Fire from Heaven
First Kings 8:54-66 and
Second Chronicles 7:1-10
Fire from heaven DIG: Why sacrifice so many animals? Why can’t Isra’el eat fat or blood (Leviticus 3:16-17). How do the bronze and gold alters differ (Exodus 30:6-7)? What feast is celebrated during this time of year (Lev 23:34, 41-43)? What irony do you see in this timing?
REFLECT: What good things has God done for you lately? What sacrifices does God require today and why? What exactly do you worship? Your spouse? Your family? Your job? Your body? A sports team? Your computer? Are you offering God the praise that He deserves?
Just as the Israelites went home praising their God and their king,
we too are called to take the joy of the Lord with us everywhere we go.
For every festival there must be a feast. What would a wedding be without a reception, or Christmas without a family dinner, or a youth soccer championship without a pizza party, or a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah without knish at the kiddush after the service? Good food and drink are essential to any grand celebration. Since this is true, then there was only one appropriate way for Solomon’s Temple prayer to end. The king was dedicating the most important building in the history of the world – the one place where God promised to meet with His people. So, after the king’s prayer was finished, and the burnt offerings and sacrifices had been made, fire came down from heaven and consumed them. Then it was time for a feast.
To see how the people feasted, and why, we first need to hear the blessing that Solomon gave – a blessing that was also a prayer. When Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and plea to ADONAI, he got up from in front of the altar of ADONAI, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven, stood up, and raised his voice to bless the whole community of Isra’el. He said: “Blessed be ADONAI, who has given rest to His people Isra’el, in accordance with everything He promised in His covenant with Moshe (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Dd – The Mosaic Covenant). Not one word has failed of His good promise, which He made through Moshe his servant (First Kings 8:55-56).
The blessings we need from God:
1. Solomon asked for God’s abiding presence: May ADONAI our God be with us, as He was with our ancestors. May He never leave us or abandon us (First Kings 8:57). More than all the other blessings that YHVH has to give, we need God Himself in the living presence of His grace. All the great spiritual leaders in the Bible understood this. We see it in Moses, who was promised that the God of the burning bush would go with him wherever he went (Exodus 3:12). We see it in Joshua, who was told that YHVH would never leave him or abandon him (Joshua 1:9; Deuteronomy 31:6-8). We see it in the psalmist, who said: ADONAI will not abandon His people (Psalm 94:14; Hebrews 13:5). In all of life’s decisions and difficulties, we need God to be with us to help us through.
2. King Solomon had a specific reason for asking God to be with his people. He wanted them to be holy. So he prayed for God’s sanctifying Spirit: In this way He will incline our hearts toward Him, so that we will live according to His ways and observe His mitzvot, statutes and ordinances which He ordered our fathers to obey (First Kings 8:58). This prayer shows deep insight into the spiritual need of fallen human beings. The sad truth is that because of sin, our hearts are not inclined to walk in God’s ways, to say nothing of keeping his commandments. Have you ever wondered why it is so easy to sin, and so hard to be holy? It is because our sinful hearts lean away from YHVH, not toward Him. Therefore, we need a powerful work of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh to turn our hearts back in His direction. So we pray for the sanctifying Spirit to make our hearts want what God wants.
3. Next Solomon prayed for God’s listening ear: More specifically, he asked God to listen to his people when they made any of the seven requests he just prayed (see Bm – Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication). May these words of mine, which I have used in my plea before ADONAI, be present with ADONAI our God day and night, so that He will uphold the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Isra’el day-by-day (First Kings 8:59). Solomon was asking God to let his prayer of dedication stand for all time, so that when his people prayed for justice, forgiveness, or protection, or deliverance – whatever they asked in faith, at any time of the day or night – God would hear their prayers and answer in power.
4. Then King Solomon prayed for God’s universal glory, asking then all the peoples of the earth will know that ADONAI is God; there is no other. So be wholehearted with ADONAI our God, living by His commandments and observing His mitzvot, as You are doing today (First Kings 8:60-61; Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 45:5). This prayer was based on the belief that there is only one God. The people of YHVH declared this every morning in their daily confession: Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). Since this is true – that God is unique, that He is the one-and-only God – then it should be acknowledged everywhere. Therefore, Solomon prayed for God’s glory among the nations, that He would be known to be God by all people in all places.183
Fire from heaven: Having finished with Solomon’s prayer of dedication, the Chronicler continued to follow the account of Kings. He recorded a powerful display of God’s acceptance of Solomon’s Temple, prayers, and sacrifices as fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices (to see a video on the dedication of the Temple click here). The descent of fire upon a sacrifice appears elsewhere as a miraculous display of divine approval. This had happened on two other occasions. First, fire came down from heaven to consume the sacrifice that David offered on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (see the commentary on The Life of David El – David Builds an Altar), and it would happen again, in a time of crucial decision for Isra’el on Mount Carmel (see the commentary on Elijah and Elisha Aq – Elijah and the Prophets of Ba’al) when ADONAI’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and licked up the water from the trench.
