Tuesday after Populus Sion, The Second Sunday in Advent

7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house. 12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him:

“I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

13 “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

17 “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.'”

King Solomon is given the same promise that his father, King David, received: that the throne would not lack a man from his household to sit on the throne forever. King Solomon is given a warning, however, that if he does not remain faithful to the Lord God—if he chases after false gods—they would be cast from his sight. King Solomon did not remain faithful, but was drawn away into the false worship of his many wives. Many of his descendants followed in his example, worshiping false gods.

So it is with all of us. We are unable to keep the commands of the Lord God. On account of our sin we deserve His eternal wrath and displeasure; we deserve to be cast from His sight. For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man. The Lord God establishes the Kingdom through His Only-Begotten Son, by having Him take on our flesh, live as we do, and endure our trials and temptations. He did all this so that through His work and merits the Law might be fulfilled and our punishment paid for on the tree of the holy cross.

Through faith in His works and merits we now share in that eternal Kingdom. We are made co-heirs with Him who sits on the eternal throne reigning forever. We therefore also share in the blessings He won for us—forgiveness, life, and salvation—for all eternity.

We pray: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Thine Only-Begotten Son, so that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Thee with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.