Context & Key Themes
2 Chronicles 6 is Solomon’s dedicatory prayer — one of the longest and most comprehensive prayers in scripture. Solomon stands before the altar with all the assembly of Israel, spreads his hands toward heaven, and prays. He kneels. He addresses God as the keeper of covenant, the one who has fulfilled his promise to David. He asks God to hear when his people pray toward this house in every circumstance of their need: when they sin and are exiled, when they suffer drought or plague or defeat, when the foreigner comes and prays, when the soldier prays before battle. The prayer anticipates failure even at the moment of dedication, and asks for mercy in advance. It is the most honest prayer at the most glorious moment: acknowledging that what is being consecrated will eventually be used by a people who will sin against the one they are consecrating it to.
Key Verse
“Hear from heaven your dwelling place, and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind.”
— 2 Chronicles 6:30
Summary
Solomon speaks to all the assembly: the Lord said he would dwell in thick darkness. I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. He turns and blesses the assembly, then says: blessed be the Lord who has fulfilled with his hand what he promised with his mouth to David my father. He has chosen Jerusalem and chosen David to be over Israel. David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the Lord. But the Lord said: you may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war. It is your son who shall build my house. Solomon then kneels before the altar with his hands spread toward heaven and prays. He affirms that no house can contain the Lord, but asks that God’s eyes be open toward this house and that he hear the prayers of his servant and his people when they pray toward this place. He then intercedes for seven specific situations: when a man wrongs his neighbor and takes an oath, when Israel is defeated in battle because they have sinned, when the sky is shut and there is no rain because they have sinned, when there is famine, plague, or siege, when the foreigner comes and prays toward this place, when Israel goes to battle at the Lord’s command, and when they sin and are carried into captivity but in the land of their captivity turn back and repent and pray toward this place. In each case he asks: hear from heaven and forgive.
Reflection
Solomon’s petition on behalf of the foreigner is one of the most remarkable sections of the prayer: that even the non-Israelite who hears of the Lord’s name and comes to pray toward this house should be heard. He gives the theological reason explicitly: so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel. The temple is not built for Israel alone. It is built as the place from which the name of the Lord will be declared to all nations. The vision of the temple from the beginning is universally missional, not ethnically exclusive.
The petition for those carried into captivity is the most far-reaching clause in the prayer. Solomon, at the moment the temple is filled with God’s glory, asks God to hear the prayers of people praying from foreign soil toward a building they cannot see, repenting of sins that have not yet been committed. He is praying for the exile generations before they exist. The Chronicler’s original audience — the returnees from Babylon — are the direct answer to this prayer. They are the people who turned back and prayed toward this place, and the Lord heard. Solomon prayed for them at the moment of the temple’s dedication, four centuries before they were born.