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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Ethan: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 200 and 16
then Solomon stood before the
altar of the Lord in front of
the entire community of Israel.
He lifted his hands toward heaven
and he prayed, oh Lord God of Israel.
There is no God like you in all of
heaven above or on the earth below.
You keep your covenant and show
unfailing love to all who walk
before you in wholehearted devotion.
You have kept your promise to
your servant, David, my father.
You made that promise with your
own mouth and with your own hands.
You have fulfilled it today.
And now, oh Lord God of Israel, carry
out the additional promise you made
to your servant David, my father.
For you said to him, if your descendants
guard their behavior and faithfully
follow me as you have done, one of
them will always sit on the throne
of Israel now, oh God of Israel.
Fulfill this promise to your
servant, David, my father.
But will God really live on earth?
Why even the highest
heavens cannot contain you?
How much less this temple I have built?
Nevertheless, listen to
my prayer and my plea.
Oh Lord, my God.
Hear the cry and the prayer that
your servant is making to you today.
May you watch over this temple
night and day, this place where you
have said My name will be there.
May you always hear the prayers
I make toward this place.
May you hear the humble and earnest
requests from me and your people
Israel, when we pray toward this place.
Yes, hear us from heaven where you
live and when you hear forgive.
If someone wrongs another person and is
required to take an oath of innocence in
front of your altar in this temple, then
hear from heaven and judge between your
servants, the accuser, and the accused.
Punish the guilty as they deserve.
Acquit the innocent
because of their innocence.
If your people, Israel are defeated
by their enemies because they have
sinned against you, and if they turn
to you and acknowledge your name and
pray to you here in this temple, then
hear from heaven and forgive the sin
of your people Israel, and return them
to this land you gave their ancestors.
If the skies are shut up and there
is no rain, because your people have
sinned against you, and if they pray
toward this temple and acknowledge
your name and turn from their sins
because you have punished them, then
hear from heaven and forgive the sins
of your servants, your people, Israel.
Teach them to follow the right
path and send rain on your land
that you have given to your people
as their special possession.
If there is a famine in the land or a
plague or crop disease or attacks of
locusts or caterpillars, or if your
people's enemies are in the land,
besieging their towns, whatever disaster
or disease there is, and if your people
Israel pray about their troubles raising
their hands toward this temple, then hear
from heaven where you live and forgive.
Give your people what their
actions deserve for you alone.
Know each human heart, then they
will fear you as long as they live in
the land you gave to our ancestors.
In the future.
Foreigners who do not belong to your
people, Israel will hear of you.
They will come from distant lands
because of your name, for they will
hear of your great name and your
strong hand and your powerful arm.
And when they pray toward this temple,
then hear from heaven where you
live and grant what they ask of you.
In this way, all the people of
the earth will come to know and
fear you, just as your own people.
Israel do.
They too will know that this temple
I have built honors your name.
If your people go out where you send
them to fight their enemies, and if
they pray to the Lord by turning toward
this city you have chosen, and toward
this temple I have built to honor
your name, then hear their prayers
from heaven and uphold their cause.
If they sin against you and who has
never sinned, you might become angry
with them and let their enemies
conquer them and take them captive
to their land far away or near.
But in that land of exile, they might
turn to you in repentance and pray.
We have sinned, done,
evil and acted wickedly.
If they turn to you with their whole
heart and soul in the land of their
enemies, and pray toward the land you
gave to their ancestors toward this
city you have chosen and toward this
temple I have built to honor your name.
Then hear their prayers and their
petition from heaven where you
live and uphold their cause.
Forgive your people who
have sinned against you.
Forgive all the offenses they
have committed against you.
Make their captors merciful to
them for they are your people.
Your special possession, whom you brought
out of the iron smelting furnace of Egypt.
May your eyes be open to my requests
and to the requests of your people.
Israel.
May you hear and answer them whenever
they cry out to you for when you
brought our ancestors out of Egypt.
Oh, sovereign Lord.
You told your servant Moses, that you
had set Israel apart from all the nations
of the earth to be your own special
possession when Solomon finished making
these prayers and petitions to the Lord.
He stood up in front of the altar of
the Lord where he had been kneeling
with his hands raised toward heaven.
He stood and in a loud voice, blessed
the entire congregation of Israel.
Praise the Lord who has
given rest to his people.
Israel, just as he promised,
not one word has failed.
Of all the wonderful promises he
gave through his servant Moses.
May the Lord our God be with us
as he was with our ancestors.
May he never leave us or abandon us.
May he give us the desire to do
his will in everything and to obey
all the commands, decrees, and
regulations that he gave our ancestors.
And may these words that I have
prayed in the presence of the Lord be
before him constantly day and night.
So that the Lord, our God may give
justice to me and to his people, Israel,
according to each day's needs, then people
all over the earth will know that the
Lord alone is God and there is no other.
And may you be com completely
faithful to the Lord our God.
May you always obey his decrees and
commands just as you are doing today.
Then the king and all Israel with
him offered sacrifices to the Lord.
Solomon offered to the Lord a
peace offering of 22,000 cattle
and 120,000 sheep and goats.
And so the king and all the people of
Israel dedicated the temple of the Lord.
That same day, the king consecrated
the central area of the courtyard
in front of the Lord's temple.
He offered burnt offerings, grain
offerings, and the fat of peace offerings
there because the bronze altar in
the Lord's presence was too small to
hold all the burnt offerings, grain
offerings, and the fat of the peace
offerings, then Solomon and all Israel
celebrated the festival of shelters
in the presence of the Lord our God.
A large congregation had gathered from
as far away as Libo Hamoth in the north
and the brook of Egypt in the south.
The celebration went on for 14
days, in all seven days for the
dedication of the altar, and seven
days for the festival of shelters.
After the festival was over,
Solomon sent the people home.
They blessed the king and went to
their homes, joyful and glad because
the Lord had been good to his servant
David and to his people Israel.
So Solomon finished building the temple
of the Lord as well as the royal palace.
He completed everything
he had planned to do.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second
time as he had done before at Gibeon.
The Lord said to him, I have heard
your prayer and your petition.
I have set this temple apart to be holy.
This place you have built where
my name will be honored forever.
I will always watch over it.
For it is dear to my heart.
As for you, if you will follow
me with integrity and godliness.
As David, your father did obeying all
my commands, decrees and regulations.
Then I will establish the throne of
your dynasty over Israel forever.
For I made this promise
to your father David.
One of your descendants will
always sit on the throne of Israel.
But if you or your descendants
abandon me and disobey the commands
and decrees I have given you, and
if you serve and worship other
gods, then I will uproot Israel from
this land that I have given them.
I will reject this temple that I
have made holy to honor my name.
I will make Israel an object of
mockery and ridicule among the nations.
And though this temple is impressive,
now all who pass by will be appalled
and will gasp in horror, they will
ask, why did the Lord do such terrible
things to this land and to this temple?
And the answer will be, Because
his people abandoned the Lord their
God, who brought their ancestors out
of Egypt, and they worshiped other
gods instead and bowed down to them.
That is why the Lord has brought
all these disasters on them.
This concludes today's
immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.