GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 6:10-17
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10 “The LORD has kept the promise that he made. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 11 There I have placed the Ark, in which is set the covenant of the LORD that he made with the people of Israel.” 12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands.
Solomon declares to the assembled people what has happened: God has kept the promise he made, and he, Solomon, is on the throne just as God had promised. This was nothing new. Solomon had been their king for more than ten years. But now the temple was completed; this speech is what we would call a ribbon cutting. The goal of David was to bring the Ark safely into Jerusalem, to build a temple for it, and to finally reassemble the worship place of God, which had been pulled apart for a hundred years. As Solomon spreads his hands to pray, our author pauses to explain that Solomon was not taking over for the priests. His location needs to be explained:
13 Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. He had placed it in the outer court; and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees before the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.
This podium was almost five feet tall and over seven feet square. Made of bronze, it was a showpiece for this speech and the prayer that followed. It was in the outer court (also called the Great Court), which means it was not in the area where the priests burned the sacrifices on the altar, but in front of this (to the east) where many people could gather. There are representations (carvings and drawings) of various kings standing or kneeling on platforms throughout the ancient Near East. The reason for such a platform is mostly as an aid to projection: One’s voice carries farther if one is speaking above the heads of the listeners.
Solomon was younger than I am now when he did this but I still can’t help feeling a shudder in my arthritic knees at the thought of kneeling on a bronze platform. Perhaps he had a little mat to kneel on. Kneeling at certain times in worship is an act of special reverence. Luther writes: “We kneel not only when we pray, but also when we baptize, absolve, have been absolved, and go to the Lord’s Supper, and yes, even at the reading of the promises or the text of the Gospel. We should bend our knees or at least stand as a sign of our adoration or reverence and gratitiude” (LW 8:144). This is not a command, but a good and healthy custom, to show a visitor and to remind myself of how awesome is the forgiveness of sins which we receive from the Lord’s hand and mouth.
14 He said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You keep the covenant of mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 15 You have kept your word to your servant David, my father. Indeed, what you promised with your mouth you have fulfilled with your hand on this day. 16 Now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, the word you promised him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their way and walk according to my law as you have walked before me.’ 17 Now, O LORD, God of Israel, let the word you promised to your servant David be confirmed.
To say, “There is no God like you in heaven or on earth,” is not an admission of other or lesser gods. It is a superlative way of saying that there are no other gods at all. There is no god who made the universe except the Creator, the Almighty God. “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” (Malachi 2:10). There is no god anywhere who promised to send his own Son into the world to save the world from sin except the Almighty and Compassionate Father. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). There is no eternal god apart from the true and eternal Triune God. “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).
In verse 16, Solomon quotes God’s promise with confidence and faith, but there is an underlying condition to this particular promise. “David shall never fail to have a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their ways and walk according to my law.” But Solomon’s descendants did not guard their ways. Of the twenty monarchs who sat on Solomon’s throne after him, only five or six were given good reports about their faith from the Holy Spirit, although one or two like Manasseh who were wicked all along repented in the end (2 Chronicles 33:12-16).
Man’s unfaithfulness and sin does not diminish God’s faithfulness and mercy. If a man becomes overwhelmed by the thought of his sin, and the weight of shame and guilt presses down hard on him, he is ready to listen to the promise of God’s grace. And God in his faithfulness will never fail to offer the gospel in some way to the repentant sinner. But whether he does this through a called minister, or through the written words of Scripture, or the words of a hymn that quote this, the result is the same. He hears about forgiveness, and the burden is lifted away, if only he does not doubt and struggle and grab hold of his guilt even as the Spirit is lifting it away. “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). And God says through Paul, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (Romans 9:15). But if a man is proud and thinks he deserves forgiveness, it is withheld. But when we throw ourselves at his mercy, and pray for his forgiveness, and expect that through Christ it will be given to us, then of course it is given! In fact, since we already believed in Christ, the forgiveness was already ours. But this is how we wrestle every single day with sin and grace, corruption and repentance, fall and restoration. He calls us and smiles on us and he lifts up our sniffling chins with his outstretched hand, and with his words he kisses our tears away. A poet said: “Come, leave your tears.” And the Prophet says: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stop your crying. Do not shed tears’” (Jeremiah 21:16). For the Lord himself said: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned” (John 5:24). His mercy endures forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 6:10-17 if only your sons guard their way