Summary: Prayer in the Bible #14 | with Daniel Whyte III <br><br> TEXT: I Kings 8:22-24 <br><br> In our last message in this series, we covered the topic of how David was still before God in the Tabernacle. As you might remember, the context of that message was David's desire to build a Temple for God's presence to reside in. However, God informed David through Nathan the prophet that while his intentions were good, he would not be allowed to build the Temple. But his son, who would be king after him, would build the Temple. <br><br> Well, the context of our passage today is the fulfillment of God's words to David. Here, in this passage, we have King Solomon who has completed building the Temple in Jerusalem. On this great occasion, the children of Israel are gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the completion of the building of the Temple. <br><br> Verse one of chapter eight tells us that "Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month." <br><br> The Levite priests carried the Ark of the Covenant out of the tabernacle and into the newly built Temple. When they had set up the Ark in the Temple, the Bible tells us that a great cloud filled the Temple signifying God's approval of what Solomon had done. <br><br> Today, I want us to begin looking at Solomon's prayer on this occasion and the lessons we can learn from it. Because this is such a long prayer, Lord willing, we will continue to study I Kings chapter eight in upcoming messages. Today, we are covering the first 22 verses so that we can get an understanding of the background of Solomon's prayer. I have titled this series of messages "Great Expectations" because Solomon prays a great prayer to God, and he expects God to do great things for the nation of Israel.
