1 Kings 8:60

The king acknowledges that God has fulfilled His Word completely: "Not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He spoke by Moses His servant" (v. 56). He presents his own words of intercession as a reason for God to bless His people. The result of this blessing should be "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other" (v. 60). Christ's millennial reign will make this real. All this history, as we have so often noted, is pointing us to it.

There are two great purposes God had in view in setting Israel apart as His own people. One was that there might be a testimony to the unity of God, and that He alone is the object of worship. "Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD." (Deut. 6:4.) "Therefore you are my witnesses," says the LORD, "that I am God." (Isaiah 43:12.) His other purpose was to show His own character through the prosperity of this people under His direct government. He would show it so clearly that all people might understand that "Blessed is the people to whom such blessings fall; blessed is the people whose God is the LORD." (Psalm 144:15.) The future reign of Christ will accomplish this purpose of God.

Over and over again the Holy Spirit repeats this all-important fact in chapters 43 to 46. No fewer than ten times He states it with force: There is none else! Israel's God is the only God! He "created" Jacob! He "formed" the nation! And though, like her father, she would be unfaithful and was called a rebel from birth (Isa. 48:8), yet He "redeemed" her! Indeed, He "called" her by her name; "you are Mine!" So she can bear witness not only against idols, but to the only God.

Solomon prays for the stranger, who comes in to share Israel's blessings and privileges, and even to pray in this house. The Lord said it was written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11:17). The few strangers who worshipped in that temple cannot be the full answer to what Solomon asked. The prophetic Spirit of God carried him beyond his own time, to the day when all Israel will know the Lord.

The stranger, outside the circle of the law, approaches God by faith and receives a full blessing.

So everything depended, for the time being, on the faithfulness of the king and the people. This led Solomon to point not to the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to those He made to Moses at the time of the great deliverance from 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." Their fulfilment waits for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament repeats such appeals over and over, but they did not keep Israel from disobedience. They needed what is revealed in the New Testament — a true knowledge of Christ and the value of His sacrifice.