1 Kings 8:57

Solomon knelt before the Lord to intercede for the people. Now he rises to bless the whole assembly of Israel. He praises God first because He has given rest to His people. That rest depends on the place the Lord has just entered, He Himself and the ark of His strength. The king declares that God has fulfilled His whole Word: "Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant" (v. 56). He offers his own words of intercession as a reason for God to bless His people. The result of that blessing should be "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other" (v. 60). It will all come true in Christ's thousand-year reign, and all this history, as we have often noticed, points us to it. But this blessing has one condition. The heart of Israel must be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in His statutes and keeping His commandments. Once again a legal condition, impossible for this failing king and people to meet — a condition Christ alone will fulfil!

Here is another striking feature. In his prayer Solomon goes back further than David, all the way to Moses. The more the people of God drift away from Him, the more faith returns to what was set up at the beginning. God's ways with His people may vary according to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness. 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.

For the time being, everything depended on the faithfulness of King and people. So Solomon pointed back, not to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but to those made to Moses when God brought Israel out of Egypt. God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob look forward to full and final blessing for Israel and for "all the families of the earth." They wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come and fulfil them.

"If you will walk in my statutes… I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel." The only condition God set for not forsaking His people was the king's faithfulness. All His blessing depended on meeting that condition.

God assures His people of His presence again. We need such a safeguard, even in times of joy, and it is always good! The time comes when the fresh bloom of truth tends to fade. If it is no longer a new thing, what will sustain a soul then? God Himself, in the sense that He is with us — in the sense of His will as alone wise and good and holy. There may be trial, difficulty and a thousand things our nature finds deeply repulsive. Even then, the sense of His presence supplies what is lacking and outweighs every apparent drawback. What can be missing when God is with us, and in perfect love?

In Hebrews 13:5 the writer quotes words spoken to Joshua (Joshua 1:5): "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He hands them on, as it were, to us. He then encourages the Christian to say boldly, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" He was faithful to Joshua, a military commander with heavy responsibilities. He was faithful to the widow and her child. We can trust Him to be faithful to us too.