2 Chronicles 7

The Dedication Ceremonies

1 When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

2 The priests were not able to enter the Lord's temple because the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord.

3 All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement. They worshiped and praised the Lord: For He is good, for His faithful love endures forever.^[a]

4 The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the Lord's presence.

5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God's temple.

6 The priests were standing at their stations, as were the Levites with the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord-"for His faithful love endures forever"-when David offered praise with them.^[b] Across from them, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

7 Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the Lord's temple because that was where he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings^[c] since the bronze altar that Solomon had made^[d] could not accommodate the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat [of the fellowship offerings].

8 So Solomon and all Israel with him-a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath^[e] to the Brook of Egypt-observed the festival at that time for seven days.

9 On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.^[f]

11 So Solomon finished the Lord's temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon's heart to do for the Lord's temple and for his own palace succeeded.^[g]

The Lord's Response

12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple of sacrifice.

13 If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people,

14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

15 My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place.

16 And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My name may be there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times.

17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

18 I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.

19 However, if you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and worship them,

20 then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

21 As for this temple, which was exalted, every passerby will be appalled and will say: Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?

22 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 worshiped and served them. Because of this, He brought all this ruin on them.^[h]

2 Chronicles 7 Commentary

Chapter 7

God's answer to Solomon's prayer.

- God gave a gracious answer to Solomon's prayer. The mercies of God to sinners are made known in a manner well suited to impress all who receive them, with his majesty and holiness. The people worshipped and praised God. When he manifests himself as a consuming Fire to sinners, his people can rejoice in him as their Light. Nay, they had reason to say, that God was good in this. It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, but the sacrifice in our stead, for which we should be very thankful. And whoever beholds with true faith, the Saviour agonizing and dying for man's sin, will, by that view, find his godly sorrow enlarged, his hatred of sin increased, his soul made more watchful, and his life more holy. Solomon prosperously effected all he designed, for adorning both God's house and his own. Those who begin with the service of God, are likely to go on successfully in their own affairs. It was Solomon's praise, that what he undertook, he went through with; it was by the grace of God that he prospered in it. Let us then stand in awe, and sin not. Let us fear the Lord's displeasure, hope in his mercy, and walk in his commandments.

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Ch 5:13; 1 Ch 16:41; Ezr 3:11; Ps 106:1; Jr 33:11
• [b]. 2 Ch 29:26-30; 1 Ch 23:5; 16:42; Neh 12:36
• [c]. Lv 7:30-31
• [d]. 2 Ch 4:1
• [e]. Or from Lebo-hamath
• [f]. 1 Kg 8:54,62-66
• [g]. 1 Kg 9:1
• [h]. 1 Kg 9:2-9

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 7

In this chapter is an account of the Lord's acceptance of the sacrifices offered at the dedication of the temple by fire, to the great surprise and encouragement of the people, 2Ch 7:1-7, and of the feast kept on that account, and the feast of tabernacles, 2Ch 7:8-12, and of the Lord's appearance to Solomon, giving an answer to his prayer, 2Ch 7:13-22.