Then said Solomon, The Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. 2 Chronicles 6:1-10 God dwelling in darkness Archdeacon Grant, D.C.L. His dwelling in darkness has a symbolical meaning. It tells us of the darkness in which Divine and spiritual things are enveloped. It conveys to us this truth — that only a certain portion of light is given us in anything, enough to guide the conduct but not enough to satisfy the reason; and it suggests, that if we will accept nothing until we satisfy the doubts that may be raised concerning it, we shall end in accepting nothing. I. IN REGARD TO GOD HIMSELF, ANY PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF HIM IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAN. The smaller must comprehend the greater, before man can comprehend Deity as He is in His absolute nature. This secrecy of God is one of the attributes and perfections of the Almighty. He who sees all and is Himself unseen must be the Creator. The words of the inspired writer contain a literal truth, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing." 1. Under this condition God has ever revealed Himself: to our first parents in the garden of Eden; to Moses in the bush and in the clouds of Sinai; to Elijah. He was present in each case, but could not be traced; revealed, but unseen. The answer of the old heathen philosopher respecting Him is the true one: "When I look for Him I find Him not, when I look not for Him I find Him everywhere." 2. Not otherwise was it in the Incarnation. A light in a dark place, and the darkness comprehended it not. "There standeth One among you whom ye know not." 3. It is the same with God's manifestation through the Holy Spirit. He has been, and is, a Presence and a Power in the earth, working wondrously but inscrutably. 4. As with the Person, so it has been with the Word of God; an obscure light, enough to try faith, not to gratify human speculation. Take, e . g ., prophecy. In its broad features the cast corresponds with the mould. But when we enter into details, the exact literal completion is difficult to trace. 5. It was the same with the parables of Christ. They were truth under a veil. 6. So it is in numberless instances of the deeper truths revealed in Scripture. II. Pass now to THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. It is a true idea that represents God as manifest in history, ruling the world in righteousness and justice. But immediately we leave this general truth and examine the case of particular nations or particular periods, what perplexity arises! Civilised nations falling back into darkness and degradation; eras of barbarism intervening; wars springing up and throwing a continent back fifty years in its progress; evil of all kinds permitted; wrong and injustice prevailing. "His way is in the sea, and His paths in the great waters." "His footsteps are not known." It would be easy to illustrate this in numberless other instances — in our individual lives; in moral science; in physical science. The lesson from all this is that all truth is beset with some obscurity, but must not be rejected on that account. "In this world there is little to be known but much to be done." It teaches us in matters of right and wrong, in matters of religion, to trust but little to our reason, but much to our inward consciousness, the instinct of conscience and the aspirations of faith. ( Archdeacon Grant, D.C.L. ) And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath with His hands fulfilled that which He spake. 2 Chronicles 6:4-11 The performance of God's promise J. Wolfendale. I. THAT GOD DEALS WITH HIS PEOPLE IN ALL AGES BY WAY OF PROMISE. Adam, Abraham, David. II. THAT THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS PROMISE IS A SOURCE OF JOY TO THEM. 1. In revealing God to them. 2. In the actual bestowment of good to them. III. THAT THERE ARE SPECIAL SEASONS TO TESTIFY TO GOD'S GOODNESS IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS PROMISE. 1. Conversion. 2. Restoration from sickness and danger. 3. Dedication of places of worship. 4. Times of special favour. ( J. Wolfendale. ) Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:6-9 David's intention to build the temple W. L. Watkinson. I. MAN'S PURPOSES ARE SOMETIMES GREATER THAN HIS POWER. Limitation of — 1. Character. 2. Body. 3. Culture. 4. Circumstances — want of means or liberty. 5. Destiny. 6. Life. II. THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF THESE GRACIOUS BUT UNFULFILLED INTENTIONS. Earnest purposes, sincere desires, are facts, and as facts will be recompensed. 1. They are facts to God. 2. They are facts to those who cherish them. 3. Unfulfilled intentions are not without their practical influence upon society. III. THE COMFORT WHICH THESE CONSIDERATIONS ARE CALCULATED TO AFFORD TO — 1. The poor and uneducated. 2. The suffering. 3. Those who are called to premature death. 4. All good men in the presence of their imperfect lives. