In essence, Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple is asking God to keep his promise. 'There is no God like you', he says, 'who keeps his covenant of love with his servants who continue wholeheartedly in his way.' And there, Solomon hit on the crux of the matter. God is a promise keeping God. In fact he is the only God that can keep a promise. The gods of Israel's enemies cannot keep their promise. They cannot even cause offerings to be consumed. The gods of any age cannot keep their promises. Governments will fail, banks and stock markets will fail, technology will fail, psychiatry will fail. None of these gods can be counted on to keep their promise. Only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of Moses and Joshua. The God of David and Solomon and Isaiah and Elijah. The God of all those who have gone on before. The God of those servants that walk before him with all of their hearts.
And therein lies the rub. God is strong on his side of the bargain, but we wander away and are always chasing after other gods. Solomon was aware of that, even as he was dedicating the temple. At that point in time, his heart and eyes were opened up, and he saw the disasters that would come on the Israelites because they would turn away. He saw the plagues and disease, the defeats by their enemies, all the disasters that would come on the Israelites for turning away, and he asks God to hear from heaven and heal when they beg for forgiveness.
Solomon was right on both counts. All of us have sinned and chased after other gods, and God is still keeping his promise to make a way to come to him.
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