In this profound episode, we delve into one of history’s most enigmatic religious landmarks—Solomon’s Temple. Journey with us as we explore the grandeur and significance of the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred repository revered by the Israelites. Learn about the incredible dedication ceremony and the insights uncovered through the chapters of 1 Kings. Uncover the awe and worship that characterized this ancient festival, where thousands gathered, and offerings were made to honor God.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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One of the most incredible museums the world has ever known was one that hardly anyone ever got to visit. It was the temple that King Solomon built. Well, he’d finished that thing. He brought in everything his father David had dedicated, all the silver, the gold, the furnishings, and he placed them in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple. What a museum. But the general population never got to go into that place. So when Solomon had put all that stuff in there, he assembled all the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, got all of them, everybody together. You’ll find this story in 1 Kings 8. They did all this to get ready to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. For a long time, ever since the Philistines had stolen it out of Shiloh, The ark, once brought back, had dwelt in the city of David. I guess they set the tabernacle up there, put the ark in the tabernacle, and that’s where it was. Well, all the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. That’s the month when today they have what’s called the Feast of Tabernacles. The elders of Israel came, and the priests, and they took up the ark. They brought up the ark of the Lord and the tabernacle of the congregation, or tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in it, even all the things these did the priests and the Levites bring up. And King Solomon, all the congregation of Israel that were assembled to him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be told or numbered for multitude. Now, this all sounds very strange to me. You know, a modern man in the modern world, when we can kill our meat and hang it somewhere and keep it cool, freeze it and eat it months, maybe years later. But they didn’t do that. They killed sheep and oxen when needed for food. And what’s going on here, there is a huge barbecue in the works that would make any Texan jealous when he looks to see what they’re doing. And they’re killing all these animals. They’re killing them ceremonially because it had to be done right. They’re killing them ceremonial, but they’re planning on having a huge feast. The meat from these sacrifices, for the most part, was eaten by someone in festival. And the priest brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord into his place, into the oracle of the house, the Holy of Holies, and they placed it there under the wings of these two giant caribbean. I can’t help thinking of the movie The Raiders of the Lost Ark with those two small caribbean that were stuck on top of the Ark itself. That’s not what these were. These things were about 15 feet tall. On each side, their wings met in the middle of the Holy of Holies, and there they placed the Ark of the Covenant. So they put it there. They pulled out the staves that were used to carry the Ark, and they were actually laid in such a way that they could be seen on the outside. And the author says they are there unto this day. Which is interesting. You know, scholars down through the generations have argued back and forth about when these books were written. Many thinking they were written clean after the exile, after Israel had gone into Babylon and returned. But I don’t think so. You have too many of these little clues stuck in here from time to time to show you the author was writing this when the temple was still there. And when a priest could tell him, oh yeah, they’re there in the holy place. I’ve seen them myself. And he’s able to write, they are there still to this day. There was nothing in the ark save the tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb. And that’s enough to make your hair stand up on the back of your neck. to realize there is the ark put in place. And if you were able to take the lid off that ark and look inside, you would see with your own eyes those two tables of stone where God wrote the Ten Commandments with his own finger. Originally, there was also a pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that was with all this, but apparently they are gone by now after the peregrinations of the ark down through its history. When the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, they came out of Egypt. Those two tables were put there, and they were still there. It came to pass that as soon as the priests had gotten everything in its place, and they walked out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. The priests couldn’t even stand up to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. You know, you just wonder how those men must have felt, who already were in great awe because of what they were doing. They were standing in a room that, looking around, everything they saw was covered in gold. The incredible beauty of the place, coupled with the awe they must have felt at this artifact that they had just placed in there, not only the ark, but those two tables of stone that were placed in the ark by Moses. I mean, those men must have been so filled with awe before the cloud of smoke came out of nowhere and filled the place to where they couldn’t even stand. I guess it means they got down on their hands and knees and crawled out of the place. Well, with events like that, no wonder everyone was awestruck and in great worship on this occasion. Then spoke Solomon. The Lord said he would dwell in thick darkness. I have surely built you a house to dwell in, a settled place for you to abide in forever. And the king turned around, and all this great congregation of people were standing on the opposite end of this. And he blessed all the congregation of Israel, and they stood. And he said, Blessed be the God of Israel that spoke with his mouth unto David my father and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel. And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God, the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said to David my father, Since it was in your heart to build a house to my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house. Your son that shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house unto my name. And now Solomon said, The Lord has performed his word that he spoke. I am risen up in the place of David my father. I sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised. I have built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Now just to pause just a moment to consider something. As we go through this, if you happen to be reading a King James