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) The rejected service, but approved motive D. Davies. I. A REJECTED SERVICE. Here is a good man bent upon a service which he is not permitted to perform. It is an instance of a man's purposes outrunning the possibilities of his life. There are many reasons why a man should sometimes not be allowed to accomplish sell-imposed tasks, although they may be the outcome of very fine motives. There were reasons in David's life. David had been a man of war, and as such had shed human blood ( 1 Chronicles 22:8 ). There was an incongruity which God recognised, which had escaped David's attention, between shedding blood and building a sanctuary for God. Then, again, there may be some special hindrance in the age in which a man lives, or the circumstances by which he is surrounded, which makes the postponement of the work necessary. A man may live, as we say, before his age, he may project great purposes into human life, and yet God may say to him, "Stop, the motive is pure enough, and it is accepted as such, but the world is not yet ready; My providence must mature things, and we must wait." Again, there may be something in God's design — worldward: that design which includes time and eternity within the scope of its operation — which may put a veto upon any such scheme, his accomplishing tasks which are in themselves very praiseworthy, and which are prompted by pure and exalted motives. Now I have said that every man who has lived to a purpose must know some time or other what such a disappointment as this means. Why, this, book tells us that God has put eternity into a man's heart. God has put eternity into a man's heart; therefore the impulses of eternity, or the aims and purposes which take in eternity, are there. Man is not a mere creature of time: he strikes great outlines, not as the mere creature of time, but as one who is to live for ever. Thus, as long as it is true that God has put eternity into a man's heart, and has only put seventy years, or at most eighty or ninety years, into his life, there must be an overlapping of purposes and designs in relation to attainments in this life. It is impossible, therefore, that he should fulfil all his designs, or fill up the outlines of these plans, in a brief life. David was bent upon building a house unto the Lord: he was denied that privilege: but who will say that his life was therefore a failure? David, after all, was permitted to do a nobler work than building a sanctuary for God, great as that privilege would have been. He sang out the hymns which were destined to become the inspired psalter for all ages. Now, there are some men who escape these disappointments; but at what cost! The men who never aim at high things, who never strike the outline of any noble work; men who never allow the immortal spirit which is within them to design immortal things, and therefore things which can never be accomplished in a mortal life, doubtless escape these disappointments, but at the cost of degrading that which is noblest and best in their natures. II. THE APPROVED MOTIVE: "Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house for My name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart." Many a man would have said, "Ah, poor David, all the inspiration of a great purpose, all the patient planning, and all the earnest endeavour to accomplish the task on his part, have been useless. The Divine veto has put an end to all." Nay, not so. David does not occupy the same position Godward or manward which he would have occupied if he had never designed so devout and exalted a scheme. 1. It was well for David himself — well for his own soul that this thought took possession of it. Remember the circumstances. David had built for himself a house with cedared roof, but was then shocked with the thought of his dwelling in a palace while his God dwelt in the old tattered tabernacle of the wilderness. Surely that recoil itself was ennobling. 2. It was well, too, for David's outward, as well as his inner, life. While engaged in gathering materials for the temple, he was saved from doing things less worthy of his calling and position as the anointed of the Lord. While engaged at this work he had less disposition to engage in conflict with his neighbours. 3. It was also well that this was in his heart, because by gathering the materials for the building of the temple ha had furthered the object by preparing the way for some one else to finish the task.. 4. It was well, too, because, now that he knew that he himself would never be permitted to build the house, he would have an opportunity of exercising a self-denial which he would not have done if his had been the privilege of completing the task. Thus there was a spiritual blessing, an enriching grace, an ennobling providence in this denial. Now, we see this often in life. It is a law of human life that some men originate a work, and others accomplish it. There is nothing final about man's work on earth; we pick up the thread where other hands dropped it, and soon will drop it into younger hands than ours. God's designs cover millenniums. Look at daily life. There is a man who founds a house, or originates a business: a man who begins in a small room, and by dint of genius