Praying from the House of the Living God

2 Chronicles 6:18-42

    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! 19 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: 20 that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 21 And may You 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.
    22 "If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, 23 then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
    24 "Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.
    26 "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.
    28 "When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 29 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: 30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), 31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
    32 "Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; 33 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.
    34 "When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
    36 "When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; 37 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness'; 38 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: 39 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. 40 Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.

    41 "Now therefore,
    Arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place,
    You and the ark of Your strength.
    Let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,
    And let Your saints rejoice in goodness.

    42 "O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed;
    Remember the mercies of Your servant David."

No manmade building can contain God; He fills the entire universe and beyond what we can only see or imagine.  Still Solomon built the temple to bring praise and sacrifice before the LORD, pleading with Him to meet men there for help in time of need, just as we now can come to Christ on His throne to find grace and help (Hebrews 4:16) without a human high priest to enter behind the temple veil of the most holy place (Hebrews 6:19, 9:12).  We do this in the temples of our individual bodies as well as in corporate gatherings, praying as God’s people did then to ask forgiveness and to glorify Him with thanksgiving, but as living sacrifices now (Romans 12:1) and not with repetitive animal sacrifices, because His blood is eternally sufficient and never needs to be re-sacrificed (Hebrews 9:11-12, 14) for our atonement of sin.  He sacrificed Himself once for all, and the blood of His life given for ours never loses efficacy.  Just as then when we face defeat or temptation or attack of the evil enemy, we can turn to Christ from these humble houses of the Living God to ask forgiveness and grace to help in our times of need.  He hears us.  He hears because we are chosen and promised.  He knows our burdens and grief as Solomon said in this passage of prayer for our example and encouragement.  We likewise confess our sin to find forgiveness in grace and mercy (1 John 1:9) as we turn from it towards Christ with our whole heart, mind, life, and strength with which He gives us to be able to honor and glorify Him.  We therefore pray like King Solomon with supplication of the heart for God’s eyes and ears to find us in the outpouring of our hearts in all things.  We are clothed in salvation (Isaiah 61:10) and rejoice in His goodness and our own holy responses, reminded of His mercies showered on us in His Anointed Christ, able to gaze into His face which is not turned away (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Amen.