Expository Sermon on 2 Chronicles 5 and 6
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 4/26/2025
©2025 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below)
BSDA Worship Service | April 26, 2025
Please open your Bibles to Second Chronicles chapter 5.
This year, as most of you know, this year I’m suggesting that we read the Bible through using a chronological plan, which you will find in the bulletin, and also on our church website. It gets us through the Bible in a year, but rearranges several chapters very carefully so that they fit with the chronological order of what happened.
This year, each week I preach, I have assigned myself to prepare a sermon based on that week’s Bible reading passages.
And I couldn’t resist pausing to take a look at the prayer that King Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple he had had built in Jerusalem, back in about 950 BC, about a thousand years before Jesus was born.
Even though Solomon’s Temple no longer stands today, and even though its replacement, Herod’s Temple, was destroyed in 70 A.D., I believe this dedication prayer is a deeply important one, and one we can follow as a pattern, and pray as well.
I know I’ve told the following story below, but I still can’t shake the feeling it inspired in me. Several years ago, whoever the Sabbath school teachers were in the primary division downstairs decided to put together a model of the temple that preceded Solomon’s version – the tabernacle in the wilderness. They found fabric, and other items, and created a tabernacle that was probably about 4’ x 5’ in size.
Somebody told me, “You should go take a look at that little tabernacle.” So one day during the week, when nobody else was around, I let myself into the primary room and took a look. And I can’t describe the feeling that washed over me. Here was a little copy of the tabernacle I had read about, and studied, for so many years. There it was, right in front of me, with the curtains, the little altar of sacrifice, the fabric roof over the top.
There was something about that little temple, prepared with such care, that really affected me in my heart.
And that’s all that original tabernacle was – the fabric roof, fabric courtyard curtains, furniture made of wood overlaid with gold, everything created to be quickly packable and portable. Solomon’s temple, on the other hand, was built to be permanent, with lavish expenditures of gold and bronze and silver and wood.
But what could Solomon’s temple-dedication prayer have to do with me, down here almost halfway through the year 2025? And how can you and I pray that prayer? Let’s take a look.
We step into the story after the temple has been completed, and as people have gathered for the dedication service. Watch what happens.
2 Chronicles 5:11 – 14 [NKJV]: And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions), and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets—indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
If you taking down sermon points, here is what you could consider Sermon Point One. What’s the first step in praying Solomon’s Temple prayer?
Pray like God wants to come close.
Because He truly did want to come close to those Israelites gathered that the new temple in Jerusalem. And earlier than that, He wanted to come close to the nation gathered around that portable wilderness tabernacle tent. And even earlier, God created a Garden for His children, and enjoyed spending time with them there.
But does God really want to come close to us today, right now? Or have we become so sinful that He feels repulsed by us, and can’t stand to be near us?
Not at all. The most powerful proof that He does want to come close is that His Son Jesus became human and walked among us, and eventually died for us. The Son of God became a human being.
God wants to come close. So how do we pray with that in mind? One way would be to remember – and respond to – Jesus’ invitation in Revelation 3:20. It’s a classic reminder that Heaven wants to come close to us: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” Jesus says. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
So pray that prayer. Open your heart to Jesus and tell Him, “Come in! Welcome to my heart!”
What’s another step in praying Solomon’s prayer? Let’s find out. Now we move into the next chapter, Second Chronicles 6. In the first few verses, Solomon makes a speech giving some historical background about the building of this temple. Then he begins his prayer of dedication:
2 Chronicles 6:12 – 17: Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands (for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven); and he said: “LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore, LORD God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’ And now, O LORD God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David.
So what’s another step in praying Solomon’s temple prayer?
Not only should I pray like God wants to come close, but I should pray like God keeps promises.
Thanks to the magic of text messaging, my brother and two sisters and I are instantly able to keep in touch. My two sisters live near our home town of Redfield, South Dakota, and my brother lives in Northeast Washington.