and perseverance, under God's blessing, so extends his business that it well-nigh takes up one side of a street. That man passes away. But he has had dreams greater than his accomplishment. Among his later thoughts was that something else might be done, but he was denied the privilege of giving embodiment to those thoughts. His son takes his place. Ah, and when the motive is never attained, still, if it be noble, it is not fruitless. There is that child overboard: a man leaps after it, but the storm rages and the ocean heaves and lounges terribly, so that the man at length fails to rescue the child. Who shall say that it was not well that he thought of it, and risked his own life in the noble endeavour? It is heaven that will supply the final solution, and it is the future that will crown the edifice of tasks unfinished in this our mortal life, although they were originated with high motives and far-reaching purposes. David entered eternity, not as a disappointed man, but as one who was inspired with an exalted aim that he bequeathed to a succeeding generation, whose noblest activities it set going. ( D. Davies. ) Pious purposes frustrated but rewarded S. Eldridge. I. THE LORD NOTICES THE PIOUS PURPOSES OF THE HEART. And here the following points require attention. 1. He is omniscient. "All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." "I the Lord search the heart." We judge by external manifestations, and know the tree by its fruit; but He understands our thought afar off. 2. The omniscient Jehovah approves the godly purpose. It is acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ, as it springs from faith and love, as it means glory to God and goodwill toward man. The Lord knows and approves your desire to serve Him, whatever obstacles may arise to prevent the fulfilment. "The desire of a man is his kindness," and is accepted as such. 3. He sees the effect of His grace. "From Him all good things do come." And where is the believer who will not gratefully own, "Thou hast wrought all our works in us"? We have no purposes which, in the sight of God, are godly, until a good work is begun in us; for, as depraved creatures, we are all alienated from the life of God. Our purposes are worldly and sinful. II. IT MAY PLEASE THE LORD, IN THE EXERCISE OF INFINITE WISDOM AND GOODNESS, TO DISAPPOINT US WITH REGARD TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF OUR PURPOSES OF SERVING HIM. 1. To impress us with the conviction of His independence. He is the "Lord God Almighty," who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Such dispensations of Providence may be appointed to teach the Church of God that its great Head, when He thinks proper, can dispense with the instrumentality we expected Him to employ. 2. Another reason for the Divine conduct in the case in point is to induce the spirit of submission and resignation. And can you say, "Thy will, my God, Thy will be done"? We naturally like our own way. Our "purposes are broken off," even "the thoughts of our heart." God thwarts us, not to grieve, but to teach us deference to His will. 3. We may add another reason why God takes away the young and useful, to prevent idolatry. III. IF THE LORD THUS PREVENT THE FULFILMENT OF THE PIOUS PURPOSE, HE TENDERLY SAYS, "THOU HAST WELL DONE IN THAT IT WAS IN THINE HEART." IV. GOD GRACIOUSLY REWARDS THE INTENTION, EVEN AS MUCH AS IF IT HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. It is our painful duty to charge the sinner to remember that God notices and takes account of his evil devices. ( S. Eldridge. ) The unfulfilled ideal Thomas G. Selby. A religious ideal may be defined as a product of sanctified imagination, and sanctified imagination may again be described as faith considered in its free, intellectual expression. An ideal is the outline picture of possible usefulness and success, conceived under the incitements of faith, hope, and love inherent in the new life. An ideal that is born of pure religious life, and not of mere worldly ambition, is a child of God's inspiration in the second degree of descent. Every Christian worker has his ideals. The ideals cherished by God's people vary with the requirements of the age. David's was to build a temple; ours probably concern the building of living stones into that peerless temple in which God shall be worshipped throughout all ages. The value of unfulfilled ideals is a lesson we all need to learn. Only a slight fraction of the zeal that promised so much at first ever seems to bear visible fruit. We see the ideals of fellow-labourers out short by the act of God, almost before they have touched their coveted tasks. The achievements of the best lives do not equal the measure of ardent aspiration, and God rewards for aspiration as well as for perfected deed. There are also ideals the secret of whose frustration is to be found in our own hearts. We had, perhaps, miscalculated our strength, or pride mingled with our ideals, and God was holding us back from their realisation till pride had been extinguished and faith and hope and humility had grown to proportions commensurate with the