2 Chronicles 6 – Mishkan Daviyd

2 Chronicles 6 is Solomon’s prayer before all of Israel at the dedication of the Temple during Sukkoth. In Solomon’s prayer, he asks God several times to establish the Temple as a place where both Israelites and strangers alike could find Yehovah. When they realize that they have fallen far from Yehovah. There He would answer their prayer, grant repentance and a way back to God’s Kingdom.

2 Chronicles 6:1

¹Then said Solomon, Yehovah hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.

Yehovah dwells in thick darkness, not that it is dark for Him. It is for us.
Moses spoke of this after the giving of the covenant, Exodus 20:21.

²¹And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where Redeemer was.

It is described as a thick darkness because for many they cannot find it.
One must find it in the Spirit, something few of us can conceive.
King David describes it in Psalm 97:2.

²Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment the habitation of His throne.

It is described this way throughout scriptures, because many of us are far from the home where we belong.
To many it is a mysterious place. For one to find it, they must have total faith. When they do, the path becomes clears.
They then understand that it was the world that is dark with sin and rebellion.

For many it is not easily found, because many of us lack righteousness to be in His presence to know the way.
However, if we would observe Matthew 6:33. It would become clear.

³³But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these added to you.

2 Chronicles 6:2

²But I have built an house of habitation for You, and a place for Your dwelling for ever.

As was Solomon’s commission from his father David, he completed the Temple.
It took Solomon approximately 7 and 1/2 years based on 1 Kings 6:1:

¹And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Yehovah.

And 1 Kings 6:38.

³⁸And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

From the 4^th year 2^nd month of Solomon’s reign to the 11^th year 8^th month to build the temple.
It took 7 and 1/2 years to build the temple.
This is equal to the time David reigned in Hebron, 2 Samuel 5:5.

⁵In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

2 Chronicles 6:3

³And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood.

This begins Solomon’s prayer at the dedication.
Solomon blessed the whole congregations, 2 Chronicles 5:1-3.

¹Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of Yehovah was finished: and Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments, put among the treasures of the house of Redeemer. ²Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the Children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah out of the city of David, which Zion. ³Wherefore all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king in the feast which was in the seventh month.

They were all assembled in the feast of the seventh month.
Therefore, it was during the migratory feast of the seventh month, Deuteronomy 16:16.

¹⁶Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yehovah your Redeemer in the place which He shall choose; in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles: and they shall not appear before Yehovah empty:

This means that it was at least 11 months from the time the Temple was completed until it was dedicated.

2 Chronicles 6:4-6

⁴And he said, Blessed Yehovah Redeemer of Israel, who has with His hands fulfilled which He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵Since 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 a house in, that My name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over My people Israel: ⁶But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there; and have chosen David to be over My people Israel.

It was with Yehovah’s hands, meaning His power that this happened.
The Israelites did not posses the land or even Jerusalem on their own.
Yehovah chose Jerusalem and David.
David was a man after God’s heart, Acts 13:22.

²²And removed him, He raised them David to king; whom also He gave testimony, and said, I have found David of Jesse, a man after My heart, which shall fulfil all My will.

David has a heart after Yehovah. He was not perfect, but David’ heart was always for the people, forgiveness and mostly for Yehovah.

2 Chronicles 6:7

⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of Yehovah Redeemer of Israel.

It was David’s greatest desire to build a resting place for God, the Ark of the Covenant, 2 Samuel 7:1-3.

¹And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and Yehovah had given him rest round about from all his enemies; ²That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the Ark of Redeemer dwelleth within curtains.

His desire is expressed in Psalm 132:1-5.

A Song of degrees.¹Yehovah, Remember David, all his afflictions: ²How he swore to Yehovah, vowed to the mighty of Jacob; ³Surely I will not come into the Ohel of my house nor go up into my bed; ⁴I will not give sleep to mine eyes slumber to mine eyelids, ⁵Until I find a place for Yehovah, a habitation for the mighty of Jacob.

However, it was not to happen by David’s hand, 1 Chronicles 28:3.

³But Redeemer said to Me not build a house for My name, because you a man of war, and shed blood.

2 Chronicles 6:8-9

⁸But Yehovah said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in your heart to build an house for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart: ⁹Notwithstanding you shall not build the house; but your son which shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house for My name.

Solomon was to build the house of Yehovah.
Solomon was a man of peace.

2 Chronicles 6:10-11

¹⁰Yehovah therefore has performed His word that He has spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as Yehovah promised, and have built the house for the name of Yehovah Redeemer of Israel. ¹¹And in it have I put the Ark, wherein is the Covenant of Yehovah, that He made with the children of Israel.

Solomon oversaw the building of the Temple to Yehovah’s specification as given to David through the Spirit.
The Ark rested in the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

2 Chronicles 6:12-13

¹²And he stood before the altar of Yehovah in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: ¹³For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five ammahs long, and five ammahs broad, and three ammahs 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,

Solomon is standing on a scaffold the same size as the Altar of Burn Offerings.
The dimensions are 5 ammahs long by 5 ammahs wide by 3 ammahs high
Solomon is in front of the Altar; therefore, there were flames directly behind him.
Solomon spreads forth his hands and kneeled down.
This is what we all should do, 1 Timothy 2:8.

