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7
1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and burned up the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. 2 The priests couldn't enter the Temple of the Lord because the Lord's glory filled the Lord's Temple. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord in the Temple, they knelt down and bowed their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “He is good! His trustworthy love lasts forever!”
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord. 5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this way the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites too, with the musical instruments that King David had made for giving praise, and which David had used for praise. They sang, “For his trustworthy love lasts forever!” Opposite them the priests blew trumpets, and all the Israelites stood up.
7 After that Solomon dedicated the middle of the courtyard in front of the Temple of the Lord. There he presented burnt offerings and the fat of the friendship offerings, since the bronze altar he had made couldn't hold all the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the offerings.
8 Then over the next seven days Solomon observed the feast*The Festival of Shelters. with all of Israel, a huge gathering that came from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9 On the eighth day†The eighth day of the Festival. they held a final assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast another seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home. They were still celebrating and really happy for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, to Solomon, and to his people Israel.
11 After Solomon had finished the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace, having successfully accomplished everything he'd wanted to do for the Temple of the Lord and for his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and told him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a Temple of sacrifice. 13 If I were to close shut the sky so there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send a plague among my people, 14 and if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and return to me, and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open, and my ears will pay attention to the prayers offered in this place, 16 for I have chosen and consecrated this Temple so that I may be honored there forever. I will always watch over it and take care of it for it really matters to me.
17 As for you, if you follow my ways as your father David did, doing everything I've told you to do, and if you keep my laws and regulations, 18 then I will make sure your reign is secure. I made this agreement with your father David, telling him, ‘You will always have a descendant to rule over Israel.’ 19 But if you turn away and ignore the laws and the commandments I have given you, and if you go and serve and worship other gods, 20 then I will pull you up from the land I gave you. I will banish from my presence this Temple I have dedicated to my honor, and I will make it an object lesson of ridicule among the nations. 21 This Temple that now is so respected will become so spoiled that passers-by will say, ‘Why has the Lord acted in such a way to this land and this Temple?’ 22 The answer will come, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have clung to other gods, worshiping them and serving them. That's why the Lord has brought all this trouble upon them.’ ”

- 2 Chronicles
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*7:8 The Festival of Shelters.

†7:9 The eighth day of the Festival.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher