The Love That Speaks of Judgment

This passage covers Solomon standing before God after completing the building of the temple. Solomon prays, believing that since he has built the temple by his own efforts, God's promise will be kept. But God sets out a condition more important than the success of the temple building: to keep one's heart whole, as David did, and to obey God's statutes.

God warns that however beautiful the temple is, it can be destroyed if the people lose the heart of the covenant and disobey. This is a message of love, spoken not because he wants judgment to come, but to lead the people out of the place of sin and into the place of salvation. Yet while Solomon prayed for the sins of the people, he did not repent of his own sin, especially the matter of having foreign wives.

Through Solomon, who did not first look at his own sin but only demanded the promise, God shows that prayer offered without true repentance can instead become a warning of judgment. The sermon asks believers to examine themselves so that they do not grow proud, drunk on a sense of achievement, and to offer honest prayers.