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.