2 Chronicles 6:10
Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
Sermons
God Dwelling in DarknessArchdeacon Grant, D.C.L.2 Chronicles 6:1-10
The Dedication of the Temple: 2. the Address of SolomonT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 6:1-11
The Performance of God's PromiseJ. Wolfendale.2 Chronicles 6:4-11














David did well in that it was in his heart to build a house for the Lord. The purpose of his heart, though it "lost the name of action," was acceptable to the God he served. Almost everything, in the estimate of him who "trieth the reins and the heart," depends on the motives by which we are inspired. Hence we may speak of -

I. THE WORTHLESSNESS OF SOLOMON'S EXECUTION apart from the excellency of his motive. That building now complete (at the time of the text) was very grand, very costly, very beautiful; it was very elaborate in its workmanship; it was very complete in all its parts; it lacked nothing that treasure and time, that skill and strength, could furnish. But, supposing that Solomon had done everything with the one desire to signalize his reign over Israel, his execution would have counted for much among men, but it would have weighed nothing at all with God. It would not have advanced him by one step in the favour of the Most High. We need not, however, think that Solomon was devoid of a sincere desire to magnify Jehovah's Name. He said that he had "built the house for the Name of the Lord God of Israel" (ver. 10); and this prayer of dedication, adopted if not composed by him, is indicative of a reverent as well as a patriotic spirit (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

II. THE WORTH OF A TRUE AND PURE DESIRE. God was pleased with David that he wished to build him a house; he "did well in that it was in his heart."

1. It is our motive that makes our action to be our own. Another may command our speech or our action, our tongue or our hand; but we are masters of our own thoughts; our desires and purposes are our own. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (see Mark 7:21, 22; Matthew 26:12, 41).

2. There is an ascending scale in our motives, reaching from the very low to the very high. Men may have enough of the Satanic in them to be actuated in their conduct by absolute vindictiveness or even a positive delight in the misery and ruin of their neighbours; at the other end of the scale they may have enough of the Divine in them to be inspired by pure magnanimity, by a wish to befriend those who have done them injury (Matthew 5:45). Very high up in this scale stands the motive of desiring the glory of God, longing for the coming of the kingdom of Christ, an earnest wish to do something for his exaltation. And though the voice may be too feeble to speak any words that men may care to listen to, though the hand may be too weak to strike any blow that will shake the walls of iniquity, yet the very wish to do something for Christ, the prayer, "Make use of me, my God," weighs much in the balances of Heaven. It may be a pure desire to give of our substance to the needy, or to go forth to comfort some stricken heart, or to take a class in a ragged or a Sunday school, or to enter the ranks of the Christian ministry, or to do work in the foreign field. In Christian homes, in every land, there are hearts that sincerely and even ardently desire to serve their Saviour and to be a blessing to their brethren; but there intervenes some forbidding word of God, some frustrating providence of his. The purse is emptied, or health fails, or home duties suddenly assume a new form or take much larger proportions; and God says, "This is not for thee." But the desire is accepted; the purpose of the soul is taken for the deed; it is chronicled in the hooks of Heaven, "Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart."

III. ITS EFFECTIVE VALUE. When the pure desire of the true heart is not granted, it does not follow that it is without effect. Certainly it was not so in David's case. This desire of his heart, expressed to God but not granted by him, had very much to do with the ultimate result. It led to the Divine permission and direction extended to Solomon; it led to Solomon's personal aspiration and resolution; it led to the preparation and storage of many valuable materials. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the temple was the work of David as much as of his son; for he who originates the idea and inspires the people with his thought is as effective an agent as he who executes it. And many, since then, in the kingdom of Christ have succeeded where they seemed to fail; many a lonely and, apparently, unblessed worker for his Master, both at home and abroad; both in the haunts and slums of some great city here, or in the depths of India, or in the heart of Africa, or in the midst of the idolatry and iniquity of China, or amid some island population; - many such have gone home with no reward in their hand, unable to point to the gathered fruits of their toil and patience; and yet their unaccomplished efforts have been a precious and powerful inspiration, moved by which others have followed in their track, like Solomon in David's, and have built the edifice, have wrought the work, in the Name and in the strength of God. The finished work is, in some real sense and perhaps even in a large degree, the fruit of the good thought "in the heart" of him whom no one regards as its author. We do more than we know when we think and feel in the spirit of our Lord. - C.

Then said Solomon, The Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.
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.)

People
David, Solomon
Places
Egypt, Holy Place, Jerusalem
Topics
Build, Built, David, David's, Establish, Established, Fulfilled, Kept, Kingdom, Performed, Promise, Promised, Raised, Rise, Risen, Room, Seat, Sit, Spake, Spoke, Spoken, Stead, Succeeded, Temple, Throne
Outline
1. Solomon, having blessed the people, blessed God
12. Solomon's prayer in the consecration of the temple, upon the bronze platform.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 6:10

     5581   throne

2 Chronicles 6:3-11

     8638   benedictions

2 Chronicles 6:4-11

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment

2 Chronicles 6:7-11

     1035   God, faithfulness

2 Chronicles 6:10-11

     1351   covenant, with David

Library
December the Eighth Judged by Our Aspirations
"Thou didst well, it was in thine heart." --2 CHRONICLES vi. 1-15. And this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood and stone. And God took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Eleventh Lesson. Believe that Ye have Received;'
Believe that ye have received;' Or, The Faith that Takes. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.'--Mark xi. 24 WHAT a promise! so large, so Divine, that our little hearts cannot take it in, and in every possible way seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable; instead of allowing it, in its quickening power and energy, just as He gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

Sanctification.
VI. Objections answered. I will consider those passages of scripture which are by some supposed to contradict the doctrine we have been considering. 1 Kings viii. 46: "If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near," etc. On this passage, I remark:-- 1. That this sentiment in nearly the same language, is repeated in 2 Chron. vi. 26, and in Eccl.
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate,
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Entire Sanctification
By Dr. Adam Clarke The word "sanctify" has two meanings. 1. It signifies to consecrate, to separate from earth and common use, and to devote or dedicate to God and his service. 2. It signifies to make holy or pure. Many talk much, and indeed well, of what Christ has done for us: but how little is spoken of what he is to do in us! and yet all that he has done for us is in reference to what he is to do in us. He was incarnated, suffered, died, and rose again from the dead; ascended to heaven, and there
Adam Clarke—Entire Sanctification

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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