Study Desk

The temple that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than any of the gods.

My father David had his heart seton building a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

So the Lord has fulfilled what he promised.I have taken the place of my father Davidand I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised.I have built the temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

Therefore, Lord God of Israel,keep what you promisedto your servant, my father David:“You will never fail to have a manto sit before me on the throne of Israel,if only your sons guard their way to walk in my Lawas you have walked before me.”

Now, Lord God of Israel, please confirmwhat you promised to your servant David.

But will God indeed live on earth with humans?Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you,much less this temple I have built.

Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition,Lord my God,so that you may hear the cry and the prayerthat your servant prays before you,

Now, my God,please let your eyes be openand your ears attentiveto the prayer of this place.

Now therefore:Arise, Lord God, come to your resting place,you and your powerful ark.May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation,and may your faithful people rejoice in goodness.

Lord God, do not reject your anointed one;remember the promises to your servant David.

Then they will say: Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.

According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each temple gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

Blessed be the Lord your God! He delighted in you and put you on his throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, he has set you over them as king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

All the kings of the world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

Don’t you know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?

“But as for us, the Lord is our God. We have not abandoned him; the priests ministering to the Lord are descendants of Aaron, and the Levites serve at their tasks.

They offer a burnt offering and fragrant incense to the Lord every morning and every evening, and they set the rows of the Bread of the Presence on the ceremonially clean table. They light the lamps of the gold lampstand every evening. We are carrying out the requirements of the Lord our God, while you have abandoned him.