⁸I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Paul would have us all lift our hands up.
Paul would have us praise God with all our hearts as they did in the First Century Assemblies.
As for Solomon this is no surprise. Judah means one who praises Yehovah with hands stretched forth.

2 Chronicles 6:14-17

¹⁴And said, Yehovah Redeemer of Israel, no Redeemer like You in the heaven, nor in the land; which keeps covenant, and mercy to Your servants, that walk before You with all their hearts: ¹⁵You which has kept with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him; and spoke with Your mouth, and have fulfilled with Your hand, as this day. ¹⁶Now therefore, Yehovah Redeemer of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that your children take heed to their way to walk in My law, as you have walked before Me. ¹⁷Now then, Yehovah Redeemer of Israel, let Your word be verified, which You have spoken to Your servant David.

Yehovah, the one that keeps the covenant. To this day, every covenant Yehovah has made with His people He has kept.
Although many assume that only one covenant is in place today, all covenants that Yehovah has made are still in effect today. That includes the covenant of obedience, He made with our fathers.
Yehovah also made a covenant with David, 2 Samuel 7:16

¹⁶And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever.

God kept this promise by raising up Yeshua to sit at the righthand of the Father.

Solomon is clear that mercy comes to those that walk in Yehovah’s ways with all their heart.
Not that they have to be perfect, but that they strive continuously. We should never weary in well doing.

2 Chronicles 6:18

¹⁸But will Redeemer in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built!

Solomon was not foolish enough to think that Yehovah could be contained in a small building.
The thought that God could be contained in a box or even a thought is ridiculous.
Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 3:16.

¹⁶And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

One cannot understand God in all His glory.
Yet throughout time, man has attempted to explain God with their theories, rather than understand Him through relationship.
This the failing of many, God is beyond our understanding, it is a lifetime endeavor.

2 Chronicles 6:19-21

¹⁹Have respect therefore to the prayer of Your servant, and to his supplication, O Yehovah my Redeemer, to hearken to the cry and the prayer which Your servant prays before You: ²⁰That Your eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof You have said that You would put Your name there; to hearken to the prayer which Your servant prays toward this place. ²¹Hearken therefore to the supplications of Your servant, and of Your people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear You from Your dwelling place from heaven; and when You hear, forgive.

Solomon is about to do a fairly long and involved prayer.
He is framing his prayer with these remarks.
Solomon is asking Yehovah to give attention to his prayer.
And attention to those that pray towards the Temple to forgive them of their transgressions.

Solomon knows that the Temple is just a building, but it is a point of focus.
It is a place that God says He will inhabit. So when we find ourselves far from God, we can come to or look to the Temple as a starting point.

So many believers today are far from the home where they belong, 1 Peter 2:25.

²⁵For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

We were as lost sheep, we must return to where God is today. He is still in the Temple today, 1 Corinthians 6:19.

¹⁹What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

So many are confused by this statement. Too many have been taught that the body is the personal body of each believer; however, that is not the case. It is the body believers as in Ephesians 2:20-22.

²⁰And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yeshua Messiah Himself being the chief corner stone; ²¹In whom all the building fitly framed together grows to an holy temple in the Lord: ²²In whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

God inhabits the Temple, the Body of Believers.
This is an important concept. So many try to go it on their own and find that they desperately fail. It is in the body of believers that we find strength.
So again, we must return to the Temple, Body of Believers when we so desperate need help. That is our focal point today, where God resides on earth.
Solomon overall will ask forgiveness, not because He plans to sin, but he will explain as he continues.

2 Chronicles 6:22-23

²²If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before Your altar in this house; ²³Then hear You from heaven, and do, and judge Your 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.

Solomon is asking for equity in treatment. Too often, the righteous receive ill treatment, 2 Timothy 3:12.

¹²Yes, and all that will live godly in Messiah Yeshua shall suffer persecution.

Sad to say, the righteous have suffered at the hands of the wicked more often than not.
Mankind, including believers, does not look kindly to those that would defy their traditions. Even when, it is what Scriptures and God would have us do.

2 Chronicles 6:24-25

²⁴And if Your people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against You; and shall return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house; ²⁵Then hear You from the heavens, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.

Solomon understands the concept that we suffer at the hands of our enemies and many times it is our own fault.
Solomon also realizes that if we go too far, God’s people, Israel will be exiled from the kingdom in to a foreign land.
As many believers are today.

God does not protect an unrighteous people. If He did then that would make God partial by allowing His own people to practice unrighteousness. That would make God unrighteous; that will not happen.

Today as it was then, God disciplines us to bring us back, Hebrews 12:6.

⁶For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.

But God does not indiscriminately punish us, 1 Corinthians 11:30-32.

³⁰For this cause many weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. ³¹For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. ³²But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

We who think we can freely sin, God will take matters in His own hands.
He does this because, we are sons of God, Hebrews 12:7-8.