Version, well, actually, I think any version of the Bible, you’ll notice again and again that the word LORD is placed there in small caps instead of in regular type. I think this is out of deference to Jewish sensitivity who, when they did their Bible, they substitute Adonai for the reading of God’s name so that they don’t dare take God’s name in vain. They don’t respect God’s name. It is the ineffable name. They can’t speak it. The name, which we can speak, is in the Hebrew, to anglicize the letters, YHWH, Yahweh. At least Yahweh is what the most scholars use for it. One suspects that the King James translators, when they actually put Jehovah in one or two places, may have been closer to correct. Realizing, of course, that the J, as it is in German and other languages, is pronounced with a Y, that they actually have got it right. It was Yehovah. So every place you see that through here, there is that name, the real personal name of God. Yehovah. It’s not wrong that they have done this, but I think in some cases, it’s important for us to look at this and realize what it is we’re reading. And exactly what was said, Solomon said, And Jehovah has performed his word, he spoke. I am risen up in the place of David my father. I sit upon the throne of Israel as Jehovah has promised. I have built a house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel. I have set there a place for the ark wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. As you can see, you lose a little bit when you back away from that name. And, of course, we should always, always treat that name with complete and utter respect, which is the motive of the people who use this convention. Nevertheless, as you read through here, it’s important that you understand that it is the name of God that is cropping up in here, and God is being identified by name, and the covenant is His covenant by His name, and this house that they have built is also built to His name. Grab a pencil and a piece of paper. We have an address and a phone number we want to give you. And stay with me. There’s much more of this after the break.
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Central to understanding the Christian faith is the idea of covenant. What exactly is the difference between the old and new covenants? And what is behind the biblical idea of covenant? Write or call for a free CD titled, The Idea of Covenant. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44.
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Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven. And what follows is one of the truly great prayers of the Bible, as this great man, before all the people, prays, presumably in a voice many of them could hear. This is all found in the 8th chapter of 1 Kings. And Solomon said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or in earth beneath, who keeps covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. That’s a striking concept. God is absolutely dependable. He keeps covenant and mercy with those people who walk before him with all their heart, whose heart’s right, who are trying their best to do the right thing. Did you notice that word mercy? Mercy is that quality of withholding punishment even when the punishment is due. Now, what this is saying is that you don’t have to be perfect in all the stuff you do for God to keep covenant with you. But your heart has to be right. You’ve got to be trying. Because you have kept, he says, with your servant David, my father, what you promised him. You spoke also with your mouth, and you have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day. And he could have swept his hand around and looked and said, look at all this. Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, and it’s worth noting that he addresses God by name. Therefore now, Yehovah, God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, There shall not fail you, a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel, so that your children may take heed to their way that they walk before me as you have walked before me. And I read that, you know, and it kind of makes me shake a little bit because David didn’t walk before God perfectly. I know he sinned. The sin is in the record of what David did. And yet God will come right here and say, as you have walked before me. So what’s he mean by that? Well, it’s very plain, and Solomon will acknowledge this before he’s finished, that all men sin, all sin and come short of the glory of God. But the thing about David is his heart was right. Even when the flesh was weak, and even when he fell down, he got up and still trusted God, and his heart never in all of his life ever turned away from God. And now, O God of Israel, let your word, I pray you, be verified, which you spoke to your servant, David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. Now, here comes some realism in Solomon. I know that some people look at the temple and say, well, God dwells in this temple or that temple, and it’s a matter of superstition with them. Solomon had no illusions about that. He realized fully there was not a thing in the world he could build that was going to hold God. He says, I know that’s not going to happen. What I am asking is that you respect the prayer of your servant and his supplications, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today, that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there. that you may listen to the prayer which your servant shall make toward this place. Not even necessarily in this place, but that people would turn toward this place and realize here is where God placed his name, and that’s the way they pray. We will later find Daniel doing precisely that, and generations later, we will find the disciples of Jesus, well after his death, his burial, his resurrection, saying, that they still went to the temple at the hour of prayer because of the promise of God to hear the prayer made in that place. Listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they shall pray toward this place. Here in heaven, your dwelling place where you do live, and when you hear, forgive. If any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath comes before your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and judge your servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness.” This is what judges do, and God is the great judge, and Solomon says, Judge your servants, condemn the wicked, justify the righteous. This is all that we ask. When your people Israel be smitten down before their enemy, because they’ve sinned against you, and shall return again to you and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in this house, then hear from heaven, Forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again into the land that you gave to their fathers. When heaven is shut up, Solomon is running down all the bad things that not only could happen, that were going to happen in Israel’s history. When heaven is shut up and there’s no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them, Then