The Bible Binge: When God Comes Home (1 Kings 8:1-11)

Home is where the Heart is

The book is totally obscure. The author is totally forgotten. But a novel entitled “Scandal” by J.T. Bickford in 1857 gave us a phrase that has far outlived both the book and the author. In the book, Katie asks Willie to describe a home. Willie’s answer was this: Home is where the heart is, Katie. That is just about all history knows about the book. But that phrase uttered by Willie is the first known instance of that popular phrase in its modern wording. Home is where the heart is.

That is central to our story today. We are making our way through the Bible Binge and we have come to the high point of the Old Testament. We are in 1 Kings this week, making our way through the book of kings. Here’s the summary of the books of Kings from the Bible project.

Video

That’s a bit of the summary of the book of Kings. As the name suggests, these two books of Kings are about Israel’s kings. These kings represent both the best and the worst of Israel’s history. Israel leaves Egypt, finally enters the Promised Land on the east side of the Mediterranean.

Land > Kings > Temple

They get the land. They end up with kings. And finally, there’s a temple. The book of Kings highlights these last 2. Beginning with Saul and David, Israel had about 400 years worth of kings. Some of the kings were good, even great. Many were bad. And when we say “bad”, we’re talking about having no faith in the God of Israel.

Throughout most of Israel’s early history.. the time where they were possessing the land and then being ruled by King Saul and King David, Israel’s center of worship was still the tabernacle that had traveled through the desert with them after leaving Egypt. When God made his promise to David that David’s family would forever rule Israel, David wanted to build a permanent house of worship. God told David “no”, but he promised that a house for God would be built by David’s son Solomon.

That happens in the early part of the book of Kings. At least eleven years, it took for Solomon to build the temple… a permanent version of the mobile tent that had been the center of worship. That’s where 1 Kings 8 opens. The construction has been finished, but the reality of what had been the tabernacle isn’t done.

God comes home

Solomon gathers Israel for a big day of dedication. Just like a house blessing, Solomon has a national holiday during one of Israel’s big feasts to dedicate the temple he’s been building for more than a decade. The temple itself is absolutely glorious. From the descriptions we have, gold was everywhere. The entire structure took up city blocks and part of it was stories tall. Part of what we’re told here is that the stones were massive, but no hammer was used at the site, which means the stones were cut elsewhere and trucked to the site. It was built to be a tourist attraction.

But there was one thing yet missing. On the day of dedication, the ark of the covenant was carried from another location in Jerusalem, up to the temple site. The very same ark of the covenant that God had Moses construct hundreds of years earlier at Mount Sinai. For almost half that time or more, the ark had not been in the original tabernacle. Here’s what the writer of Kings says:

1 Kings 8:3–8 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark. The priests and the Levites brought the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and the holy utensils that were in the tent..The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim.

This is one of the most significant details of this story. The ark is brought into the temple and place in the inner sanctuary. God has come home. All of Israel gathers. Solomon, the King, with his court, and with all the priests.. the entire nation and its leaders.. watching the ark ascend the hill to the temple. God is coming home. And just as the ark had been in the old tabernacle, it is placed in the inner sanctuary… which is noteworthy for two reasons.

The ark

Where God dwells

Where God rules

The first is that this ark is where God dwells on earth. The ark was a symbol of God’s presence. When the ark was carried throughout the wilderness before Israel came into the Promise Land, the ark went ahead of the people… the ark was God leading his people. As the ark moves into the temple, the nation watches as God comes to dwell in the temple.

But even more importantly, the ark was God’s earthly throne among His people. Long before Saul and David and Solomon, God had been Israel’s king. Moses knew this… it was from the sanctuary that God ruled and reigned over his people. There had been no need of an earthly king, because there was already a throne in Israel… the place where heaven and earth met… where the throneroom of heaven became the throneroom on earth. As the ark of the covenant moves into the temple, God is coming home not only to live among his people but also to rule among them again, this time through a human king, Solomon.

The cloud

And as the ark moves into the temple, this happens:

1 Kings 8:10–11 “When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord’s temple, and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”

The glory cloud from Mt. Sinai. The visible presence of God on earth that led Israel through the Red Sea and eventually led Israel to the Promised Land, the glory cloud that was visible as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night… the glory cloud where the Angel of the Lord, the second person of the Godhead, the pre-incarnate Christ was often present… that cloud descends and envelopes the temple. God is home.

This is the apex of Israel’s history. Israel is finally complete. Mostly. They have the land, they have a king, they have the temple. It’s all there. Everything they had every wanted… everything God had promised, finally all in place… in this one chapter, this one scene. This is the pinnacle. After this… it is all downhill. Solomon is going to abandon true worship and true faith, and then kings after him, for the most part, abandon the things of God altogether. But for this one brief moment… for this day, for this time, it is all there. The ark, the cloud, the temple… God is among His people, come to live with them and rule them from his heavenly throne on earth.

Solomon’s prayer

As that glory cloud descends on the temple, Solomon prays a prayer for the ages. One of the longest prayers in the Old Testament. We won’t go over the whole thing, but here are the highlights.

The Lord has done what he promised

The temple is where God hears us

The temple is where God forgives us

The temple is where God blesses us

The temple is a place of mission

Because of His salvation

First, Solomon thanks God multiple times for making good on his promise to give Israel a temple. God has made good on his promise to live and dwell among his people. Nothing is more important in the life of Israel than for God to be among His people.