success He was about to give us. But we do not understand the meaning of God's delays, and so our ideals of work and obligation and evangelistic success have been relegated to the lumber-room and have been lying there in ignoble dust and dry-rot for years. A famous traveller has written a book to tell us how remunerative the abandoned goldfields of Midian may yet become. Some of the most productive silver mines of South America are mines that were worked by Spanish conquerors, forsaken for two and a half centuries, and are now being worked again. Boundless spiritual wealth and possibility lie hidden in the half-forgotten ideals of our youth and early manhood. I. THE INFLUENCE EXERTED BY THE UNFULFILLED IDEA UPON THE PERSONAL CHARACTER. It is just conceivable that religious life may exist without the help and influence of ideals, but it will only be marked by feebleness and insipidity. It will find its appropriate emblem in the dead-level of the prairie rather than in the towering majesty of the forest. The moment you give up your large ideals you cease to feel the necessity for large sacrifice, large heroism, generous self-forgetting toll. An ideal occupies precisely the same relation to religious growth and power that the faculty of imagination in the child does to the character and success of the after-man. Students of social science tell us that the education provided in the parish workhouse supplies no element to stimulate the imagination of the child, and that the little ones placed under the regime grow up dull, sullen, void of interest in everything about them, and without a single ambition to improve themselves. In the course of time, after every potential interest and aspiration is battered down and deadened, the child is turned into the world; and it is almost invariably found, after a few years of indolence, stolidity, and mild crime, the child returns to the workhouse to shelter its incompetency and approaching age. Let imagination be denied its proper function in the religious life, and the result will be to limit that life to a very low and abject plane. The professor of religion who is without an inspiring ideal is spending the life of a creeping, torpid, spiritual pauper. All our religious virtues gain or lose as our ideals of religious work are grasped or abandoned. There is a logical impediment to the growth of faith in the heart of the man who has given up his ideals. All faith is twofold in its action, personal and vicarious, and the one type of action can no more go on without the other than the systole can be separated from diastole in the action of the heart. Decay in the faith you exercise on behalf of the world will bring decay in the faith exercised on your own behalf. Hence it is that in genuine revivals of religion the sanctification of believers and the conversion of the ungodly always proceed by equal paces. An ideal, if deferred in its fulfilment, or even unfulfilled in the precise form in which you first conceived it, will be a perpetual fountain of health and prosperity to your own soul. Doubtless the whole character of David was raised and ennobled by the ideal he had so long cherished within his heart. If you cannot see the worth of your unfulfilled ideals, God, who traces their influence upon character, can; and if the inward ear were not heavy with the world's distracting babel, you would hear the testimony of His favour and approval, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." Never weigh against your moral and spiritual interests the temporal sacrifices you make for your ideals. II. These ideals MOVE THE MIND OF ALMIGHTY GOD. The ideal touches with some lasting impression the unforgetting God, and passes into one of the abiding motive-forces of the universe He governs to redeem. There is a spiritual doctrine of the conservation of energy which is the heritage of all the true people of God. When Providence puts its arrest upon the progress of our ideals, every fraction of the force lives on. Blessed doctrine of the conservation of energy! David held some clue to it when he exclaimed, "Are not my tears in Thy book?" Christ was recognising it when He spoke the words that immortalised Mary's love: "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." The writer of the Hebrews felt it when he exclaimed, "God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love which ye have showed toward His name." There is a God-moving force in our own keeping. How is power to be brought out and applied? It must be stimulated and increased by temporary delay. There is a danger of one-sidedness in the action of our ideals. They sometimes stimulate the power of work without stimulating at the same time the twin power of prayer. You thrust on this side, and smite on that, and accomplish nothing. God seems to confound you, and you are ready to give up all your ideals in your vexation and impatience. God wants you to drop the rude staff and take up the jewelled weapon of all-prayer. Again, when our ideals are postponed in their accomplishment it is that faith may be made perfect, and that we may cast ourselves more fully