⁷If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? ⁸But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.

His reasoning for chastening is in Hebrews 12:11.

¹¹Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.

Unfortunately, many of us will not change until there is a pain associated with the sin. Still there are many who will not change, because of ignorance of their own actions.
But if one is willing to see their own rebellion and willing to repent, Yehovah will hear them and bring them back into the land, the Kingdom.

2 Chronicles 6:26-27

²⁶When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You; if they pray toward this place, and confess Your name, and turn from their sin, when You do afflict them; ²⁷Then hear You from heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon Your land, which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

When there is no rain, it means that the Spirit of God has departed.
Again this does not just happen, the people of God have drifted too far away.
Again, Solomon stated that they have sinned against Yehovah.
Again if we will repent, turn towards God and remember how we were taught to walk, He will send the rain.
Solomon is asking for forgiveness for future generations and clarifying the way back to God and His righteousness.

2 Chronicles 6:28-31

²⁸If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness: ²⁹ What prayer what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Your people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: ³⁰Then hear You from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; (for You only know the hearts of the children of men:) ³¹That they may fear You, to walk in Your ways, so long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

So many different things that could affect us.
When this happens, we should spread forth our hands as Solomon is doing now and pray to God at the Temple.
Although Yehovah may be on earth at times, Solomon knows that God’s dwelling place is in the Heavens. In the Heavens there is righteousness, on earth very little.
Solomon is not asking for special dispensation, he is asking for what our righteousness deserves.
Solomon would have one pray to realize their sin and once again walk in Yehovah’s ways.

2 Chronicles 6:32-33

³²Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of Your people Israel, but is come from a far country for Your great name’s sake, and Your mighty hand, and Your stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; ³³Then hear You from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for; that all people of the earth may know Your name, and fear You, as Your people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.

Solomon now prays for those not born of Israel.
Those that recognize Yehovah as the God of all creations, that He is our only redeemer.
If a stranger come from a far land that their prayers are answered and become native born. This is a shadow of future salvation for the nations.
That all the people of the lands, Israel and the nations, would know Yehovah and learn to reverence Yehovah.
That they would know where Yehovah resides, so that they too can comes and find life in Him.

2 Chronicles 6:34-35

³⁴If Your people go out to war against their enemies by the way that You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name; ³⁵Then hear You from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

If we are sent to war at Yehovah’s direction, if we will pray, He will maintain our cause.
For the only cause to fight is His cause that He supports.

2 Chronicles 6:36-39

³⁶If they sin against You, (for there is no man which sins not,) and You be angry with them, and deliver them over before enemies, and they carry them away captives to a land far off or near; ³⁷Yet they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray to You in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; ³⁸If they return to You 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 You gave to their fathers, and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name: ³⁹Then hear You from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people which have sinned against You.

There it is, there is not man that does not sin against Yehovah. John reminds us in 1 John 1:10.

¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

The problem is we sin all too often. Far more than many of us realize or are willing to admit.
Throughout history, man has excused their sin. As many do today, by declaring that God’s law has been done away with.
The truth is there is no excuse for sin, the standard is clear.
We just do not want to face it, the Bible.
It is a lifetime endeavor to overcome sin at any level.

In this case these have gone too far and their enemies have carried them to a foreign land.
If we repent in the foreign land, Solomon is asking for God to hear them and maintain their cause.

Even today many of us are in a foreign land, it is called Babylon.
That is why the call of today is Revelation 18:4.

⁴ And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, That you be not partakers of her sins, And that you receive not of her plagues.

We need to return to the land that is ours today.
The land where the Temple of God is. It is found in the Body of Believers that pursue God with all their heart and soul. Those that are leaving Babylon behind and worship like those in the First Century.
Who when faced with the truth of scriptures do not make excuse but carry out the word immediately.
A place where God’s power is overwhelming in these last days.

2 Chronicles 6:40-42

⁴⁰Now, my Redeemer, let, I beseech You, Your eyes be open, and Your ears attentive to the prayer in this place. ⁴¹Now therefore arise, Yehovah Redeemer, into Your resting place, You, and the Ark of Your strength: let Your priests, Yehovah Redeemer, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness. ⁴²Yehovah Redeemer, turn not away the face of Your anointed: remember the mercies of David Your servant.

Solomon’s prayer is one of Hope.
That no matter how far we find ourselves from Yehovah, there is a place we can turn to.
That place is where God dwells among His people.
It is not just any place, it where the believers are united as the body to the one Head, Ephesians 4:15-16.

¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, Messiah: ¹⁶From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplied, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.

We all need to find this place.
It is where we grow in His Temple, the one built upon Ephesians 2:20.

²⁰And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yeshua Messiah Himself being the chief corner stone;

We must be sure that the body, we are in is based on the words of Yeshua and His apostles and prophets.
Too many today, base their faith on someone who came later. So many follow the church fathers or some doctrine not based in the lives of the Apostles that Yeshua commissioned.
We need to find that Body, that is where He dwells. That is where, we can be granted repentance and return to the Overseer of our souls and find rest.

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