Fri.’s Devo - The Dedication of the Temple

Read: 1 Kings 8:1-66; Acts 7:51-8:13; Psalm 129:1-8; Proverbs 17:1 Solomon dedicated the Temple in the month of Tishri. It was the seventh month on the religious calendar and the first month on the civil calendar. He did it at the Feast of Tabernacle which represents the month that the Lord dwells with his people. It will be the feast that Jesus will one day reign on the earth as our king. Solomon had the Ark of God’s Presence brought into the Temple. It was surrounded by a cloud of God’s presence which filled the entire Temple. Solomon stood before the people and offered a prayer up to God. He proclaimed that this was the altar of God and all could use it to have their innocence judged. If the nations sins and is being judged with drought, famine, or war, they can come to this place and present their case before God. If they repent, God will hear and forgive them and heal their land. Solomon blessed the Lord for giving them peace and being true to all his promises. Then Solomon offered 142,000 cattle as offerings to the Lord on the altar. He offered peace, grain, and burnt offerings to the Lord. After seven days of celebration, he sent the people home and they blessed the king and went home joyful and glad that he was their king. In Acts, Stephen was at the end of his sermon where he accused the Jewish leaders of killing all the prophets and now killing the Messiah. This infuriated the leaders. Stephen looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. He told them what he was seeing and they rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers’ took off their coat and laid them at the foot of Saul. As Stephen was being stoned he cried out for their forgiveness. Saul saw all of this and was fired up to kill more of Jesus’ followers. He led a campaign to persecute the Christians. The Christians scattered to escape and went to other towns sharing their faith in Jesus. Philip ended up in the city of Samaria and preached, healed and delivered many. A man named Simon lived there who made his living from sorcery. He was saved and began following Philip wherever he went. Lord, thank you that your altar is in us and we can come to you for mercy and deliverance anytime we desire. We pray that your Presence would fill us so that others might come to your glory.