Dear Heavenly Father, How magnificent You sending down fire from heaven to consume Solomon’s sacrifice, yet how fantastic and awesome will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude – like the roar of rushing waters or like the rumbling of powerful thunder – saying, “Halleluyah! For Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:6-7). How beautiful will be the bride, the Church (Second Corinthians 11:1), dressed in righteous deeds-white linen. It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure,” for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints (Revelation 19:8). What joy floods my heart when I focus my eyes and hope on my eternal home in heaven with You. Trials are but for a short time, while the joy of living with You, our Loving Eternal Father, in heaven will be forever! For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). We love and worship you! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
And the Sh’khinah glory of ADONAI filled the house, so that the priests could not enter because the glory of the LORD filled God’s house. This glory recalls the Sh’khinah that previously halted priestly services inside the Temple. Perhaps the Sh’khinah subsided slightly during Solomon’s prayers and the priests tried to proceed with their responsibilities. At this point, however, the priests could not enter because the glory of ADONAI filled God’s house. All the people of Isra’el saw when the fire came down, and the Sh’khinah glory was on the house; they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the flooring; prostrating themselves, they gave thanks to ADONAI, “for He is good and His steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136). Earlier only the priests sang this psalm , but now the entire assembly added their voices to this song (Second Chronicles 7:2-3). Mention of Solomon (7:1), the priests (7:2) and all the people of Isra’el (7:3) created an ever widening circle of joy. The Chronicler reported how God’s response to Solomon’s prayer overwhelmed all who were there in order to inspire his readers to re-establishing the Temple and its services in their day. They wanted to exchange their hardships for joy. Yet, such splendid festivity could occur only if they followed Solomon’s example and give due attention to the Temple.184
The priests stood at their appointed stations, while the Levites used the instruments that David the king had provided for making music to ADONAI in order to “give thanks to ADONAI, for His grace continues forever,” by means of the praises David had composed. Opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Isra’el stood up. Then the king, together with all Isra’el, offered more sacrifices before YHVH. Before Solomon’s prayer innumerable sacrifices were made (Second Chronicles 5:6). For the sacrifice of peace offerings which Solomon alone offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. It is impossible to assess whether the enormous numbers of sacrifices are to be taken literally or not. Apparently 142,000 animals would have meant an offering every three seconds for ten hours a day for twelve days. The most that can be safely said is that the numbers were unusually large even for Solomon’s time, requiring a special dedication of the courtyard (see below) and presumably simultaneous offerings.185 Thus, the king and all the people of Isra’el dedicated the house of ADONAI. So numerous were the sacrifices that Solomon arranged to dedicate the center of the courtyard in front of the Temple; because he had to offer so many of the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings there. For the bronze altar before ADONAI was too small to receive the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings (First Kings 8:61-64; Second Chronicles 7:4-7).
So, Solomon celebrated the festival at that time for seven days, together with all Isra’el, an enormous gathering; they had come all the way from the northern border at the entrance of Hamat to the southern border at the brook of Egypt. The geographic references in this verse may be unfamiliar to most believers today, but it indicates that the whole nation of Isra’el celebrate this feast. They all were doing the same thing. They were united in their praise to ADONAI and His anointed king. In addition to blessing the LORD, the people blessed their king. So at the same time they rejoiced in God and His holy Temple, they also rejoiced in Solomon and his royal kingship. They blessed their king for the honor he gave to YHVH in building a holy Temple for worship. Solomon was the joy of his people.
But this does not mean this fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant because much of this territory was under tribute and not under Jewish settlement in peacetime. So people who use this verse to prove that the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant have already been fulfilled and there is no future promise for Isra’el, do not read these verses in context.
We have a similar, yet greater, joy in the Kingdom of Yeshua Messiah. The praise we offer to ADONAI is centered on our King, Yeshua Messiah, both on His glory as the Son of God and on His salvation through the cross and an empty tomb. This joyful worship is not just for Shabbat or Sunday, but for every day of the week and every place we go. Just as the Israelites went home praising their God and their king, we too are called to take the joy of the Lord with us everywhere we go.
On the eighth day, which followed the seven-day Festival of Sukkot (see the commentary on Leviticus Eg – Hag Sukkot), the people assembled for another seven days, just before returning to their homes, a total of fourteen days in all. Then, on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, the people blessed the king and he sent them away to their tents full of joy and glad of heart for all the goodness ADONAI had shown to David his servant, to Solomon and to Isra’el His people (First Kings 8:65-66; Second Chronicles 7:8-10).
When Solomon and his people dedicated the Temple, they had the volume turned all the way up. With every blessing they pronounced and every animal they sacrificed, they declared the glory of God. They kept the volume up all the way home as they praised their king and his kingdom. How do you go home from worship in the house of the LORD? Do you go rejoicing in Messiah and His Kingdom, offering Him the obedience He requires and the sacrifice He demands? Or does your attention quickly turn to the things you really worship: the relationships, the pleasures, and the entertainments that claim your higher allegiance? Whatever you choose to worship, make sure it is worthy of a feast, as only Yeshua is.186
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