upon God. What frightful infidels we should become if we saw our ideals leap up to immediate completion at our mere touch as by a process of rapid tropical growth! You lose power over the mind of God when you begin to throw away your ideals. III. THINK OF THE INFLUENCE OF DAVID'S IDEAL UPON THE ACTUAL WORK OF ERECTING THE TEMPLE. David's ideal became the accomplished work of his successor. Your towering ideals of to-day, if grasped with fidelity and followed up as far as God permits, shall be a secured platform for the action of the next generation. Conclusion: 1. You should pitch your ideals high enough to make sure they will be called extravagant by all those in whose hearts is the love of the world, and not the love of the Father. Never mind how daring they are, if the pure love of God and men enters into their deepest essence. 2. Above all things try to keep pride out of them. 3. Having once formed your ideals, hold them fast. Some men sneer at the ideals of their youth, as if they were a species of wild oats they had been sowing, and not God-begotten and immortal seed. Do not be satirist where God is admirer, and set your small, cynical sneers at yourself over against His word of approbation. "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." ( Thomas G. Selby. ) And he stood before the altar of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 6:12-15 David's charge to Solomon fulfilled H. Cay. I. SOLOMON'S AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS EARTHLY FATHER. II. HIS REVERENCE OF HIS HEAVENLY FATHER. What sublimity and yet what humility is there evinced in this prayer of the king! Had he been an outcast like Manasseh, praying to God for restoration to his lost throne, he could not have humbled himself deeper in the dust. Listen to his lowly words: "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built!" etc . Who is this on bended knees and with bended heart that offers up these lowly petitions? A king? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a king. 'Tis Solomon in all his glory. True greatness is ever founded on humility. As it is in the natural world, so is it in the moral world — the higher the structure, the deeper the foundation. The lofty Alps, upon whose snowy head the stars of heaven seem to rest, have their foundations deep in the heart of the earth. Never was Solomon so exalted, never was he nearer heaven, than when on bended knees we behold him a suppliant at the footstool of God's throne. The highest rank, the loftiest genius, the most splendid crown, receive a double splendour from the grace of humility. ( H. Cay. ) Solomon's prayer J. Parker, D. D. The great proof of the blessing given to Solomon is to be found in the prayer which he prayed at the dedication of the temple. No man could have prayed that prayer without help. This we should have said about it in all honesty if we had found it in Sanscrit; if we had exhumed it out of Indian libraries, it would have been due to the author to have said, "You never dreamed that dream; it was a vision of God." Probably there is no such prayer in all literary records. If ever that prayer be excelled, it will be by the Son of God alone, and His excelling of it will be by contrast rather than by comparison. There is not a selfish word in it. It is not a Jew's prayer; it is a man's prayer. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? 2 Chronicles 6:18 The condescending God J. Harris, D.D. I. Let me call your attention to THE FACT OF THE DIVINE GREATNESS; because it is only in the view of that that we can be prepared to appreciate the Divine condescension. "Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee!" 1. What a view have we here of the immensity of God! We ourselves are among the stars, careering through space, myriads of miles distant now from where we were at the beginning of the service, but though perpetually changing our place in the universe, ever surrounded by His presence, and enclosed by His essence. 2. Equally awful is God's relation to duration, or His eternity. 3. Here is also a recognition of God's infinite supremacy. II. AND WILL THIS UNCONTAINABLE BEING ACTUALLY MANIFEST HIMSELF TO MAN? And here be it remarked there was but one religion in the ancient world that knew anything of a condescending God — but one — the Jewish. The so-called gods of Olympus could be mean, intriguing, self-debasing; but they had it not in their power to condescend. Morally, they had no height from which they could stoop. But the history of the Divine conduct, as recorded in the Bible, had been, from the first, a history of condescension. Look back to God's first act of condescension. Sin might have produced eternal silence. Yet it was to man, the sinner, that He took the first step in His career of condescension by speaking to him. Time rolled on; and though the depravity and guilt of man went on increasing, there comes before us in the text another stage in the Divine regard. He appoints a place for the symbol of His presence to dwell in, and where man might be always welcome to approach and commune with Him. This was a vast advance