that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
Solomon has just finished the temple, and he asks God to watch it night and day and to hear the prayers turned toward it. Why should God do that — and what does it mean for His name to rest on a place?
The weight of "My name shall be there"
Solomon's whole appeal leans on the name. One writer draws out what that name means to faith, and what Solomon knows both he and his people will still need:
H. L. RossierSolomon asks God that His name might be there. To faith, that name represents His very person. He asks God to hear from His dwelling place in heaven, when the king, His servant, and His people Israel turn toward His house. At the same time he expresses his feeling that both he and they will need forgiveness: "And when You hear, forgive."
A prayer God answered
The prayer is bold. Solomon knows that no building can hold God. Yet he asks God to answer every prayer made in this one.
J. N. DarbyThe king confesses that the highest heaven cannot contain Jehovah. Even so, he asks Him to grant every prayer that anyone offers to Him in this house. God granted that plea (chapter 9:3). So the house stood as the throne of the God of heaven on earth — the place where He revealed Himself, and where He had put His name.
More than Solomon asked for
Solomon asked for open eyes and an attentive ear. God's answer added something he had not asked for:
Michael VogelsangListen to God's answer to Solomon's prayer: "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place." And: "My eyes and My heart will be there for all time" (2 Chronicles 7:15-16). Not only My eyes and My ears, says the Lord, but also My heart is at this place where the saints gather to My Name. That thought can revive us in these last days.
The house on earth, the hearing in heaven
The next verse asks God to hear "in heaven your dwelling place." Why point to heaven, when God's glory had just filled the house?
James BoydThe cloud, the symbol of God's presence, filled the house, so that the priests could not stand to minister. One might have thought that heaven would no longer count as the place to seek and find Jehovah. But Solomon begs God to hear from heaven, "Your dwelling place," when anyone prayed toward that house. This is very instructive. Otherwise we might conclude that because God has a dwelling place on earth, we must look for Him there, as One who has abandoned heaven. We learn the same truth today. The Holy Spirit was clearly among God's people in the early days of the church, yet Stephen, while dying for his faith, looked steadily up into heaven and found all his resources there.
When the house is gone
Centuries later the temple lay in ruins, and Daniel still prayed toward Jerusalem. One writer explains why that was faith and not sentiment:
C. H. MackintoshJehovah had said of Jerusalem, "My eyes and My heart will be there for all time." So Daniel would not stop praying toward that blessed centre. The word of the Lord endures forever. Faith takes its stand on that foundation, which can never perish. There is an eternal freshness about every word that has come from the Lord. His truth holds good throughout all generations.
Where the principle lands now
One writer traces a line from the one chosen place to the smallest gathering today:
J. N. DarbyDeuteronomy 12 says that the people should bring their offerings to the place where He would choose to set His name. That had its definite fulfilment at Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:29). But now we know God in the blessedness of His presence, where two or three gather together in the name of Jesus. There Jesus Himself has said He would be in the midst of them. Sweet encouragement for the feebleness of His people!
Summary
- The name — Solomon's plea rests on what God had said: His name would be there. To faith, that name stands for God Himself.
- The promise — God granted the plea and made the house His throne on earth, the place where He revealed Himself.
- The heart — Solomon asked for open eyes and attentive ears; God's answer added His heart, there for all time.
- The hearing — people pray toward the house, but God answers from heaven. He has not traded heaven for a building.
- The reach — Daniel kept praying toward Jerusalem because God's word still stood. That same word now gathers two or three to the name of Jesus, and He promises to be among them.