The Tuesday after the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 29, 2024 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 Ark of God was delivered to the Temple in Jerusalem. King Solomon offered a dedicatory prayer before the altar and in front of the whole assembly (vs. 22-53). Afterwards, Solomon gave thanks that God had kept His promise to his father David.
The Temple was to be a place for God’s name. First, “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity…” Second, because God made the promise, “My name shall be there,” we know that God will “hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place” (vs. 29). Beginning with verse 31, there are seven petitions, of which today’s reading is the final petition. This seventh petition acknowledges that “there is no one who does not sin” (vs. 46). Solomon asks that the LORD would have compassion and forgive those who have been taken captive but then come to repent of their sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has come in the name of the Lord. God has promised compassion and forgiveness in His Son. With our prayer based on the merit and mediation of Jesus, the Father hears our prayer and forgives us our many transgressions. Just as the Father made the Israelites His people and inheritance, so now the Church has been made God’s people and inheritance through our baptism into Christ.
Collect: 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.