Recently my two sisters drove over to the little one-room Seventh-day Adventist elementary school where all four of us spent our first eight grades of schooling. Onilee and Penny posed in front of the little schoolhouse door, and someone – probably Penny’s husband Bill – snapped the photo. The little building hasn’t been used for anything for several decades, but it still brings back memories.
That little school changed our lives. Not only did we receive a good education, but we learned Bible verses, and Bible history, and who Jesus is and how much He loves us. Each year we never had any more than 13 or 14 students, total, in that little one room, and I’m sure it was a challenge from time to time to keep that school going. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, when my mom and dad were financially pinched and couldn’t make full tuition payments, others in the little Adventist church stepped in to help.
In other words, our little congregation had made a promise to the students and their parents – “We’re going to keep giving you a good education, in heavenly things as well as earthly things.”
And they kept that promise for years. And when I was in the sixth grade, they built a larger, new one-room school a couple of blocks south, and kept that promise going.
In his prayer, as we heard, Solomon reminded the Lord that God is a promise keeper.
Has God been a promise keeper to you? The longer you have known Him, the more fervently you can say, “That’s a no-brainer. Of course He’s a promise-keeper.”
And notice our part in God’s promise-keeper bargain. Look at verse 14 again:
Verse 14: and he said: “LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.
So I do have a part in God’s promise-keeper bargain. I need to walk before God with all my heart. How do I do this? I recognize my sins, and repent of them, turn away from them, and keep reading the Bible stories of others who have done this.
That’s one of the wonderful things about reading the Bible through, as many of us are doing this year. By the way, if you’d like to step into the plan, start reading, following the plan you see each week in the bulletin. And as you read, look for the stories. See how other real people have responded to the Lord, and what they did in response to Him.
Now let’s find a third way to pray Solomon’s temple prayer.
Verse 18: “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
Not only should I pray like God wants to come close, and pray like God keeps promises, but I should pray like God is bigger than I am.
Shelley and I enjoy walking through our neighborhood, but there is one place we approach with a bit of tenseness. In order to get from the street to the trail we like to walk on, we pass along beside a fenced backyard.
And since the days are getting nicer, there’s a better chance that two earnest white dogs might be out in that backyard. Now, neither Shelley nor I is a threat to either of those dogs. We are prepared to like them. But since they are on one side of a six-foot-high fence, and we are on the other side, and they can’t see us, and we can’t see them, this gives both of those dogs great distress.
So as we walk along that fence line, we brace ourselves for loud barking. And if those dogs are in the yard, we get it. It’s so funny to listen to them, because not only do they bark, but they breathe deeply. They hyperventilate. It’s like they believe that they are being attacked by dangerous enemies, and are in about to each suffer a little heart attack.
Of course, it’s possible that I myself possibly add a little more crisis to the situation by breathing heavily on my side of the fence. I often wonder what they are thinking when they hear me doing that.
I mentioned that we can’t see through the fence, but there is one place where we can. A portion of the fence is broken away, and we can actually get a view into the backyard. Earlier this week, when the dogs weren’t in the backyard, I took a peek through that hole, and discovered to my surprise that there were two statues, two images, up against the fence.
One seems to be a statue of Buddha, about 3 feet tall. The other seems to be some sort of deity from India, about the same height.
I don’t know the story behind these. Does the person who lives in the house worship one of them, or maybe both? If they are antiques, and the family keeps them for sentimental reasons, putting them in the backyard, exposed to the elements, doesn’t seem very wise. But there they are.
Also, on my morning walk about three blocks north is a parked vehicle which has the little figure of some kind of deity on its dashboard.
I think the presence of these little images seem to show the power of having something to represent our God close to us, and visible. Maybe the little deity on the dashboard is to protect the car from an accident, who knows?
