Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to Worship:(inspired by Psalm 84, 1 Kings 8:27)

How beautiful are the places where You dwell, O Lord!

This house cannot contain Your glory;

even the heavens are bursting with the goodness of Your presence!

Happy are those who find their strength in You.

Hear our prayers this day, Holy God,

as we proclaim Your praises to all the earth!

God Calls: Solomon

sermon intro: Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken time to trace the way God called a few people in the Old Testament narrative.

We’ve looked at the calling of Samuel, a young boy who did not yet know God, but whom God called and who would help to transition God’s people into the monarchy.

Then last week, we looked at the calling of David.

Or, the not-calling of David’s seven brothers.

And then the idea that this shepherd boy who would eventually become king was someone who was after God’s heart, not because of managing not to make some huge mistakes, but because of his contrite heart.

His willingness to repent and to respond to God’s continued call is what

This week, we turn out attention to David’s son.

Unlike Saul, whose sons would not inherit their father’s throne, David’s throne was going to pass down generation to generation… in fact, God promised David that his son would not only succeed him, but that his son would be the one who would be allowed to build a temple for God’s name.

Do you remember?

Last year we looked at 2 Samuel 7 - in which David wants to build a house for God.

But God says no.

And then promises that he will not take his love away from David’s family they way he did from Saul.

Now, the distance from the promise to the fulfillment is great.

The road is not straight and easy.

David’s sons… well, that’s a whole story unto itself.

A quick summary… with thanks to the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary!

David had eight wives who are named in Scripture, seven of whom bore him children, the other being Michal, Saul’s daughter (2 Sam 6:23).

The He also had many unnamed wives and concubines, who likewise bore him children (1 Chr 3:9; 14:3).David had 19 sons who are named, along with one daughter, in addition to numerous unnamed sons and daughters.

Of these only four sons—Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, and Solomon—and one daughter—Tamar—are known in any detail.

Amnon - and Tamar

Absalom

Adonijah

Solomon

Amnon (David’s firstborn) and Tamar appear together in a grim story in 2 Samuel 13, where Amnon brutally rapes his sister.

Absalom, his brother, then conspires to kill Amnon in revenge - and succeeds.

Eventually, after a power struggle and rebellion, Absalom is killed in battle by David’s general, Joab.

Adonijah (David’s fourth son) was the oldest living son at the end of David’s life, and seized power briefly in a short-lived kingship (1 Kings 1–2).

It was only after personal appeals on Solomon’s behalf by his mother Bathsheba and by Nathan the prophet that Solomon was sanctioned as the chosen heir to the throne.

Solomon spared Adonijah’s life initially, but he eventually felt threatened by him and had him executed after David’s death.

So Solomon, the tenth son of David in the lists preserved, was David’s successor to the throne (1 Kings 1–11).

But not the son who anyone expected to be the heir.

Solomon He was blessed with incomparable wisdom by YHWH, and he initially followed YHWH.

He built the temple and an ornate palace for himself and succeeded in gathering riches and in establishing an international reputation.

YHWH established a conditional covenant with him (9:1–9), but, in the end, Solomon’s heart, under the influence of his foreign wives, turned away from his God.

As a result, the kingdom was divided, and his son Rehoboam was made king over the S remnant, Judah.

Our reading for today gives us a glimpse of two key moments surrounding the building of the temple that was part of Solomon’s calling.

The first part of the reading is like the ground-breaking of the Temple.

And then the second section skips ahead to after all the work has been completed, to the dedication.

Stephen, will you come and read for us?

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 5:1-7 1 Kings 7:51-8:13

Where is it that God dwells?

And where do we encounter God?

These are the two questions that this text raises for me - and that I’d like us to explore a little more together this morning.

In 1 Kings 8 verse 12 Solomon says: “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.”

Wow.

What an image.

What does it mean for God to dwell in “thick darkness”?

Light, good.

Darkness, bad.

We tend to associate God with light and the absence of God, or even the presence of evil, with darkness.

Just as we sang earlier, “He wraps Himself in light and darkness tries to hide and trembles at His voice...”

And the metaphor works.

But it doesn’t mean that darkness can only be a bad thing.

In fact, in scripture, we’re given depictions of darkness as being part of God’s good creation, as a creative or transformative force (think of the womb imagery, the darkness in an event like Easter, and even the darkness of Paul’s blindness that was part of his conversion?

In her book entitled Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor explores ‘the treasures of darkness’ that the Bible speaks about.

She invites her readers to learn about how we encounter the ways of God when we cannot see the way ahead, are lost, alone, frightened, not in control or when the world around us seems to have descended into darkness?

Scripture also gives us depictions of darkness as a place of protection - think of the exodus or even David escaping from Saul, and then of Joseph fleeing with Mary and the newborn Jesus from the raging Herod.

Darkness as protection.

And then finally, we see in scripture that darkness can be a place we encounter God.

Jacob and Samuel both met God in the night… in the dark.

Moses received the Law in darkness, Joseph was informed of Mary’s pregnancy at night (Matt 1:20) and of course, as we know from the beloved nativity verses, the announcement of the birth of Jesus was proclaimed to shepherds ‘watching their flock by night.”

The world encountered the Incarnate One at night!

Jesus often sought the solace of lone prayer at night, in the dark.

Nicodemus encountered God – as he approached Jesus under the cover of night.

And Mary encountered the Risen Christ in the still dark hours of the early morning.

Light.

Dark.

Where is it that God dwells?

And where do we encounter God?

Of course, our text today is about Solomon building a magnificent dwelling place for God.

But even in hearing about this place - which I would LOVE to have been able to see for myself… even in hearing about it, and in reading what we did, it’s clear, isn’t it, that God doesn’t need a dwelling place.

God isn’t allowing Solomon to build something because God needs a spot.

So what is the building of this temple about?

Well, first of all, it was David’s idea, not God’s.

So, unlike the ark, in which God brings the idea to Noah.

An idea that makes no sense to Noah, I remind you.

This is an idea that makes no sense to God, but seems really important to David, and then to Solomon.

“We live in fancy places and You have a tent... Let’s fix that.”

And God seems to be willing to go along with the idea, but I think it matters that God hasn’t requested a place to dwell.

In fact, God has told David that the temple will be “for God’s name” …

but this is not about containing God to a particular location.

This is about giving access to God to the people.

The place of worship is a place to encounter God.

So, once again, where is it that God dwells?

And where do we encounter God?

Let’s trace this a bit.

Let’s start back with the garden.

Back to the beginning.

Back to Eden.

In Genesis 1-2 we see that God created humanity to dwell with him and bear the divine image in the world.

The creation narrative is a temple narrative, borrowed from the surrounding ANE cultures… but instead of idols placed as the image of the god in the temple, the humans take on that role in the Genesis account.

And the garden is a place of encounter with God.