1 Kings 8 — Read & Listen Online | Father's Heart Bible

The Ark Comes to the Father's House

Chapter 8.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel — all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the children of Israel — before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of our Father from the city of David, which is Zion. So all the men of Israel gathered to King Solomon at the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel had come, the priests took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of our Father, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. And King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of our Father to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above. The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; and they are there to this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where our Father made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. When the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of our Father, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of our Father filled his house.

Solomon Blesses Our Father

Then Solomon said: "Our Father has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever."

Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. He said: "Blessed be our Father, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth spoke to my father David and with his own hand has fulfilled it, saying, 'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.'

Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of our Father, the God of Israel.

But our Father said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you yourself shall not build the house; but your son, who will come from your own body, he shall build the house for my name.'

And our Father has kept the word he spoke, for I have risen up in place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as he promised, and I have built the house for the name of our Father, the God of Israel. There I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of our Father that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Solomon's Prayer Before the Father

Then Solomon stood before the altar of our Father in front of the whole assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands toward heaven. He said: "Our Father, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. You have kept what you promised your servant, my father David; with your mouth you spoke it, and with your hand you have fulfilled it, as it is this day. Now therefore, our Father, God of Israel, keep for your servant, my father David, what you promised him when you said, 'You shall never lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your children guard their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.' And now, our Father, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you spoke to your servant, my father David. But will our Father indeed dwell on the earth? Look — the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Yet turn toward the prayer of your servant and his plea, O my Father, to hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today, that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, 'My name shall be there,' to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. And hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

If someone sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act, and judge your servants — condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and acquitting the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn back to you and confess your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their fathers.

When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

If there is famine in the land, or pestilence, blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper; if an enemy besieges them in the land at their gates — whatever plague, whatever sickness — whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by anyone among all your people Israel, each one knowing the affliction of his own heart as he spreads out his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each one according to all his ways, since you know his heart — for you alone know the hearts of all the children of men — so that they may fear you all the days they live on the land you gave to our fathers.

Likewise, concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but comes from a distant land for the sake of your name — for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm — when he comes and prays toward this house, hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and may know that this house I have built is called by your name.

When your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to our Father toward the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. When they sin against you — for there is no one who does not sin — and you are angry with them and give them over to an enemy who takes them captive to the enemy's land, far or near, yet if they take it to heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,' and if they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of the enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave their fathers, the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you, all the transgressions they have committed against you, and grant them compassion before their captors, so that they will show them compassion — for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you. For you set them apart from all the peoples of the earth as your inheritance, just as you declared through Moses your servant when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Sovereign Father."

Solomon Blesses the Assembly

When Solomon had finished praying this whole prayer and plea to our Father, he rose from before the altar of our Father, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: "Blessed be our Father, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promise he gave through his servant Moses. May our Father be with us, as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us or forsake us, inclining our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before our Father, be near to him day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that our Father is God, and there is no other.

Let your heart therefore be fully devoted to our Father, to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments, as at this day."

The House Dedicated to the Father

Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before our Father. Solomon offered as peace offerings to our Father twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of our Father. On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of our Father, for there he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar before our Father was too small to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

So at that time Solomon held the festival, and all Israel with him — a great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt — before our Father for seven days, and seven days more, fourteen days in all. ¹ On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness our Father had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel.

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