My eyes and My heart will always be there
1 Kings 9:2-3, “The Lord appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. The Lord said to him: ‘I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple which you have built, by putting My Name there forever. My eyes and My heart will always be there.” (NIV)
Gibeon, at the time, was the most significant high place. It was where Solomon offered great sacrifices to the Lord. It is here, after offering sacrifices, that he had a dream where God told him to ask for whatever he wanted and he asked for wisdom and discernment for leading the Lord’s people. (1 Kings 3:5).
So the Lord appeared to Solomon in another dream encounter. We know that his first dream encounter was powerful and changed his life. It was the meeting place in his heart where he discerned his purpose and received an anointing and blessing from the Lord to lead the people of God with great wisdom and justice.
Having experience of the power of this kind of encounter already in his past, I imagine Solomon had all the more faith to believe God for the consecration of the temple where, it would not only be a place named to the Lord, but the Lord would put His Name there in covenant promise of His glory and power.
We see this kind of glory pour out when the temple was consecrated to the Lord. The glory so overflowed the place that the priests could not enter. The weightiness of the glory was stronger than the people’s physical presence. It had weighty substance that was more tangible and real than the people who wanted to enter. As a result, they bowed down around the temple on the pavement with their faces to the ground. The Lord had literally filled the temple with the train of His robe.
It reminds me some of once with my first pastor (who later died of cancer) at a woman’s conference. It wasn’t that weighty that we could physically feel it but it rolled in like billowing smoke across the ground and overtook the place. When she went up to preach, she just stood there for a few minutes looking at everyone. People had started sobbing in their seats. They were overtaken with a spirit of repentance and then came running up to the altar at the front repenting. She never spoke a word or laid hands on anyone. The Holy Spirit literally took over the service.
With my second pastor (who is retired), there was a period of the outpouring of the glory of God at our church but it was different. It was not visible or seen. It was more like the splitting of the sea where all the people started crossing over. People poured in the doors to encounter God. And they were being physically and emotionally healed as wave after wave of His presence swept through and overtook us with grace.
With Solomon’s temple, we know that while the cloud of the glory of the Lord rested there for a period of time between the cherubim; it eventually dissipated and ultimately the glory departed (Ezekiel 11:23). Ultimately the temple was desecrated and destroyed as the Israelites were taken out of the land. In 2 Kings 25:8-10 it says that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia entered Jerusalem and burned down the temple as he took the people captive.
So given that God so powerfully answered Solomon’s prayer in the first dream with him asking for wisdom, why does it seem that he doesn’t fully answer this prayer request in the second case? Why does it seem to fall short? We know that God never falls short on any of His promises but does abundantly above what we could ask or imagine.
One thing I noticed, is that the glory left as the people turned to idols and stopped putting God as central in their lives. Solomon became unfaithful with his many wives, him and the people turned to idolatry, and they stopped tending the fire. There is a sacrifice in not only obtaining it, but maintaining it.
Also, this is the weird part, we see that a pouring out of the glory does not necessarily result in greater faithfulness to the Lord. Sometimes it seems to result in greater spiritual attacks that may lead to pride, division, and unfaithfulness of the leaders responsible. People experience freedom but maintaining one’s devotion becomes harder while people experience revival.
From the Bible, we see that reformation is different than revival. I love revival where God seems to overtake the service. I love to see waters part and people healed and delivered, set free from bondages and walking in freedom. It feels like revival is a taste of heaven. It is an encountering of God and Him resting on a place over a group of people for the purpose of them experiencing Him in a greater measure.
Reformation is where people turn from sin and walk into greater holiness. Rather than encounter His glory in a cloud pouring out, there is an underlying rumbling of glory that aligns people to His purpose and will. They hunger for His word and to serve His purposes in reformation. Like John baptizing people, reformation prepares the way for the Lord and leads to repentance and transformation.
Josiah was a time of reformation. While they were repairing the temple with the funds that were given, the High Priest, Hilkiah, discovered the Book of the Law. Josiah proceeded to implement sweeping political, economic and social reforms that changed the direction and resulted in peace during His lifetime.
Also with Ezra, we see reformation. As he fasted and prayed for the people, it led them to repentance and ultimate change in behavior. They wept, gave up their foreign wives and began living according to the ways of the Lord again.
In the New Testament, we see both clearly coming together. There was a reformation that was happening where people were learning to live by the very Words of God. They were hungering for the truth and for His ways of holiness, and also experiencing incredible miracles in the midst of it. Jesus said Himself to send back word to John that miracles were happening while the good news was preached to the poor. The Lord did not give miracles to those who demanded them, and did not want people to seek after Him because of miracles, but He did come with great power and mercy for those who needed them and asked.
Jesus then later tells his disciples, “I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power!” ( Mark 9:1) Commentary notes, “Possibilities include the transfiguration (which immediately follows), the resurrection, the ascension (Acts 1:6–11), Pentecost (Acts 2:1–13), or just the growing mustard seed of the expanding church (Mark 4:30–32).” [1]
In all these cases, the Kingdom of God became evident in the natural realm. What was unseen, became tangible and present. When we become born again, we can see the Kingdom of God as it becomes visible to us (John 3:3). Jesus said that as He cast out demons by the Spirit of God, that the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Matthew 12:28). One author notes, “The kingdom of God is something you and I can see and experience right now. The Kingdom of God is everything over which Jesus presently rules.” [2]
We see with the Jesus people movement that when the Kingdom of God came, it brought both revival as well as reformation. The young people turned away from drugs and towards God. They became hungry for His Word and to follow His ways. As they surrendered up everything else, the power of God also moved among them and brought healing and deliverance.
Coming back to the initial verse, as God is always faithful to His promise, His promise was bigger than Solon’s temple. The temple itself was a shadow of what was to come. We know that the real temple is in heaven (Hebrews 9:24) where Jesus resides and makes intercession for us as our Great High Priest. He opened up the Kingdom of God to us by His very own blood.
We are also the temple of the Lord (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). As such, He has consecrated us to Himself by giving us the Holy Spirit. We are not people who are striving to be holy, but we are infilled with holiness. His presence and His Name are sealed upon us for all eternity as we accept Jesus as our Savior. We become part of the Kingdom of God and His eyes and His heart are always upon us. It is under His eyes that we find true peace (Song 8:10).
Lord, I long for more of Your Spirit. Yet it is all here, available and accessible to us. Your Kingdom has come and is among us. Help us to live into it an a way that both brings reformation in walking in Your ways and putting You as central along with revival as You pour out Your power among us for healing and deliverance for those who are hurting and broken. We are to be the light of the World and the people around us greatly need this light. Help us to bring it everywhere we go.
2. Eberle, Dr. Harold R. The Kingdom Come. Worldcast Ministries and Publishing, Yakima, WA, USA. 2012.
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