in the condescension of God. All this, astonishing as it was, was only preliminary. What if He should take our nature and make a temple of that! This, indeed, was an act beyond human conception. What! will God in very deed dwell with man — as man — upon the earth? III. Who does not feel the WONDERFULNESS of the Divine condescension? And what part of His conduct is not condescending? and what part of His condescension is not a wonder? Ascend to the first act — creation — for here the wonder begins. But all this, a man might say — much as it enlarges my views of the Divine condescension — all this I can believe. It relates only to His natural greatness. Low and limited as His creatures may be, they are not as yet supposed to have revolted, sinned. What might have taken place we know; and it is that which makes what He has done so amazing. Here the real wonder begins. That He should have stooped to ask for a hearing in a world filled with noisy praises of itself and its idols. IV. But THIS WONDERFULNESS OF THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION IS NO VALID OBJECTION TO ITS REALITY AND TRUTH. This is the very gist of the text, that, amazing as the conception is, it is yet a fact. 1. Let us not be told by a pretended philosophy that such a Divine interposition is out of all proportion to man's importance in the universe. The objection rashly assumes that the incarnation of the Son of God can have no relation to any other part of the universe; for if it have, the objection fails. His relation to our world, indeed, will always be specific and unique. But we can conceive of no world to which His incarnation and death for the redemption of our fallen race can be made known, without having their views of God enlarged, and their motives to holiness increased. As an affair of moral government, it is fraught with interest for all the subjects of God's universal empire. The planetary insignificance of the earth, the very circumstance which man makes a reason for disbelieving it, may be an element investing it, in the eyes of other worlds, with transcendent interest. They may behold in it only a further illustration of the principle on which God uniformly acts, of "choosing the things which are not to bring to nought things that are." They may see in it a designed intimation that there is no world, however insignificant — no islet in space, however remote — which shall not be filled with His glory. 2. Neither let a mock humility pretend that such condescension is too great for man's belief. The right point of view is not from the dust in which man is lying, but from the throne on which God is sitting. The reason of the whole is in God. Do you not see, then, that, wanting in wonderfulness, the Divine manifestation would have been wanting in analogy with creation and providence — wanting in the very means of authentication as a Divine act? It only stands in a line with other wonders. But the end to be obtained by it is incomparably greater. Creation and providence are but introductory and preparatory to it. 3. Nor let the mere formalist limit the displays of Divine condescension to the past. The ordinances of religion are with him memorials of past rather than means of present grace — tombs rather than temples. True, God has been in the past, and will be in the future, as we do not look for Him in the present. Looking back, Shekinah and vision are there, miracle, prophecy, and inspiration, an incarnate Saviour and a descending Spirit. We expect not now a repetition of such scenes. Looking forwards, we regard the future as stored with supernatural events. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." The history and the prophecy are only for limited times, the promise is for all time, large as the heart of God, and the fullest utterance of it. And is not every truly Christian Church a proof that the manifestation of God is still in process, and His condescension unabated? Wonderful as that condescension is, they can dispense with all formal proof of it. V. What, then, ARE THE MEANS OF SECURING THE DIVINE PRESENCE, AND THE EMOTIONS SUITABLE TO IT? ( J. Harris, D.D. ) The condescension, of God W. Cadman, M.A. The temple which Solomon built may be viewed as a type of the body of our Redeemer. It pleased Him to tabernacle amongst us. This is a truth that seems to enter into the very rudiments of our religious knowledge; and we are ready to give immediate assent to the truth that Jesus took our nature upon Him. The more we dwell on this great truth, the more inclined are we to exclaim with something like the astonishment of Solomon, "Is this true? Will God indeed dwell with men on the earth?" In order that our examination may have its full weight on the mind, and lead to profitable thought and action, I appeal — I. TO THE ANSWER THAT WOULD BE PROMPTED BY NATURAL FEAR. Think of the majesty of God — think of His holiness! The only thought which the fear of man's natural heart suggests when he hears of God visiting the earth is the thought of wrath and judgment. There can be no breathing freely in the presence of God when there is the sense of unpardoned sin on the conscience. II. TO THE ANSWER BROUGHT TO THIS QUESTION BY THE GOSPEL OF GRACE AND SALVATION. III. TO THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD'S BELIEVING PEOPLE. