The Temple Dedication and Solomon’s Prayer

1 Kings, in part, tells the story of Solomon building the first Holy Temple and the Royal Palace in Israel. When this was completed, there was a ceremony of dedication where “the whole assembly of Israel” gathered. This celebration, and subsequent Feast of Tabernacles, lasted 14 days and was attended by a vast number of Israelites from the entire region. Imagine tens-, if not, hundreds- of thousands of people throughout Jerusalem.

During the ceremony, Solomon prayed what is one of the most important prose prayers in the Old Testament. It was a prayer of dedication and a prayer of blessing for those who would honor God and the temple in which he dwelled. Its themes were focused on God’s faithfulness, his covenant with Israel and the need for His forgiveness and grace…especially during trying times.

A Personal Connection

This theme throughout the prayer hit home during a particularly difficult time in my family’s life. We have a close relative who received an almost certain-death cancer diagnosis and the only thing in my power to do was pray. The Holy Spirit put these verses in front of me at the perfect time for that specific purpose, there is no other explanation. In March this year, I had begun to reread the Bible cover to cover…I just so happened to hit these verses during a time when prayer was all I had. That is Providence, not coincidence. This is a roadmap for a prayer that we can use straight from His Word. A call TO God to hear us, forgive us, and act on our behalf:

1 Kings 8:37-40: “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, and spreading out their hands toward this temple—then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart), so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.”

Solomon’s prayer of dedication is also articulated in detail in 2 Chronicles 6:12-42. The Chronicler understood the importance and the impact this prayer had on the people of Israel. So much so that the 2 Chronicles account is nearly the same as the 1 Kings account.

A Prayer for Every Circumstance

Solomon repeats the theme of this prayer in relation to several specific circumstances that would have been very common for those who were attending the Temple dedication. He purposefully wrote this prayer so it would resonate with all in attendance and in so doing He made it resonate with me, and hopefully you…thousands of years later!!! Absolutely incredible!

Solomon begins with a circumstance in which prayer is needed. Importantly he predicates the prayer on the people recognizing their own sin first, then he asks God to hear them when they pray, forgive them, and act on behalf of them.

• “When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath…”
  Hear them, forgive them, and act.
• “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you…”
  Hear them, forgive them, and act.
• “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you…”
  Hear them, forgive them, and act.
• “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers…”
  Hear them, forgive them, and act.
• “…or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities…”
  Hear them, forgive them, and act.

What hit me most was the next phrase… “whatever disaster or disease may come…”. God was opening my eyes and telling me how to pray to Him in this specific circumstance, 3000 years after Solomon spoke the words.

A Model for Prayer

What an incredible and divinely inspired way to pray. It is self-reflective, humble, sincerely remorseful, and direct! Exactly how a personal relationship should be. This is a genuine plea that acknowledges our own afflictions and sins first, asks for his divine attention second, His forgiveness third, and then explicitly asks for his just action on our behalf. In essence, “We don’t deserve it but hear us, forgive us, and heal us”. I now use this method of prayer daily.

A Family Miracle

I’ve never experienced a miracle like the one our family experienced. The Creator of the Universe heard us, forgave us, and acted even though we did not deserve it. Only through Divine Intervention was this possible.

After a massive surgery, 12 chemo treatments over many painful months, the Pancreatic cancer (one of the most severe and aggressive cancers) could not be detected…he was cancer free and our hopes were high, or so we thought. Doctors then found what they believed to be a metastatic tumor on the liver. A gut punch of epic proportions. 9-11 months to live. They began to mention things like hospice, end of life care, “get your affairs in order”. Then, two weeks of PRAYER inspired by Solomon’s, many tearful and sleepless nights, one biopsy, and one miracle later…it was not cancer; it was simple tissue inflammation. The doctors did not know how to react, having never seen this result in a patient like this. They were 90% sure it had spread, we all thought the same thing; it had not spread. No cancer…against all odds, a true miracle and a new lease on life.

Faith Galvanized

I knew how to react. I knew that Solomon’s divinely inspired 3000-year-old prayer was God reaching down to us through millennia with grace and mercy leading us closer to Him.

Miracles don’t happen every day and even now our family moves forward with cautious optimism knowing that things change…but our God does not. The impact this has had on me personally and our family collectively cannot be undone and has indelibly galvanized my faith.