1 Kings 8:51

Solomon pleaded with God on this basis: the children of Israel were God's people, God's inheritance, whom He had brought out of Egypt (v.51). Though Israel's failures were great, Solomon was confident that God would not give them up. He had in fact separated them from all the peoples of the earth as His inheritance, and God would not let this setting apart come to nothing (v.53).

Those two figures, the "furnace" and the "lamp," sum up the whole of Israel's history. The first stands for those periods when they passed through suffering and trial. Think of the long period of Egyptian slavery, their subjection to the kings of Canaan, the Babylonian captivity, and their scattered and degraded condition today. In the burning lamp we have those points in Israel's history where the LORD graciously appeared to help them. He rescued them from Egypt by Moses, and brought them back from Babylon by the decree of Cyrus. Their final deliverance comes when Christ appears in His glory. The way to the inheritance runs through the furnace. The darker the smoke of the furnace, the brighter and more cheering the lamp of God's salvation will be.

In later days we find both Moses and Solomon speaking of Egypt as the "iron furnace" — see Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51. How fitting, then, was what this vision showed! God was in the furnace just as much as in the flame of the lamp. It might be easy to see Him in the bright shining of the flame, but not so easy in the smoking furnace. But it was the guarantee that He would be with Abram's offspring when they were in the furnace. Then, when the hour struck, He would lead them out with Himself as a pillar of fire at their head.

Joseph's story may lend Egypt a certain glory, but its real character is found only in the hard and bitter slavery of Israel. Deuteronomy 4:20 describes their redemption: "But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day."

The prayer of Moses rested on the character of God — a most important matter in true mediation between God and man. He pleaded for God's people because they were His, and because He had redeemed them and brought them out of slavery with His powerful hand. He pleaded because of His promise to the fathers, and because the nations might otherwise say that the LORD was not true to His word. And he pleaded because they were — despite their sin and stubbornness — His inheritance, since He had made them so. These were his arguments, and he used them while fully admitting how deep Israel's sin was.

There was a reason his windows were open toward Jerusalem. At the dedication of the temple Solomon had prayed for the people, in case enemies should carry them away captive to a land far or near (1 Kings 8:46-49). So Daniel was resting on the sure word of God when he prayed like this. The LORD had said to Solomon, "I have heard your prayer and your plea" (1 Kings 9:3).

We are His. If God brought Israel out of Egypt, the iron furnace, we are the subjects of a more wonderful and spiritual redemption. For Israel this was the first argument of the law; for us it is what speaks above all of His title to us.