For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.”
Solomon's long prayer at the temple dedication ends where Israel began: God brought them out of Egypt and set them apart as His own. When the people he prays for fail, that beginning is all he can plead — what God said "through Moses your servant."
Faith Goes Back to the Beginning
Solomon could have gone back only as far as his father David. He goes back much further, and one writer says why prayer tends to do that:
H. L. RossierAnother typical feature: in his prayer, Solomon goes back further than David, all the way back to Moses. The more the people of God go away from Him, the more faith returns to that which was set up in the beginning. The ways of God towards His people may vary according to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness. So a way of acting on God's part may suit one period of history and not another. But the counsels of God never change: His purposes are eternal. ... It is always so. In darkest times faith finds its refuge in "that which was from the beginning."
Grace, Not Law, as the Ground of the Appeal
Solomon prays in a kingdom built on the law, and he knows his people will break it. So his appeal reaches past the law:
H. L. RossierSolomon is a prophet here. He sees what must come upon this people under the law, for there is no one 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?
Separated to Be His Own Possession
Solomon's confidence does not rest on Israel's record. It rests on whose they are:
Leslie M. GrantSolomon pled with God on the basis that the children of Israel were God's people, God's inheritance, whom He had brought out of Egypt. Though Israel's failures were great, yet Solomon had confidence that God would not give them up. He had in fact separated them from all the peoples of the earth as His inheritance, and He would not let this sanctification come to nothing. God had spoken of this to Moses, and God will surely fulfil His Word.
Moses had prayed for the same people long before. God had called Israel Moses' own people. One writer shows how Moses answered:
C. H. MackintoshThe Lord had said, "your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt." But Moses says, "They are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out." This is beautiful beyond words.
A Position the Nation Never Valued
God had set Israel apart for Himself long before Solomon prayed. What happened next, in the nation and in the king himself, is the tragedy:
W. W. Fereday"You shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine" (Lev. 20:26). Faith in Solomon responded to this in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple. ... But the people did not value their distinctive place of separation to God, Solomon himself becoming one of the worst offenders in this.
Why God Separates a People
Being set apart could sound like a claim to be better than other people. One writer rules that out:
C. H. MackintoshGod's people are to be separated to Him. The ground of this is not that they are better than others. It is what God is, and what He would always have His people to be.
The Prayer Later Generations Borrowed
Solomon's appeal did not end with him. Long afterwards, Daniel prayed on the very same ground:
J. N. DarbyWhen Solomon dedicates the temple to God, he asks Him to always acknowledge it. He asks this according to God's principles of government, as God revealed them to Moses. Later the people sinned, and Jeremiah prophesied that there would be a special chastisement for seventy years. Daniel takes this up. He does not go back to the promises made to Abraham, but only as far as the words of Solomon and Moses.
Summary
- Redeemed — Solomon's whole case rests on the rescue out of Egypt. He appeals to grace, not to law.
- Separated — that rescue set them apart from every other people. The ground was what God is, never that they were better.
- Owned — that made them His inheritance. God would not let that come to nothing.
- Forgotten — neither the nation nor Solomon himself valued that place.
- Remembered — in the darkest times, faith goes back to the beginning. Solomon went back to Moses; Daniel went back to Solomon.