I am really drawn to Solomon's Prayer. I noticed right away the repetition of "listen from your heavenly dwelling" or "listen in heaven." I am curious as to the Israelites' concept of Heaven. And after all the ways that the God of Israel had shown God's presence among them, Solomon's prayer seems to me like a prayer to a far-away God. He wondered if the Temple built for God could ever contain God, so he does recognize the awesomeness of God. Solomon also questioned whether God indeed dwells among men on earth? (1 Kings 8:27) What does dwell mean in this case? And how does God dwell in me? Could that mean that God is revealed through me? Maybe that is how I am the image of God.
In Solomon's prayer he addresses God and speaks of God's acts of goodness to the people of Israel and then petitions God to continue to bless them, be merciful to them, forgive them, condemn the wicked and acquit the just. Each petition begins with If....(we do this) Listen from your heavenly dwelling and respond appropriately (with pardon, forgiveness, defend their cause.) It is written in a very covenantal fashion, just as God promised. The Deuteronomistic historians in these written petitions seem to presume that the people, being human, will mess up on the covenant and will need God's mercy and compassion and pardon. And because the people mess up so frequently and turn away from God's covenant, trying to do their own thing, God is always near to protect and pronounce judgment upon their actions and then always call them back. So this does not seem like the far-away God in Heaven, but a God who is ever near.
Finally Solomon ends the prayer by turning to his people and saying " Now God has done God's part, promised us and blessed us with many things. God has upheld God's part of the covenant now we must follow him in everything and keep the commands, statutes, and ordinances which God has enjoined on our father. You must be wholly devoted to the Lord, our God."
Can it indeed be that God dwells among people on earth?
By living my life and following God in everything I do and keeping the commands and being obedient to the covenant, I can manifest the God dwelling in me and through me. Certainly that gives me cause to examine how I live my everyday life. I, who am the image of God, must reflect God in everything I do. An awesome and challenging call, but the God who is near will "listen" when I cry for help and respond appropriately.
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Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your reflections on Solomon's prayer and how near God was to Solomon and is to you and all of us. Great insight. I also appreciated the sense of "obedience" that God continued to call the Israelites to. I wonder what the story of Solomon and the Hebrews would have been if they had been totally obedient to God? Would their relationship have been different with God? Would the outcome of their journey such as the division that occurred between the North and South kingdom have been different had they been fully obedient? I suppose we will never know the "rest of the story" if total obedience had been their story. However, I am grateful that perhaps their story wasn't one of total obedience because it gives us hope that God's unconditional love is what continues to redeem us, not our obedience.
I don't know if God's call is a call that changes, could it be that it's just the situation of humans that change? For instance, God's call is always one toward greater holiness, but it may be perceived as a call back when some transgression has occured?
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Brian's comment, I think I am not necessarily glad that the Israelites went through their cyclical disobedience to God (becasue in a literary sense it's hard to keep reading when you know someone's going to mess up again and again), but that is the story of humanity. It's how we as humans grow to be in greater union with our Creator, and it is a mark and a great highlight of God's unconditional love.