2 Chronicles 7

2Ch 7:1-3.

GOD

GIVES

TESTIMONY TO

SOLOMON'S

PRAYER; THE

PEOPLE

WORSHIP.

1. the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt

offering--Every act of worship was accompanied by a sacrifice. The

preternatural stream of fire kindled the mass of flesh, and was a token

of the divine acceptance of Solomon's prayer

(see on

Le 9:24;

1Ki 18:38).

the glory of the Lord filled the house--The cloud, which was the symbol

of God's presence and majesty, filled the interior of the temple

(Ex 40:35).

2. the priests could not enter--Both from awe of the miraculous

fire that was burning on the altar and from the dense cloud that

enveloped the sanctuary, they were unable for some time to perform

their usual functions (see on

1Ki 8:10).

But afterwards, their courage and confidence being revived, they

approached the altar and busied themselves in the offering of an

immense number of sacrifices.

3. all the children of Israel . . . bowed themselves with their faces

to the ground upon the pavement--This form of prostration (that of

lying on one's knees with the forehead touching the earth), is the

manner in which the Hebrews, and Orientals in general, express the most

profound sentiments of reverence and humility. The courts of the temple

were densely crowded on the occasion, and the immense multitude threw

themselves on the ground. What led the Israelites suddenly to assume

that prostrate attitude on the occasion referred to, was the spectacle

of the symbolical cloud slowly and majestically descending upon the

temple, and then entering it.

2Ch 7:4-11.

SOLOMON'S

SACRIFICES.

4. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices--Whether the

individual worshippers slaughtered their own cattle, or a certain

portion of the vast number of the Levitical order in attendance

performed that work, as they sometimes did, in either case the

offerings were made through the priests, who presented the blood and

the fat upon the altar

(see on

1Ki 8:62).

5, 6. so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God--The

ceremonial of dedication consisted principally in the introduction of

the ark into the temple, and in the sacrificial offerings that were

made on a scale of magnitude suitable to the extraordinary occasion.

All present, the king, the people, and the priests, took part according

to their respective stations in the performance of the solemn service.

The duty, of course, devolved chiefly on the priests, and hence in

proceeding to describe their several departments of work, the historian

says, generally, "the priests waited on their offices." While great

numbers would be occupied with the preparation and offering of the

victims, others sounded with their trumpets, and the different bands of

the Levites praised the Lord with vocal and instrumental music, by

the hundred thirty-sixth Psalm,

the oft-recurring chorus of which is, "for His mercy endureth for

ever."

7. Solomon hallowed the middle of the court--On this extraordinary

occasion, when a larger number of animals were offered than one altar

and the usual place of rings to which the animals were bound would

admit, the whole space was taken in that was between the place of rings

and the west end of the court to be used as a temporary place for

additional altars. On that part of the spacious court holocausts were

burning all round.

8. Solomon kept the feast seven days--The time chosen for the

dedication of the temple was immediately previous to the feast of

tabernacles (see on

1Ki 8:1-12).

That season, which came after the harvest, corresponding to our

September and October, lasted seven days, and during so prolonged a

festival there was time afforded for the offering of the immense

sacrifices enumerated. A large proportion of these were peace

offerings, which afforded to the people the means of festive enjoyment.

all Israel . . . from the entering in of Hamath--that is, the defile

at Lebanon.

unto the river of Egypt--that is, Rhinocorura, now El-Arish, the south

boundary of Palestine.

10. on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month--This was

the last day of the feast of tabernacles.

2Ch 7:12-22.

GOD

APPEARS TO

HIM.

12. the Lord appeared to Solomon by

night--(See on

1Ki 9:1-9).

The dedication of the temple must have been an occasion of intense

national interest to Solomon and his subjects. Nor was the interest

merely temporary or local. The record of it is read and thought of with

an interest that is undiminished by the lapse of time. The fact that

this was the only temple of all nations in which the true God was

worshipped imparts a moral grandeur to the scene and prepares the mind

for the sublime prayer that was offered at the dedication. The pure

theism of that prayer--its acknowledgment of the unity of God as well

as of His moral perfections in providence and grace, came from the same

divine source as the miraculous fire. They indicated sentiments and

feelings of exalted and spiritual devotion, which sprang not from the

unaided mind of man, but from the fountain of revelation. The reality

of the divine presence was attested by the miracle, and that miracle

stamped the seal of truth upon the theology of the temple-worship.