But in verse 18, when Solomon says “Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You,” he is saying, “Lord, even though I have spent several years and a lot of resources creating this temple for You, and even though the ark of the covenant is now within its Most Holy Place, I know that You are bigger than I am. You are bigger than a three-foot-tall Buddha. You are bigger than the statues of the god Baal, which our nation is often tempted by. God, you are bigger than the universe, so I refuse to assume any kind of control over You and what You want to do.”
I don’t know whether you noticed the news item that came out this week. In a Brazilian museum there is the well-preserved fossil of a large ant with wings. In fact, it’s so well-preserved that you can actually see the veins in the wings.
Because the ant was fossilized in a certain kind of rock, scientists have decided that it is far older than any other fossilized ants that have been found. They say that this ant lived 113 million years ago, crawling around under the feet of the dinosaurs.
If you know anything about the long ages that scientists have calculated, you know that these big numbers are based on the presupposition that the various levels of rock were laid down one by one over millions of years by such slow processes as erosion, rather than from a major cataclysmic event like a flood. And you also know that surprising discoveries like this ant, in an unexpected geological level, will often cause the scientists to simply add more millions of years onto their previous calculation.
But what is so fascinating about this ant is that it is a fully-developed insect. It was built to do what insects do. Its wings flew that ant around to wherever it wanted to go.
Yesterday, as I read an online article about this ant, I was at our local public library. I like to sit at a long counter, and up on a shelf in front of me, above the counter, was a clear plastic display container. The container was filled with copies of brochures describing some of the books you could check out from the library.
But there, up on one corner of the container, clinging to the plastic, was a little black spider, about half an inch long. It was not a fossil. It was very much alive. I got out my cell phone so I could take a picture of it. But that little spider was watching me, and when my phone came closer to it, it crawled around to the other side of the plastic. So I took the container off the shelf, and turned it around so I could see the ant, and still it was cautiously watching me, ready to move quickly out of sight.
I did manage to snap a photo, and soon the spider had crawled all the way across the side of the container and had gone around to the other side.
So here we had two insects – a fossilized one who-knew-how-many-years old, and a live one. And I know that if the fossilized ant were still alive, it would’ve responded to me in the same way that the spider had.
You know what this says to me? It says something different than it might say to somebody who believes in macro evolution. The evolutionist might look at these two spiders and say, “Wow. It’s amazing that insects haven’t evolved that much in all those multiple millions of years.”
The creationist, while being very prudent in making emphatic pronouncements about time-lengths, says, “God is bigger than I am. He is bigger than any hypothesis I have created from the limited evidence I have. I’m going to trust this wise and powerful Creator.”
So what do I do, now that I remember that God is bigger than I am? Whenever I am tempted to create Him in my own image and try to position and control him the way many others try to do with the images they revere, whenever I’m tempted to do this, I need to humbly bow my head and worship the true God.
Let’s find one more way to pray Solomon’s prayer.
Verses 19 – 33: Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. “When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence. “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and confess your name, praying and making supplication before you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their fathers. “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance. “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel—each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple— then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men), so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
So what’s another way I should pray Solomon’s temple-dedication prayer?
Not only should I pray like God wants to come close, and pray like God keeps promises, and pray like God is bigger than I am, but I should pray like God listens and forgives.
Notice how breathtakingly long is the list of what God will forgive? And notice how even the foreigner, who has heard about God and His people, and who has come to join with them, even that foreigner can pray and seek forgiveness, and God will hear.
If you study through this last part of Solomon’s prayer, you’ll see that he seems to be prophesying or predicting the later apostasies that the nation will fall into. But Solomon didn’t think these up – God Himself often predicted these tragic events back in earlier Bible books.
But what this says to me is that we cannot surprise God. God has covered every forgiveness option. And we can pray to Him with the deepest confidence that if we confess our sins, and repent of them, and turn to Him, He will hear us and receive us to Himself.
That’s the whole point of the sanctuary service. That’s the whole point of Jesus, interceding in heaven for us, right today.