March 23, 2008<br>
Background Scripture: 2 Chronicles 6; Luke 24<br>
Devotional Reading: Psalms 135:1-5<br>
For most of my life, if not all of it, I have been one of those people who believed there was no problem that could not be solved if I worked at it hard enough, long enough and gave it my all. But there have been times in that lifetime I found myself confronted with a crisis that remained unresponsive to the best and highest of my efforts.<br>
Fortunately – or better, providentially – it was then that I found I had nothing left but God’s promises.<br>
What had He promised me? Did He promise to help me escape my problem? No. Did He promise to wave a magic wand and fix everything? No, not that either. Did He promise to save me from pain, loss, shame or consequences? No, no, no.<br>
No, the promise God made me – and you – is that He would be with me and bring me through to the other side. So, whenever we sing R. Kelso Carter’s hymn “Standing on the Promises,” I know it from my own experience.<br>
The Jews never spent much time or effort in trying to nail down what God was and is; instead, they witnessed to what God had done, was doing and would do. The address of Solomon in 2 Chron. 6 is such a testimony. He speaks of what God has done with his father, David: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father” (6:4b).<br>
Solomon recounts David’s attempt to build a permanent house for God, a plan that God postponed until the reign of Solomon.<br>
God kept His promise<br>

All that David and Solomon had from God on this subject was the promise that Solomon, the son, would achieve what David, his father, was prevented from doing. And, says Solomon, “Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise which he made … And I have built the house for the name of the Lord … And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which he made with the people of Israel” (6:10,11).<br>
Solomon’s temple is the symbol of the promises that God has kept. Kneeling at the altar, Solomon testifies to the faithfulness of God and then goes on to pose eight questions, each followed by a prayer of intercession.<br>
The first is: “But will God dwell indeed with man on earth?” (96:18). And Solomon responds with an intercessory prayer asking that he will make this temple a place where God will be present.<br>
He also asks God to respond “If a man sins against his neighbor …” (6:22), “If thy people are defeated before the enemy <br>…” (6:24,25),  if “heaven is shut up and there is no rain …” (6:26,27), “If there is a famine …” (6:28-31), if a foreigner comes to the temple to pray (6:32,33), “If thy people go out to battle against their enemies … “ (6:34,35), and “If they sin against thee … and thou art angry with them, and dost give them to an enemy …”<br>
This is a delineation of the covenant relationship between God and Israel. God makes promises to His people and, in return, His people make promises to Him.<br>
The weak elements are not the promises of God, but the promises His people make – and break. One might say that the essence of the Old Testament from beginning to end is a recital of the promises which God keeps and the promises which His children do not keep.<br>
A failed ‘chosen one’<br>

Solomon built a magnificent temple. His wisdom was the heart of the wisdom literature of Israel. But, as Fleming James says, “For the rest of his work and influence we may say in one word that there was nothing for which he stood that the insight of the prophets did not soon or late condemn.<br>
“Luxury and display at the expense of the poor, the building of great houses and fortifications, the dependence on horses and chariots, the seeking of foreign alliances, the importation for foreign cults, the neglect of the people’s good – the whole spirit of worldly pride that lifts up itself over others – these were hateful to God.”*<br>
God kept His promises; Solomon did not. But, of course, what matters now is not between Solomon and God, but us and our Lord. God is faithful; are we?<br>
 *Personalities of the Old Testament, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1949.<br>