Solomon

January 4, 2026 · Ben Hoyer · 24:24

The chronological Bible series reaches King Solomon, focusing on 1 Kings 8 and his building of the temple to house the Ark of the Covenant, reflecting on Israel's golden age and on church as something believers are rather than a place they go.

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Well, it's lovely to see you all here on this first Sunday. I am... We're in the section of the story where we're talking about King Solomon. And perhaps the most important thing King Solomon does, David's son with Bathsheba, is make the temple. So I was reading about the temple and I was comparing it to the book of Hebrews where it talks about temple.

And I was reminded of one of my core dreams for being church together that church is something that we are not something that we do or a place where we go. And so part of that and how we structure our Sunday mornings is trying to reinforce that church is something that we are. When I try to describe what I imagine or dream church might be to people, how we experience church together, it's a group of people that care about one another. That are gathered together regularly under the gospel.

And so I thought this morning as we start, I'm going to make it try and make it as simple as possible. So we're not even going to mic ourselves. I thought it's the first Sunday that there won't be very many people here. They'll be able to hear me anyway. So if you can't hear me, I'm sorry. It's my idealistic self that wants us to just be a group of people that care about one another, hearing the gospel and eating together. We'll make breakfast together here on the first Sunday month while we're meeting together. But before we get into that, we will look at the story of Solomon a little bit.

If you want to look there with me, the section that I'm in is in 1 Kings 8. It's starting at verse 23. It's funny that Solomon gets chosen to be the next king after David. It's true when I told the kids, David is arguably the greatest king Israel ever has. Unarguably, their kingdom is the largest it ever will be under King David.

And Solomon is so powerful, has peace on his borders. He's so powerful. He takes Pharaoh's daughter as one of his wives. He's like a peer. In the story of you, we're going to read the chapter of the story right now. The Queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon and is impressed at how cultured he is. It says that in the scripture basically. I can't believe how well you're doing things. You've got servants that bring you things. Everything is so well appointed and your wisdom is beyond measure, beyond equal.

It seems like Israel has finally arrived in the age of King Solomon. They are no longer a backwards former slave. They are a legitimate nation state under King Solomon. It's a big deal when you read the story of scripture. You can feel how generally proud Israel is of their period under Solomon. For Solomon has its foibles and problems.

But he spends the first part of his time thanking the God that he, for how kind God was to David and that he brought Solomon. And it's true Solomon is the son of David and Bathsheba together. You know, it seems like when we read the story of these patriarchs who had lots of wives, lots of reasons that they sometimes almost seem like they have a favorite. It seems like maybe Bathsheba was that for David.

Solomon becomes king. And then he starts right away maybe the capstone of Jerusalem. David is the one who made Jerusalem the capital but he hadn't really been able to build the way he wanted. He hadn't finished a wall around the city which was important at the time. And God told him explicitly you're not allowed to build a temple for me. And so David wasn't building his palace in Jerusalem yet either. So Solomon took the pharaoh's daughter as his wife, lived outside of Jerusalem and then

began the work of finishing. Brought in the cedars from Lebanon to build the walls of the temple. And I was looking because you remember famously David brings the Ark of the Covenant out of wherever it's been hanging out and brings it to Jerusalem. It's a very famous story and it wasn't until I was reading this in context like we are now. And I was like David brought the Ark of the Covenant, the thing that holds the Ten Commandments and Aaron's budding staff and the manna.

He brings it up from either Givian or Shiloh where it's hanging out in someone's house, the Ark of the Covenant which was specifically designed by God himself and spoke into Moses. Above the Ark of the Covenant is famously the mercy where the observable presence of God dwells, where you go to beg for pardon and forgiveness. And the Ark of the Covenant is hanging out in somebody's house.

And David's like let's get into Jerusalem. David tries to take a Jerusalem right that has a little hiccup and then he gets into Jerusalem but there's no place to put it. It goes in somebody's house again. They lost the tabernacle. In the days we talked about an Eli they had a remnant of the tabernacle but it was destroyed by the Philistines when they captured the Ark of the Covenant. So when Solomon takes rain and fully under all of David's rain the Ark of the Covenant is just kind of like a token hanging out somewhere.

Tough. What are we doing as the people of God receiving his blessings? And so Solomon's going to build the temple and he's going to use the description of the tabernacle which they kept as the how he will build the temple. And so the tabernacle and the temple are different but according to the same floor plane you know. And he builds it.