here in heaven, forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, that you teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar, or if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, forgive Whatsoever plague, whatever sickness there be, whatever prayer and supplication may be made of any man or of all Israel. Now this is interesting because what he’s saying here is terrible things can happen to us. And whatever prayer is made by a man or by all the people of Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house. Then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart you know. For you, you only know the hearts of all the children of men. And I thought this expression, every man knows the plague of his own heart. We all have pain. We all have suffering. We all have gigantic holes in our lives from things we have done or things we have lost. And each of us knows those things which we bring before God and spread our hands, in his case, toward his house. And now with that house gone, we spread our hands toward heaven. And we ask God to look upon the plague of our own heart and to hear and to forgive. Do this, he said, that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers. Moreover, concerning a stranger who is not of your people, Israel. Now, this is an important item here because of the confusion that now exists in the time of Jesus over how the Jews regarded Gentiles and the Gentiles’ relationship with God. Moreover, concerning a stranger who is not an Israelite, who comes out of a far country for your name’s sake. He has heard about you. He’s heard your reputation. They’ll hear of your great name, which basically means they’ll hear what you’re all about. They’ll hear of your strong hand and of your stretched out arm. When that stranger comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calls to you for, so that all the people of the earth may know your name to fear you as do all your people Israel. that they may know that this house, which I have built, is called by your name. It’s an incredible prayer. It focuses on the reputation of God, the house that is built to God’s name or in his name so that it carries his name so that the whole world knows here dwells the God of Israel, the God of the whole universe, and his name is Jehovah. Stay with me. When I come back, we’ll finish the prayer of Solomon. But for right now, be sure and get that pencil and a piece of paper. We want to give you an address and a phone number so that you can call and get this program.
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For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings No.
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5.
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Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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If your people, Solomon continued, if they go out to battle against their enemy, wherever you shall send them, and they shall pray unto the Lord toward this city which you have chosen and toward this house I have built for your name, then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause. You know, if God had sent us to Afghanistan to crush those evil people who supported, led, and caused the destruction in our own country, and our men had turned to God and prayed to him, he would maintain their cause. I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but down through the history of this country, our fighting men, from the generals who lead them to the private in the trenches, have been praying men. They have been men who prayed to this God, the one of this Bible, even though they had no particular consciousness of that house in that place or that time. It was to this God, to whom Solomon is praying, that they made their prayers. And it was this God who did indeed maintain their cause. I dread the day when our fighting men no longer pray to that God. Solomon continues, If your people sin against you, for there is no man that sins not. And I guess when Paul made this statement, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, he may have had this in mind. When they sin against you because there’s no man that doesn’t sin, and you’re angry with them, and you deliver them to the enemy, so they carry them away captive into the land of the enemy far and near. If they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, if they repent, if they make supplication to you in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We’ve sinned. We’ve done perversely. We have committed wickedness. And so return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them captive. If they pray unto you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, to this city, toward this city, toward the house I have built, then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven your dwelling place. and maintain their cause. And I can’t help but think of that marvelous prayer of David in captivity, in Babylon, who three times a day opened his window in the direction of Jerusalem and continued to pray in the face of death sentence for doing it. And that ninth chapter where that marvelous prayer is recorded. Here, says Solomon, forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions they have transgressed against you. Give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them. And in fact, that happened to Daniel, to his companions, and to the Israelites. And finally, they were allowed to come home. Do this, for they are your people. They are your inheritance that you brought forth out of the land of Egypt from the midst of the furnace of iron. Do this, that your eyes may be opened to the supplication of your servant, to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them in all they call for unto you. For you separated them from among all the people of the earth to be your inheritance. As you spoke by the hand of Moses your servant when you brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, O Lord Jehovah. It was so. When Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. You know, I’m struck by this because when he started the prayer, if you take your way back up the page, he was standing. At some point, probably very quickly, he had kneeled before God. Now he stands and blesses all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord that has given rest to his people Israel, according to all he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. Finally, after more than 400 years, rest and peace. In some measure, because David had pacified the lands from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, as I noted earlier, he executed the first disarmament program in Syria and Iraq. And no doubt, he improved the life of the ordinary men in those lands who had rest as well as Israel.
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the Lord God be with us as he was with our fathers. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560 White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net.
