LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
2 CHRONICLES 7: 1_7, 12
Key Verse
“When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good: for his mercies endureth forever”.
2 Chronicles 7:3
INTRODUCTION
David the king appointed by God to promote the interests of the nation of Israel and fulfill the promises to Abraham had been told by God he could not build the Temple of God. Though he had fought to protect the nation there were some things he had done that made his desire to build the Temple unacceptable. He had been a man after God’s own heart but that was not sufficient to please God. God wants a certain kind of heart and a certain kind of action if one was to do certain things for God. But note that that that not mean you are not loved by God and saved by God, put into His family and guaranteed to live a life of extraordinary blessing.
As a loyal son Solomon was well brought up and the Book of Proverbs records David’s advice to him to listen carefully to the advice and direction of his mother.
Solomon was instructed by his father David to build the Temple of God in Jerusalem and David had made extensive provision and accumulated a large amount of materials for the building. So Solimon built the grand and magnificent Temple which became the envy of the nations.
Our Lesson looks at Solomon’s prayer of dedication where he praised God for His faithfulness and the blessings God had brought to his father David. He thanked God for His goodness to his father and to the nation.
In response to the prayer, the glory of God appeared and filled the Temple and was so powerfully manifested the priests who had the job of leading the worship in the Temple could not go in there to do anything Solomon sacrificed thousands of animals in the worship and fire came down from heaven and burnt up the sacrifices. The people were amazed and fell down on their faces and worshipped their all- powerful and mighty God.
Solomon had a great feast for about two weeks and all the people enjoyed themselves praising God that He was such a great God. We too have to know and publicly praise God for being the great and true God who shows mercy to all of mankind. So let us like Solomon get to know Him, praise Him, and trust Him, and obey Him.