Dear readers, Through this book I wish to share with you the Word of 1 Kings, chapters 8 through 12. These words record the course that runs from the time Solomon enshrined the Ark of the Covenant in the completed Temple and dedicated it to God, through the inclining of his heart to idols and the declaration that the kingdom would be divided, to the process by which the nation and its worship were split through the wrong choices of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Outwardly it looks like a story of the glory of the Temple and the prosperity of the kingdom, of political division and a new dynasty; but within it are contained the reason we must set the gospel of the water and the Spirit at the center of our hearts, and the weighty truth that the Word of salvation God has ordained must never be changed by human thinking.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

1 Kings chapter 8 records how Solomon moved the Ark of the Covenant from the City of David into the Most Holy Place of the new temple, and dedicated the temple to God while the glory of God filled it. Solomon proclaimed before the people of Israel that God’s promise had been fulfilled, and he pleaded with God to hear whenever the people prayed toward the temple in all kinds of situations, including lawsuits, war, drought, plague, and life in captivity. Afterward he blessed the people, offered many sacrifices, and held the dedication of the temple.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

1 Kings chapter 8 is the Word in which the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD comes into the completed temple, and Solomon dedicates the temple before all Israel and prays to God. The temple had already been built and its furnishings were in place, but at its center there absolutely had to be the Ark of the Covenant. A temple without the Ark is a house with only an outward form left. This shows that our faith today also must stand not on outward form but on the center of the covenant God has established.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

1 Kings chapter 8 is the chapter of the dedication of Solomon’s temple. The temple was already completed, and the furnishings to go into it were in place. Now Solomon gathered the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes to Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD up from the City of David, Zion, to the temple. And when the Ark was set under the wings of the cherubim in the Most Holy Place, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

In 1 Kings chapter 8, Solomon dedicates the temple and offers a long prayer. He stands before the altar of the LORD, spreads out his hands toward heaven, and confesses that God has fulfilled the promise He made to David. And he pleads that when the people of Israel pray toward the temple from the place of their many sins, plagues, defeats, and captivity, God would hear from heaven and remit their sins.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

1 Kings chapter 9 records how, after Solomon finished building the temple and the palace, God appeared to him a second time, with the promise of the throne conditioned on obedience and the warning against idolatry. There follow his dealings with Hiram king of Tyre, the building of various cities and military facilities, the system of the labor force, the sacrifices at the temple, and the maritime trade through Ophir.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

1 Kings chapter 9 begins with the word God spoke when He appeared to Solomon again, after Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and his own palace. The time when the work of God is finished is the time when a man’s heart is revealed. When he begins a work he can be humble, but when the work is accomplished and its results are before his eyes, a man can tilt toward his own glory and his own comfort. For Solomon, too, that very time was a crucial time of testing.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35

Looking at today’s Scripture passage, after Solomon had finished building the palace and the temple, God appeared to Solomon a second time. This is what God said to Solomon: He said that He had specially set apart and consecrated that temple, and that He would put His eyes and His heart there.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35