Good Morning Friends,
“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made
before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my
Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. As for you, if
you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father
did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish
your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I
said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you
or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I
have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut
off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated
for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among
all peoples. And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be
appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this
land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the
LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other
gods, worshiping and serving them — that is why the LORD brought all this
disaster on them.’” (1 Kings 9:3-9)
A marvelous Temple was built by Israel under
Solomon’s leadership. It was one of the grandest structures ever built by man.
It was dedicated to the worship of the Lord God … and God was very pleased with
it. God promised … “My eyes and my heart will always be there.” But the promise
God spoke to Solomon was a conditional promise … conditioned upon Solomon and his
sons walking in integrity before God … being faithful to Him and being obedient
to His commands.
If you travel to Israel today to gaze upon that
marvelous Temple you will not find it there. In its place you will find a
Moslem shrine called the Dome of the Rock. For over 1,400 years that shrine has
stood on the spot where Solomon’s Temple stood. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed when
the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. The Temple that was built to replace it
was still standing in Jesus’ day … but it too was destroyed a few years after
Jesus. There hasn’t been a Temple to God standing on that site for 1,940 years.
People may ask, “Where did God’s Temple go?”
and “Why did the Lord allow His Temple to be destroyed?” God spoke the answers
to that question when He spoke to Solomon, “Because they have forsaken the Lord
their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other
gods, worshiping and serving them – that is why the Lord brought all this
disaster on them.”
God is a jealous God.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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