Most good stories begin at night. In a quiet dark corner with hushed voices discussing the terms of some agreement. One offers to do a favor in return for something else. The terms are agreed upon and they separate as if they never were there. In the light of day, the world awakens and gets to work. Our story is just like this.
On a dark night, King Solomon has a vision discussing terms with God about ruling his kingdom. As dawn breaks, Solomon begins on God’s great temple. He imports fine wood, precious metals, and jewels for the building. All of the work is described in great detail, with gold pomegranates on chains, giant gold angels, and ornate stone work . When the day of dedication finally arrives, this new structure inspires splendor and awe in the assembled masses. Everyone’s hopes are high that something huge is going to happen. A procession of finely dressed priest leads the Ark of the Covenant to its final holy resting place between two massive golden angels and that is when stuff starts to get real. Smoke slowly begins to build around the Ark as one priest looks at another. Then smoke begins to pour out of every corner of the temple and the priest are tripping over each other to escape.
King Solomon climbs up the steps and gives an impassioned prayer crying out to God. As his voice hits a dramatic climax yelling “Lord God, do not reject the plea of your anointed, remember the devotion of David, your servant”, the skies crack. Fire rips down to consume the prepared offering. (Everyone poops their pants.) For seven days they slaughter 144,000 oxen and sheep at a rate of 14 per min. You can’t kill these animals fast enough! And then its over… Everyone goes home and back to their lives.
Sometime later, Solomon is sleeping during the evening and God comes to him in a vision. God lays out the promise He made with Moses and David one more time. And then He makes a curious comment. He leaves Solomon with a prophetic image. This brand-new temple God just smoked out is going to be destroyed, “because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods, bowing down to them and serving them. That is why he has brought upon them all this evil.” (2 Chronicles 7:22) This whole endevore began with a conversation with God and that’s how it ends.
How can this be? If we had an event in our history where a building started smoking, fire came down from heaven, and the nation went on a non-stop seven-day psycho butcherfest; wouldn’t we make it national priority one not to screw with God? In the 500 years from the dedication to the destruction people clearly forgot about priorities. The writer is making a case from the beginning to the end that this is a two-way street. Follow God and He shows up, don’t and He doesn’t. The point is turn back to God.
This is not the place to dig into deep theology about God bringing evil on Israel. Old school is the best school not because it’s easy to understand, it’s the best because of brutal truths. You and I are not God. The point is simple; if you are far from God, turn back to him. You may be mad or confused, but you are at least going in the right direction.
Dad Devotional 