“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,
Solomon has already prayed about famine, drought and defeat. Now he pictures his people marching out to war, far from the temple, and turning back in prayer toward the city God chose. Two questions follow. What makes a battle one God will back? And why should the direction a person faces in prayer matter?
The battle God sends
Solomon does not pray for any war Israel might pick. He ties the prayer to one phrase: "by whatever way you shall send them." One writer draws out what Solomon leaves unasked.
Leslie M. GrantIf God should send Israel to battle against their enemies and they would pray toward Jerusalem and the temple there, then Solomon asks that God would hear and answer their prayer, and maintain their cause. Notice that he does not pray for this if Israel went to battle without God's direction. We can expect God's blessing only in God's way.
A people willing to fight
Most of Solomon's prayers here assume failure. This one does not.
H. L. RossierHere (vv. 44-45) we do not find the failings of the people. We find Israel acting according to the will of God, led by that will to go to war against her enemies. This is a remarkable fact. After the nations have acknowledged the God of Israel, Israel herself will be a people willing to fight the enemies of the Lord. From then on the house will be the centre of blessing and strength for the people.
Why the prayer expects trouble
Solomon had splendour, wisdom and power. Yet he kept expecting trouble. One writer sets this prayer beside the prayer of Jesus in John 17, and lists danger in war as the fifth trouble Solomon named.
W. W. FeredayHowever favoured and glorious Solomon might be, Solomon was not Christ. The contrast between the prayers in 1 Kings 8 and John 17 is great. Both prayers were spoken in Jerusalem. Solomon was surrounded by splendour. He had wisdom and power that no king before him had. Yet he felt that stability had not yet come. So his prayer is full of the trouble he expects to come... (5) Danger in war (verses 44-45).
The city He chose
The verse rests everything on God's own choice of the city and the house. One writer shows what that choice made possible, and then warns Christians against copying Israel's practice.
William KellySolomon, then, struck the right note when he touched this great point of God's choice. God had taken this house to dwell in, and so, he shows, people could always pray to Him — always look to Him in every trouble. Whatever the sin or the trouble, personal or national, God was there for them to pray to. And so Israel did. Even when they were out of the land, they looked to it as a witness of this great truth. But think of the folly of Christians taking up such things... No, we belong to heaven, and we look there if we look anywhere.
Daniel's open window
Centuries later Daniel still prayed toward Jerusalem, when the city and the temple lay in ruins. One writer asks whether Scripture gave him any reason to.
C. H. MackintoshBut the great question remained: "What does the Scripture say?" Was there any divine reason for Daniel to pray toward Jerusalem? Yes, there was! First, the Lord had said to Solomon, about the temple at Jerusalem, "My eyes and my heart will be there for all time." Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and it always will be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins. That is faith's simple but solid ground.
The centre now
Where do God's people gather now? One writer moves the centre from a building to a name.
W. T. P. WolstonGod's house in Jerusalem was then the gathering place of His people. There they were to pray in days of difficulty. Now the house of the Lord is the assembly, and its gathering centre is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today you and I have a wonderful privilege. We can bring before God all that concerns Him, in the name of His own blessed Son. And we can be sure that He will hear and help.
Summary
- Sent — Solomon prays for the battle God sends His people into. He does not pray for a war they pick themselves. Blessing comes only in God's way.
- Chosen — the whole appeal rests on God's choice of the city and the house. Because God dwelt there, His people could pray to Him in any trouble, personal or national.
- Willing — here Israel is not failing but obeying. The house is their centre of blessing and strength.
- Distant — distance changed nothing. Jerusalem lay in ruins, but God's word did not, and Daniel still prayed toward it.
- Christ — Solomon was not Christ, and his prayer keeps expecting trouble. The gathering centre now is the name of the Lord Jesus. In that name we bring everything to God, sure that He will hear and help.