Tuesday after the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 2, 2021 by under
Scripture: 1 Kings 8:46-53 (NKJV)
8:46 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; 47 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; 48 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: 49 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, 50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them 51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace), 52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 53 For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”
Devotion
The text before us today is all about the long suffering love of God toward His chosen. His love compels Him to always forgive these Elect if they will return to Him in repentance after their sinful rebellion against His Word and will. The verses we are looking at compose a prayer of Solomon, where this wisest man pleads with the Lord to remember His promise to always hear the prayers and pleas of those He has called to be His Elect.
The prayer presented is part of the dedication of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem built by Solomon. He prays that the Elect (in this context consisting of the Old Testament Israel) could have a place to come before the Lord and bring their hopes, desires, and needs to Him in prayer and sacrifice, according to the instructions of the Lord delivered to the Elect through Moses. The prayer is worded in such a way as to remind the Israelites of their redemption from slavery and their delivery from captivity in a foreign land at the time of the Exodus. Solomon prophesied about a time when these Old Testament Elect would again turn from their loving Lord and insist on rebelling against His holy Word until He has no choice but to let them be carried into slavery. But the loving Lord continued to call them again and again to repentance.
Prayer: O God, our Refuge and Strength, Who art the Author of all godliness: Be ready, we beseech Thee, to hear the devout prayers of Thy Church; and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
