yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’
Solomon is dedicating the temple. In the middle of the celebration he looks ahead to the worst thing that could happen to his people: defeat, exile, and life in an enemy's land. This verse is the turning point of his long prayer. It asks what a ruined people can still do, and gives the answer: a changed heart and an honest confession.
The Turn From Law to Grace
Solomon has just said that there is no one who does not sin. He then treats captivity as the end of the road for a people under law. Even so, he finds something left to appeal to.
H. L. RossierVerses 46-53 mention the end of their history as a responsible people. They are led into captivity because of their sin. Solomon is a prophet here. He anticipates what must necessarily come upon this people under the law, for there is no man who does not sin. Yet a resource still exists. The house is there, and God cannot deny His promises. Solomon does not refer to the law, but to grace. By pure grace the God of the promises had saved His people from Egypt. Could He deny this grace, even under the system of law? They are His people; shall God abandon them? No — if in repentance they turn toward the land, the city, and the house, God will listen to them.
Words a Proud Heart Will Not Say
The confession Solomon gives them piles up three admissions with no excuse attached. One writer has no doubt Israel will say these words one day, and names what has to break first.
Leslie M. GrantThere is no shadow of doubt that Israel will do this one day, though centuries have passed since they were scattered through the world. The pride of man's natural heart is so great that he keeps up his rebellion against God even while going through the forms of religion. But in the end the Great Tribulation will break down their arrogant pride, so that they make such a confession.
Repentance Where There Is No Temple
The repenting happens far from home — in the land of the enemy, with the temple out of reach. So the prayer points past the building to God's own dwelling place.
The Bible TreasuryThe Holy Spirit through His inspired instrument gives this repeated cry: "Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place." It teaches the broken and humble to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. It is a gracious hint for the last and closing days of the people's long captivity. They are in a far country with no access to the temple. Every outward mark that they are still the chosen people of God is gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Daniel's Open Windows
Centuries later Daniel, an exile in Babylon, prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem. One writer explains what he was standing on.
Edward DennettThere was a reason his windows were open toward Jerusalem. Daniel was resting on the sure word of God when he prayed this way. The Lord had said to Solomon, "I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me" (1 Kings 9:3).
A Promise Not Yet Finished
Commentators read this part of the prayer as still reaching forward to our own day.
Leslie M. GrantThis section (verses 46-53) bears directly on Israel's condition today. They have sinned terribly against God by rejecting His beloved Son, and so they have been carried away into other lands. Solomon likely did not realise that a dispersion would last for centuries, as it has.
The king who prays here is only a faint picture of someone greater.
H. L. RossierSolomon himself is only a weak picture of the true King, the true Servant of the Lord. Christ's intercession causes God to receive this people anew. He will restore them for the glory of Him who made the promises and for the glory of His Beloved.
The Sentence That Includes Everyone
Solomon's words about sin are not about Israel only. One writer takes them as a picture of the whole human race, and then points to the cross.
J. T. Mawson"There is no one who does not sin," said Solomon, as he knelt and stretched out his hands in prayer to Almighty God. Above that whole crowd of sinners stands a cross. Jesus went to that cross. On it He bore our sins in His own body; there He was wounded for our transgressions.
Summary
- Cause — Captivity comes from sin, and Solomon assumes it will happen, because no one is sinless.
- Turn — The one thing left to a ruined people is a changed heart and an honest confession with no excuse in it.
- Reach — God hears from heaven, so distance from the temple is no barrier; the far country is close enough.
- Proof — Daniel prayed on this promise in Babylon, resting not on the ruined building but on God's word about it.
- Result — Forgiveness and restoration. Commentators see this as still ahead for Israel, and the cross secures it for every sinner.