1 Kings 8:65, commentary and pictures

At the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem Solomon kept a feast before the Lord with all Israel gathered as a great congregation from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt. The observance lasted fourteen days, seven days and seven days, the time of the temple dedication being joined to the great national Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month when all Israel assembled. It centered on Solomon's long prayer of dedication, vast sacrifices of oxen and sheep with burnt, meat, drink, and peace offerings, music and incense, and the crowning visitation of the shekinah as God took possession of His dwelling, after which the people went home joyful and glad of heart. The joyful fourteen-day feast shows that the service God requires is not grievous or burdensome but joyful. The gathering gives the pattern for dedicating buildings, estates, and people to God with singing, prayer, Scripture reading, and consecration, while the turning of all eyes toward that typical sanctuary calls for eyes to turn just as earnestly toward the house not made with hands where the Mediator ministers.

Setting and Celebration

The verse belongs to the history of the undivided kingdom under Solomon told in 1 Kings 1 to 11, telling the same events as 2 Chronicles 1 to 9 in chronological order. Within that history special place is given to the building and furniture of the temple, the dedication prayer and sacrifices, and the divine answer to Solomon's prayer. The temple Solomon dedicated was built with two holy places and the same kinds of sacred vessels and ministry as the tabernacle. Its two-part design served as a pattern of the heavenly temple.

The dedication took place at Jerusalem in Solomon's glory and wisdom and belongs to his prayer at the dedication of the temple. It marks the period when he had subdued his enemies, organized his kingdom, and built the temple, and God greatly blessed his single-hearted devotion in that work. The lesson dates it to the eleventh year of his reign, about 1020 B.C., a month before the temple was fully completed. The interval between the temple's completion and its dedication allowed the ceremonies to coincide with the great national Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month. All Israel gathered and took part in the dedication at that feast before the Lord, in a fourteen-day celebration.

All Israel with Solomon formed a great congregation before the Lord, gathered from the far north at the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt in the south. The peace-offerings were eaten, and the great number of animals offered indicates the immense size of the gathering. The feast lasted fourteen days, seven days and seven days, rather than the usual seven. Solomon spent seven years building the temple and then held a seven-day feast as part of the fourteen-day observance at its dedication.

Solomon stood at the center performing acts of both kingship and priestly service. While the priests are mentioned as bearers of the ark, he offered sacrifices, prayed, consecrated the temple, and blessed the people. Afterward at the annual feasts he continued this union of king and priest by offering sacrifices and incense and appointing the priests to their duties. The dedication centered on his comprehensive prayer, the longest recorded in the Bible. God was pleased with this prayer and answered by fire.

Amid thousands of offerings consuming upon the altars, clouds of incense, instruments of music and singers, the glory of the new temple, a vast concourse of people, and Solomon's prayer came the crowning visitation of the shekinah as God took possession of his dwelling. His peace offering alone was twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep besides meat offerings, burnt offerings and drink offerings and the offerings of the assembled multitudes. This made it the most imposing religious service ever performed in this world either before or since that time. Afterward on the eighth day the people blessed the king and went to their tents, or returned to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness the Lord had shown to David and to Israel.

Meaning and Use

The fourteen days of feasting before the Lord show that the service God requires is not grievous or burdensome but joyful, for Solomon and all Israel with him, a great congregation from Hamath to Egypt, kept the feast seven days and seven days, even fourteen days, and on the eighth day the people blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness shown to David and to Israel. The gathering of that great congregation before the Lord for the dedication of the temple gives the pattern for dedicating an estate, buildings, and the people connected with them to God for His cause. Such a dedication is made with singing, prayer, Scripture reading, instruction founded on the Word of God, and a prayer consecrating all to divine control, entered into with solemnity and deep conviction that the Lord is pleased to accept what is given into His hands.

The dedication includes the longest prayer recorded in the Scriptures, with which God was pleased and which He answered by fire. As the eyes of all Israel at home and in foreign lands turned toward that typical sanctuary, so eyes and voices should now turn just as earnestly toward the house not made with hands, the true tabernacle where the Mediator performs the closing priestly acts, whose seen glory is so great that the half has never been told. The feast is another example of the prominence of the number seven in Scripture, in that Solomon held a seven-day feast as part of the fourteen-day observance at the dedication. He spent seven years building the temple and then held the seven-day feast at its dedication.

The congregation of Israel gathered with Solomon is called the assembly, showing that the Old Testament congregation of God's people was called by the Greek term ekklesia in the ancient Greek translation of Scripture. The detailed record that Solomon and a great assembly from throughout Israel kept the seventh-month festivals for fourteen days before the Lord does not prove that less frequently mentioned observances were neglected, for silence in the record is not proof of nonobservance. The festivals are thus recorded even though there is no recorded instance of observing the Day of Atonement, and the same holds for the Sabbath.