, and the hymn that David had
put into their hand, as some think it may be read (meaning that
or, as we read it, when David praised by their ministry. He
employed, directed, and encouraged them in this work of praising God;
and therefore their performances were accepted as his act, and he is
said to praise by their ministry.
4. The whole congregation expressed the greatest joy and satisfaction
imaginable. They kept the feast of the dedication of the altar seven
days, from the second to the ninth; the tenth day was the day of
atonement, when they were to afflict their souls for sin, and that was
not unseasonable in the midst of their rejoicings; on the fifteenth day
began the feast of tabernacles, which continued to the twenty-second,
and they did not separate till the twenty-third. We must never grudge
the time that we spend in the worship of God and communion with him,
nor think it long, or grow weary of it.
5. Solomon went on in his work, and prosperously effected all he
designed for the adorning both of God’s house and his own,
Those that begin with the service of God are likely to go on
successfully in their own affairs. It was Solomon’s praise that what he
undertook he went through with, and it was by the grace of God that he
prospered in it.
| God’s Promises to Solomon. | B. C. 1004. |
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12 And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto
him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to
myself for a house of sacrifice.
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command
the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my
people;
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their
wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin, and will heal their land.
15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the
prayer that is made in this place.
16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my
name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be
there perpetually.
17 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy
father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded
thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;
18 Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as
I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not
fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.
19 But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my
commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve
other gods, and worship them;
20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which
I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my
name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a
proverb and a byword among all nations.
21 And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to
every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the
LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?
22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God
of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of
Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and
served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.
That God accepted Solomon’s prayer appeared by the fire from heaven.
But a prayer may be accepted and yet not answered in the letter of it;
and therefore God appeared to him in the night, as he did once before
(ch. i. 7),
and after a day of sacrifice too, as then, and gave him a peculiar
answer to his prayer. We had the substance of it before,
I. He promised to own this house for a house of sacrifice to
Israel and a house of prayer for all people
(Isa. lvi. 7):
My name shall be there for ever
(v. 12, 16),
that is, “There will I make myself known, and there will I be called
upon.”
II. He promised to answer the prayers of his people that should at any
time be made in that place,
National judgments are here supposed
(v. 13),
famine, and pestilence, and perhaps war, for by the locusts devouring
the land meant enemies as greedy as locusts, and laying all waste.
2. National repentance, prayer, and reformation, are required,
God expects that his people who are called by his name, if they have
dishonoured his name by their iniquity, should honour it by accepting
the punishment of their iniquity. They must be humble themselves under
his hand, must pray for the removal of the judgment, must seek the face
and favour of God; and yet all this will not do unless they turn from
their wicked ways, and return to the God from whom they have revolted.
3. National mercy is then promised, that God will forgive their sin,
which brought the judgment upon them, and then heal their land, redress
all their grievances. Pardoning mercy makes ways for healing mercy,
III. He promised to perpetuate Solomon’s kingdom, upon condition that
he persevered in his duty,
If he hoped for the benefit of God’s covenant with David, he must
imitate the example of David. But he set before him death as well as
life, the curse as well as the blessing.
1. He supposed it possible that though they had this temple built to
the honour of God, yet they might be drawn aside to worship other gods,
He knew their proneness to backslide into that sin.
2. He threatened it as certain that, if they did so, it would certainly
be the ruin of both church and state.
(1.) It would be the ruin of their state,
“Though they have taken deep root, and taken root long, in this good
land, yet I will pluck them up by the roots, extirpate the whole
nation, pluck them up as men pluck up weeds out of their garden, which
are thrown to the dunghill.”
(2.) It would be the ruin of their church. This sanctuary would be no
sanctuary to them, to protect them from the judgment of God, as they
imagined, saying, The temple of the Lord are we,
Jer. vii. 4.
“This house which is high, not only for the magnificence of its
structure, but for the designed ends and uses of it, shall be an
astonishment, it shall come down wonderfully
(Lam. i. 9),
to the amazement of all the neighbours.”
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