Second, the temple is where God hears us. Solomon mentions “may you hear us” 14 times. Can God hear the common prayer of anyone at any time? Of course. But that’s doesn’t negate the fact that God longs to hear his people in his home.

Third, the temple is where God forgives us. 5 of those 14 times there is this combination: May you hear and forgive. This forgiveness piece here in Solomon’s prayer is absolutely remarkable. Solomon isn’t simply interested in God coming to dwell in the temple. Solomon is after something more. Solomon knows all too well that he prays as a sinner and he prays on behalf of a nation of sinners.. and what sinners need more than anything else… especially is God has come to make his home among them is forgiveness. If there is no forgiveness, there is no Good News in God coming to live in the temple. God is coming to rule in His temple. And if that rule is not saturated with forgiveness, then that rule is one that is nothing but condemnation.

Fourth, the temple is where God blesses us. Once there is forgiveness, Solomon wants God’s blessing. And the fascinating thing about the blessings Solomon is asking for.. they are all grounded in God’s promises to bless his people in their land in anticipation of a coming Messiah. Solomon knows this day is one of the biggest days in Israel’s history… looking forward to the day when God makes good on all his promises.

And fifth… the temple is a place of Mission. Solomon isn’t just praying for Israel. Solomon, taking a cue from the promises given to Abraham, wants the temple to be a place where all of the nations of the world are blessed. It’s not just for Israel. This place where God makes a home on earth is for the whole world.

And all of it is grounded in God’s salvation. Multiple times, Solomon references what God has already done for his people, in giving them a land and a king and rescuing them from Egypt and all of the other nations. This is a day of God’s love.. God letting Israel know how much he loves them.

Will God live on earth?

In the midst of the prayer, though, Solomon asks an obvious question.

1 Kings 8:27 “Will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.”

In fact, some look at this question and they take a cynical approach that both David and Solomon are attempting to reduce God and that the temple shouldn’t have been built in the first place. You can’t do that here. That glory cloud descends. That’s God’s approval that this is the right thing to do. In fact, God started all of this at Mount Sinai when he commissioned the tabernacle. No, this is the right thing to do.

But even Solomon knows the problem. God needs no building. God is bigger than a building. So much so that he cannot be contained in a building. That makes God different from all of the other false gods of all the other nations. Theirs were contained in buildings and represented by figurines.

Question answered: Yes!

But the answer is Yes. Back to that glory cloud… the glory cloud that envelopes the temple is telling Solomon and the nation and the world that God does dwell on earth.. even though he doesn’t have to. Why? Because he wants to. God wants to be among his people. God loves his people. In spite of their disobedience and lack of faith, and in spite of what’s about to happen in just a few short years… this is all God’s doing… and he wants to.

And Solomon knows this isn’t all there is to it when he asks the question. The answer comes hundreds of years later.. almost a thousand years later. The definitive answer is given by John in the New Testament:

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

That word dwelt is the word for tabernacle. The Word tabernacled among us. God takes up residence among us.. the glory cloud now has flesh and blood. The glory cloud’s name is Jesus. Jesus is the temple, God dwelling and ruling among us. Why? Because he wants to. Because he loves us. And Jesus the temple has made us his temple… his dwelling place. Paul writes this to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:19–21 “So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

We are where Jesus dwells. We are the temple. The temple is not a building. There is no need for another temple. There will be no more temple. Jesus is the temple. He has made his people his temple, his dwelling place. He has made the once for all sacrifice for sins. The picture in 1 Kings 8 of the ark of the covenant arriving in the temple and the glory cloud descending on the temple.. that happened at pentecost when the church was born.

This is God’s temple. His presence is here. Jesus is here among us. Jesus is the glory of God crucified.. living among us. This temple, this body of Christ is where Jesus has done what he promised. This is where Jesus hears us. This is where Jesus forgives us. This is where God gives us His blessing. This is where the world is told the Great News of Jesus… the church is always on mission. Christ’s salvation of us has made us His home, his temple, his dwelling place.

Christ’s dwelling place is with us… not in some distant place we can’t see. Not even somewhere up in the sky. I grew up with that notion.. that Jesus is distant.. maybe he can’t hear me. Maybe I have too much sin. Maybe I’ve sinned too much today for Jesus to hear me… let alone forgive. The always distant Jesus because he has been removed from earth. Absolutely not. Will God indeed live on the earth? The answer is yes, and there’s never a moment he doesn’t. Oh my word, yes… he can’t be confined to any building that’s true, but he has promised to be here when we have His word open and when His body and blood are received. He has promised to dwell among us as His temple forever.

Home is where Jesus is

We started off by saying “home is where the heart is”. This story in Kings puts it a little differently: home is where Jesus is. Wherever Jesus is, that’s home. Jesus is wherever his people are. Jesus is wherever Word and sacrament are. This is home. Our home. We are his family. He wants to be with us. The king of the universe wants to be with you and me all of the time. In our mess. In our world. In our lives. He makes his home with us… and our home is always with him.

Let’s Pray

The Table

This is God’s home. This is where Jesus dwells among us. All of the time.

Benediction