LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
1 KINGS 8:22-50
Key Verse
“Whatever prayer or plea is offered by any person or by all Your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading his hands toward this house; then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place”.
1 Kings 8:38-39
INTRODUCTION
God gives gifts to people so that they will be able to build up the body of Christ, the church. God wants those people who believe in Him and so belong to Him to grow in maturity. Therefore one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives is wisdom. In our Bible Study we learn that God or Yahweh gave Solomon the specific gift of wisdom because he asked God for wisdom to rule the nation of Israel well as he was the King of Israel.
We learn that it is good to ask God to give you gifts, especially gifts that will help you to do very well the work you know God has given to you to do. This kind of request will please God and He certainly will give you that gift. Remember that God gives special gifts to all His children and He loves to give in an abundant overflowing way, more than you can ever imagine. Every child of God has at least one gift.
Solomon was given the gift of wisdom by God and he was the wisest man who ever lived. He was well trained and taught by his famous father David for Solomon was to be the King chosen by God to build the Temple of God in Jerusalem. God told David that he could not build the Temple, and the disappointed David accumulated a lot of materials, special kinds of wood, a lot of gold, silver, and precious metals. But Solomon knew that besides these he needed wisdom to build the Temple the way God wanted and to rule the nation the way God wanted. Solomon was well prepared for his task.
We should be prepared to do what God wants us to do. To help us parents, teachers, and people who are spiritually strong and knowledgeable are provided by God and they should help us.
The Temple Solomon had built and dedicated to God was fabulous. It was beautiful. Nobody nowadays despite our technology and skill can ever build a Temple or a building like that. It was world famous and a most attractive place to be. It held the Ark of the Covenant which had the Mercy Seat.
God would meet the people of Israel there and every one who visited the Temple, for this represented His home on earth would be welcomed. But remember God has His real home in heaven. So, Solomon assembled all the elders, chief leaders, and all the leaders of the nation and he prayed to God at this dedication service. He gave God seven petitions and God responded by coming in a great cloud that filled the Temple to show He approved of the dedication of the Temple.
Solomon prayed first God would condemn the guilty and made everyone know the innocent was righteous. Second, when the nation of Israel did what was wrong and their enemies defeated them and then they repented, Solomon asked God to forgive them and save them. Third, he prayed God would not bring drought, stopping the rain, when Israel sinned. God he prayed would forgive them. Fourth, Solomon also prayed that when many kinds of disaster happened because Israel sinned, God would forgive them. Fifth, Solomon prayed that when foreigners came from a far country to pray God should answer his prayer. Sixth, he prayed that when Israel went into battle to fight their enemies, God should help them. Seventh, Solomon prayed that when the nation sinned badly and God punished them by making them go into captivity in the land of their enemies, God should forgive them and bring them back home.
Solomon loved his country and the people in it. We also should love our country and pray to God to correct and guide them. When they sinned we should pray God would forgive them. That is a lot of work but we should carry out that work.