1 Kings 8:54 – 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. 55 He stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire congregation of Israel:  56 “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. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. 58 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. 59 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. 60 Then people all over the earth will know that the Lord alone is God and there is no other. 61 And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”

62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. 63 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.     64 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.

65 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 Lebo-hamath in the north and the Brook of Egypt in the south. The celebration went on for fourteen days in all—seven days for the dedication of the altar and seven days for the Festival of Shelters. (NLT)

In this passage we have Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple.  This passage is actually the latter part of the prayer, which takes up most of 1 Kings 8.  There is much to learn from this prayer, but unfortunately many people just focus on what seems odd to us – peace offerings with tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of animals.  I try not to get hung up on such matters, but it does remind me that peace with God comes at a mighty cost.  Indeed, we know that our peace with God came at the cost of God leaving heaven, coming to earth through Jesus, and dying for our sins.  That was costly! 

Unlike Solomon, we don’t need to sacrifice animals in an effort to have peace with God.  Romans 5:1 tells us, “we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since our peace with God has been made, what now?  I think we can look to this prayer from Solomon for the answer.  In verse 58 Solomon asks that God would give us the desire to do God’s will in all things.  Jesus also teaches us to pray this prayer (Luke 11). Furthermore, Solomon knew that there could be no better witness for God than for he and his people to be truly living out God’s will (verse 60).

Today, let us seek God’s will for our lives so that others may know of God!

Posted by Ramón Torres