He's gilded with gold and like I said he brings down the cedars from Lebanon. It's cool when you read the story of the guy, the guy that rules the area where there are the big trees. Solomon's like I'm finally going to build this temple. I'll pay you whenever you want. He's like send me good food because Israel grows good wheat. And so he cuts down the cedars and he carries them to the Mediterranean and then he's blown them from the Mediterranean down to Israel because Israel goes all the way to the sea and then Israel picks them up there and puts the wheat on and sends the wheat so they have

this chain and they're going to build this temple. So now Israel has a ride right? They've got a king and they've got a temple for their God. When Solomon finishes building the temple, the Holy of Holies is cedars with gold around the walls. The observable presence of God comes and I boom, the cloud of God comes and sits over the temple. And Solomon prays a prayer of dedication at the temple which I went and looked for specifically

because I remember that Solomon's prayer of dedication was a big deal. And I'm going to tell you why it's a big deal then we'll back up and go to where I learned reading it again this time. I've told you before about my favorite Hebrew professor from seminary, professor of Lessing. It was very fun when he would do his vocab because he was like a crazy mind and would memorize all the instances of the Hebrew in the text. And he also, one of the things he was passionate about, he taught us exes of the Torah was the

reality that the God of Israel is the same as the God of Jesus is the same as the God of the church today. And the notion that God operates differently in the Old Testament than the New Testament is a misunderstanding of what's happening. And one of the ways he wanted to drive that home all the way, all the time is to pull out examples of the gospel, the inclusive nature of Israel from the very beginning. And one of the prime examples of that is Solomon's prayer of dedication at the temple.

Before the door of the temple as he concludes his prayer, we'll see it in just a minute. Solomon prays that all the world would come to worship the one true God at his one true temple in Jerusalem. Oh, that's a kid. I thought it was an animal sound. Okay. So in first Kings chapter eight, starting at verse 22, we're in the part of Solomon's

prayer of dedication for the temple that I want to cover. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands towards heaven and said, Oh Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping the covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with

your servant David, my father, what you have described him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it to this day. Now therefore, oh Lord God of Israel, keep your servant David, my father, what you have promised him. Saying, You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel if only your sons pay close attention to their way to walk before me as you have walked before me.

Now these now therefore, oh God of Israel, let your word be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant David, my father. And then he gets in. So he's like, let us always, this family always we're doing this. You've been so kind to David, my father now be kind to me. Verse 27, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot continue. How much less this house that I have built.

You have regard to the prayer of your servant and his plea. Oh Lord, my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day towards this house. This place which you have said, my name shall be there, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers towards this place and listen to the plea of your servant and

your people Israel when they pray towards this place. And listen in heaven, your dwelling place when you hear. So I'm going to say, he's got this building built now and it's like, Lord, I would love for you to be here in this building. And he's like, it's crazy to ask you to be here in this building because I know enough to know that all of existence can't contain you, that you are broader, deeper, older,

newer than anything in existence. So who am I to suggest that you would just stay here in this building? So then he says, but have your eyes on this building day and night. And what stuck out to me, if you look, we won't read the whole thing, it's a little bit long, but I want to pull out that he starts to say, anybody that prays towards this building that they would come to know you, right? That you would hear their prayer.

And then in the paragraph that starts with verse 31, says, if a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears this oath before your altar in this house, then here in heaven an act and judge. So when they are looking for justice among each other and they come to the temple to get the justice, would God execute the justice properly?

Hold them to their oaths. And then he goes to another one, verse 33. When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you and if they turn again to you and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house. So at first he starts off saying, if they come for justice, for forgiveness or deliverance, and then he goes down and says, for forgiveness or even for rain, if they come to this house,

this temple, looking for these things, Lord hear them. And then he goes further because if he keeps going down and he's like, if your people Israel are removed from the land and they can't get to this house, but they pray in the direction of this house, would you then hear them and honor their request? This is why you hear sometimes of things being oriented towards the east for us, right?

Because Solomon has this prayer that says, if you pray in the direction of the temple, then would God hear the prayer? And I'm a healthy American individualist, a product of American prosperity. I know God lives in my heart, right?

I know that God has lived with me, that I have a personal relationship with God. This is true. So when I read Solomon saying at this building, come to this place, and if I pray, face this building in order that God would hear me, I'm like, in what way is this the same? That's what I have today. And this is what I came up with.

You can take it or leave it. I think Solomon is taking the opportunity to suggest that this God uniquely answers prayers like this, that the people of Israel throughout their history and going forward will have

an opportunity to petition the gods of the Moabites or the Edomites or the Philistines. And Solomon wants to suggest that if they are oriented towards this building, then they are praying to this God, the God who honored the promises to David, the God who honored the promises to Abraham and Isaac, the God that ushered them through the Red Sea, the God that met them at Sinai, the God that fed them in the desert, the God that toppled

the walls of Jericho, the God that uplifted David when he failed and gifted Solomon the kingdom. And he says that this God is unique. This is the God that cannot be contained, but by grace and favor limits himself here in this building, in this place. So it's not as though there is something magic about the temple, it's that the temple stands in for making a choice.

Amongst the gods, this is the one I trust. And that's why it's significant when at the end of the prayer, towards the end of the prayer, he says in verse 41, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says, he says,

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