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him" ( Isaiah 57:15-19 ; Psalm 68:18 ). IV. TO THE HOPES OF CHRIST'S WAITING CHURCH. All that hath been manifested as yet of the Divine condescension and glory is but a sample of the manifestations which this world is destined to receive. V. PRACTICAL THOUGHTS SUGGESTED. 1. What would be our deserving if God were to visit us according to our iniquities? 2. Will you not seek to experience the wondrous grace of God our Saviour? ( W. Cadman, M.A. ) God manifest in the flesh R. Gordon, D.D. 1. The mightiest monarch of his time hesitates not to appear in the midst of his subjects in the attitude of supplication, to lead the devotions of his people and to put himself on a level with the humblest individual in the congregation of Israel. 2. That the exclamation of the text primarily referred to the permanent abode of the cloud of glory over the mercy-seat in the temple is evident from the circumstances in which it was uttered, but though the words had never been intended to be otherwise applied, there was enough of the Divine condescension manifested even in that dispensation to call forth the tribute of admiration here offered by the King of Israel. 3. Of the state of the heathen world, and of the propensities of his own subjects, Solomon could not be ignorant; and when he reflected how little the character both of one and the other corresponded with the forbearance which they had experienced, and the revelations of the Divine will by which they might have profited, he had good reason to stand astonished at the Divine condescension, and to say, "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 4. To what extent the mind of Solomon was enabled to foresee or understand the mystery of the Incarnation we do not venture to determine. But Christians cannot fail to perceive that if the whole

Benson Commentary 2 Chronicles 6:1 Then said Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. 2 Chronicles 6:1 . The Lord hath said he would dwell in the thick darkness — He has made darkness his pavilion; but let this house be the residence of that darkness. For it is in the upper world that he dwells in light, such as no eye can approach. 2 Chronicles 6:2 But I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling for ever. 2 Chronicles 6:2 . I have built a house of habitation for thee — It is of great consequence in all our religious actions that we design well, and that our eye be single. If Solomon had built this temple in the pride of his heart, as Ahasuerus made his feast, only to show the riches of his kingdom, and the honour of his majesty, it would neither have glorified God nor have turned to his own advantage. But he here declares on what inducements he undertook it, and they are such as not only justify, but magnify the undertaking: the reader will recollect that this whole prayer occurs 1 Kings 8., and that it has been explained at large in the notes there. 2 Chronicles 6:3 And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood. 2 Chronicles 6:4 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, 2 Chronicles 6:5 Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: 2 Chronicles 6:6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:7 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:8 But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart: 2 Chronicles 6:9 Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. 2 Chronicles 6:9 . Thy son, he shall build the house, &c. — Thus one sows and another reaps: and one age begins that which the next brings to perfection. And let not the wisest of men think it any disparagement to them to pursue the good designs which those that went before them had formed, and to build on their foundation. 2 Chronicles 6:10 The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:11 And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:12 And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: 2 Chronicles 6:13 For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven, 2 Chronicles 6:14 And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts: 2 Chronicles 6:14 . O Lord God of Israel, &c. — Solomon, in the foregoing verses, had signed and sealed, so to speak, the deed of dedication, by which the temple was appropriated to the honour and service of God. Now here in the prayer by which it was, as it were, consecrated, it is made a figure of Christ, the great Mediator, through whom we are to offer up all our prayers, and to expect all God’s favours, and to whom we are to have an eye in every thing wherein we have to do with God. 2 Chronicles 6:15 Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. 2 Chronicles 6:16 Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me. 2 Chronicles 6:17 Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David. 2 Chronicles 6:18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! 