First Kings 8:28

King Solomon is continuing to pray unto God, and the Bible says in First Kings 8:28-34, “Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:[29] That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.[30] And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.[31] If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:[32] Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.[33] When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:[34] Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.” In verse twenty-nine Solomon said to the Lord, “thou hast said, My name shall be there.” The temple was built in the name of the Lord: to honor the Lord. If you believe in Jesus, your body is the temple. Hopefully, it is your prayer that your body and thus your life will bring honor to the name of the Lord. In verse thirty the first activity mentioned in the temple is prayer. The temple should be a house of prayer. Does God know you as a person of prayer? That is why He saved you when you put your faith in Christ: so that you would know Him and pray to Him. The last word of verse thirty is Solomon asking God to “forgive.” Our relationship to Christ is based upon His forgiveness for us. Thank God for the one-time forgiveness that we obtain the day we accept Christ as Savior. That forgiveness will allow us to enter heaven. But we need His daily forgiveness in order to stay in fellowship with Him. It says in First John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In verses thirty-one through thirty-four as king, Solomon realizes that the citizens of his country might commit great sins. If those sins were not confessed, God would have to punish his country. God is holy and God is Judge, and He will punish sin. Solomon prays that the people would learn from the chastisements that would surely come on the land. Solomon is thinking that the people would wake up and do the right thing. He prayed in verse thirty-three, “shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house.” What will happen to a country if the people do not turn back to God?

Solomon continued his prayer, and the Bible says in First Kings 8:35-40, “When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:[36] Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.[37] If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;[38] What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:[39] Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)[40] That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.” God is the holy Judge of all the earth. Solomon knew this. God punishes sin. Solomon knew this. That is why in verse thirty-five Solomon prays about “When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee.” We are all sinners. What do we do when we have sinned? Hopefully, we will confess our sins. Notice that true confession involves turning from our sins: “if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin.” That is a big “if.” Sadly, some people do not turn back to God. Those that do are always forgiven because God always forgives due to the death of Christ on the cross.

In verse thirty-six Solomon prayed, “that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk.” We need God to lead us. When a person honestly confesses their sins, part of that is the desire to go with God. Jesus said to the apostles, “Follow me.” One of the benefits of knowing Christ as Savior and being rightly related to Him is the fact that He will lead us in this challenging world. David wrote in Psalm 23:2-3, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

At the end of verse thirty-nine Solomon prayed to God, “for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men.” This is an important verse to understand. God knows our hearts. He knows what we really love. He knows what we really want. He knows what we really plan to do. Be careful what is in your heart because what is in your heart will determine many of the things that will happen to you. It says in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

In verse forty Solomon prayed, “That they may fear thee all the days that they live…” Yes, God is love. He loves everyone. Jesus wants to save everyone. But God is also the holy Judge of the whole earth. That is why everyone reaps what they sow. Forgiveness is wonderful, but Christians are not exempt from this law of life. Fear God.

Solomon continued his prayer, and the Bible says in First Kings 8:41-43, “Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake;[42] (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;[43] Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.” Solomon is concerned about those who are not yet Jews and who do not yet know the Lord. The Jewish people were supposed to be evangelistic. Yes, the truth was given to the Jewish people, but not for them alone. God wanted the truth to spread from the Jewish people to the rest of the world. That ultimately happened through the Jew named Jesus Christ. Notice that verse thirty-two says that when strangers “hear.” It says in Romans 10:14 in effect, “…and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear unless someone tell them the Gospel?”

Solomon continued his prayer, and the Bible says in First Kings 8:44-50, “If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:[45] Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.[46] If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;[47] Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;[48] And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:[49] Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,[50] And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:” In verse forty-four Solomon prayed, “If thy people go out to battle against their enemy…” That will happen. Jesus said, “There will be wars and rumors of wars” until He returns. These wars symbolize the fact that there are spiritual wars raging all the time around us and in our own lives. In all of these wars, we need help from God. One of the things that can limit the help that God could give us is our own sins. The sin problem needs to be dealt with if we are to get the help from Christ that we need. Solomon knew that and that is why he prayed about forgiveness that the people would need. In verse forty-seven Solomon said that even after losing everything, as long as the people prayed the following, God would turn things around: “We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness.” Thank God that He always forgives when we pray in this manner to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice verse fifty: “And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them.” Not only does God forgive, but God changes the hearts of those around us so that they treat us more kindly also. Even your enemies can have compassion towards you, if God decides to change their hearts.

Solomon continued his prayer, and the Bible says in First Kings 8:51-53, “For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:[52] That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.[53] For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.” Why does God answer our prayers? For one reason we are His “people” and His “inheritance.” Once you have been saved by faith in Christ, you belong to Jesus. In the Old Testament Israelites were the people of God. In the New Testament times in which we live, people from every nation (who believe) are the people of God. God brought His people “out of Egypt.” Egypt symbolized the grip that the world has on your soul until you accept Christ. Through faith in Christ, you are delivered from the slavery in Egypt.

Notice that last verse of Moses’ prayer in verse fifty-three, “For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth.” The word “church” means “those that are called out.” Jesus calls everyone in the world. We become true believers when we respond to the call. We are called to come to the Lord and to come away from the world. The new ideas from the Bible and the new way of life in following the Savior is what makes us different from the world. The Lord wants to use us so that other people will see their need of coming to the Lord too.

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