2 Chronicles 6:19 Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: 2 Chronicles 6:20 That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place. 2 Chronicles 6:21 Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive. 2 Chronicles 6:21 . Hearken to the supplication of thy people, &c. — He asks not that God would help them without their praying for themselves, but that God would help them in answer to their prayers. Even Christ’s intercession does not supersede, but encourages our supplications. 2 Chronicles 6:22 If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house; 2 Chronicles 6:22 . And the oath come before thine altar — By this it appears that the man who was to clear himself of any trespass, whereof he was accused, against his neighbour, by an oath, was to do it at the temple, before the altar of that God from whom he looked for the remission of his sins. 2 Chronicles 6:23 Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness. 2 Chronicles 6:24 And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; 2 Chronicles 6:25 Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. 2 Chronicles 6:26 When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; 2 Chronicles 6:27 Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance. 2 Chronicles 6:27 . When thou hast taught them the good way — Or, seeing thou hast taught them the good way, or instructed them in the knowledge of thyself, and of the worship and service in which thou delightest. 2 Chronicles 6:28 If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be : 2 Chronicles 6:29 Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: 2 Chronicles 6:30 Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) 2 Chronicles 6:31 That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. 2 Chronicles 6:32 Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; 2 Chronicles 6:33 Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. 2 Chronicles 6:33 . May know that this house is called by thy name — That it is truly the house of the Almighty Jehovah. Solomon knew that the goodness of God was so immense, that the extending it, how much soever, toward other people, neither would nor could lessen the exercise of it toward Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:34 If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; 2 Chronicles 6:35 Then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. 2 Chronicles 6:36 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; 2 Chronicles 6:37 Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; 2 Chronicles 6:38 If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: 2 Chronicles 6:39 Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee. 2 Chronicles 6:40 Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 2 Chronicles 6:40 . Now, my God, &c. — Solomon sums up all in beseeching God, that the prayers which should be presented there, for any blessing, of what sort soever it was, might be graciously accepted and answered by him. 2 Chronicles 6:41 Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. 2 Chronicles 6:41 . Arise, O Lord, into thy resting-place, &c. — Thus he concludes his prayer with some expressions borrowed from one of his father’s Psalms, namely, Psalms 132. The whole word of God in general, and the Psalms in particular, are of use to direct us in prayer: and how can we express ourselves in better language to God, than in that of his own Spirit? But these words were peculiarly proper and suitable to be expressed now, because they had a reference to this very occasion on which Solomon used them. And, in quoting them, he prays that God would take and keep possession of the temple for himself, and make it, as it were, his resting- place, where he would continue to dwell. Thou, and the ark of thy strength — Thou, in and by the ark, which is the sign and instrument of thy great power, put forth from time to time in behalf of thy people. Let thy priests be clothed with salvation — Let them be saved from their sins, restored to thy favour and image, and be encompassed on every side with thy protection and benediction. And let thy saints rejoice in goodness — Let them have cause of rejoicing and thanksgiving for the effects of thy goodness imparted to them. 2 Chronicles 6:42 O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant. 2 Chronicles 6:42 . O Lord, turn not away the face of thine anointed — Of me, who by thy command was anointed the king and ruler of thy people: do not deny my request, nor send me from the throne of thy grace with a dejected countenance. Remember the mercies of David — Those which thou hast promised to David, and to his house for ever. And thus may we plead, with an eye to Christ, who is called David, Hosea 3:5 . Lord, remember his merits, and accept of us on the account of them. Remember the promises of the everlasting covenant, which are called the sure mercies of David, Isaiah 55:3 . This must be all our desire, all our hope, all our prayer, and all our plea; for it is all our salvation. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Chronicles 6:1 Then said Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.