How to live in God’s rest
1 Kings 8:1-21
The film Finding Nemo recounts the adventures of a young clownfish who is fished out of the sea, ends up in a tank in a dentist’s office in Sydney and manages to escape. At the end of the film, we get a glimpse of the other fish in the tank getting away. Placed in individual plastic bags while the tank is cleaned, they hop off from the windowsill, get across the road and finally plunge into the sea. Jubilant at their escape, they bob along on the water (still in their bags) but as their cheers die down, they look at each other and one says, ‘Now what?’. This scene reminds me of Christians who treat their coming to faith as the end goal. As the freedom of living in the environment they were created for opens up, they may still surround themselves with their old life and wonder ‘now what?’. Israel, too, has in one sense arrived and entered God’s rest, a redeemed and settled existence. What difference should such entry into God’s rest make to how they (and we) live?
The Feast: A time to remember
In our reading, this new phase in Israel’s history starts with celebrations, an occasion to look back and acknowledge what God has done. Significantly, Solomon gathers all (leaders and people; 1 Kings 8:1-2) reminding us of the power of coming together as a fellowship to remember God. As the temple building was finished in the eighth month (1 Kings 6:38) and the dedication took place in the seventh (8:2), there is at least eleven months between the two, which would have allowed for the furnishings to be completed (1 Kings 7).[1] The timing of the dedication for the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles (often just called ‘the feast’) seems deliberate because Israel celebrated it by living in makeshift shelters for a week to recall their wilderness wanderings (Lev 23:42-43).[2] It was a reminder of where they came from and what God has achieved for them in bringing them into His rest. Solomon’s speech likewise recalls God’s gracious choice of David and His fulfilled promise that David’s son will build the temple (1 Kings 8:15-16, 20).
Living for God’s presence
Transporting the ark into the temple underlines Israel’s desire to have God’s presence with them permanently (1 Kings 8:4). Their settled life is not simply about enjoying God’s gifts of peace and plenty but about the ongoing relationship with the Lord. It is unclear why seeing the poles from the main sanctuary is emphasised (1 Kings 8:8);[3] it was possibly a constant reminder that the ark and hence God’s presence was there. Alternatively, it may also have recalled the movable character of the ark, so that Israel would not take His presence for granted.[4] The stress on the two tablets of stone in the ark (1 Kings 8:9), which will be repeated in Solomon’s prayer (1 Kings 8:21) connects God’s presence with covenant obedience, a theme we have already encountered. In any relationship, there has to be commitment to each other for the relationship to flourish. Capping the celebrations is God’s stamp of approval as the cloud of His glory fills the temple just as it did the tabernacle (1 Kings 8:10-11; Exod 40:34-35).
Now what – How to live in God’s rest
Our reading highlights for us that the sense of arrival we might feel when we become Christians is only the beginning. So often, our efforts at evangelism focus on helping people enter God’s kingdom but everything after it is treated as a bonus, as if it did not really matter. Yet without instruction, new Christians may end up recreating their old life around themselves just like the escaped fish from the tank continued in the old bubble in Finding Nemo. The dedication of the temple teaches us that our focus needs to be on that relationship with the Lord, of opening our lives for His presence. How? As we have seen repeatedly in these chapters, God’s presence is closely connected to living for Him in obedience as it is set out in Scripture. It is only as we continue to walk with Him that we will know the joys of that relationship. Periodically remembering where we have come from is also crucial, just as Israel did in commemorating and reenacting their wilderness wanderings in the Feast of Tabernacles. It creates in us a grateful heart, which is the foundation for joyfully obeying Him.
[1] As the year is not mentioned for the dedication, we cannot know for sure, but eleven months to coincide with the Feast of Booths seems more likely than waiting for thirteen more years until the palace complex was also finished.
[2] Although the Day of Atonement is also celebrated in the seventh month, it is a solemn occasion and lasts only one day, whereas the kind of jubilation associated with Tabernacles and its length of a week fits the context in our reading better (1 Kings 8:65-66). It is an agricultural feast as well celebrating the end of the harvest (Deut 16:13-15), which caps the year. Because of its associations of fulfilment, rest, and enjoying the fruit of a settled existence, this feast came to have eschatological significance pointing to the end times and ultimate restoration.
[3] In fact, it is hard to envisage how the poles could have been seen when Solomon had wooden doors put in place between the main sanctuary and the holy of holies (1 Kings 6:31). If that door was open and only the veil separated the two spaces, then the poles (fitted lengthwise to the side of the box) may have poked through, granted that the ark was placed in an east-west direction. Alternatively, the poles could have been visible at the edges of the veil (if it did not reach wall-to-wall). The phrase that the poles can be seen ‘to this day’ is a frozen reference (1 Kings 8:8), i.e. it indicates that the writer of Kings used an earlier source when the ark was still in the temple. By the end of Kings when Judah had gone into exile, they no longer had the ark, so the phrase cannot help us date the book.
[4] Lissa M. Wray Beal, 1&2 Kings, AOTC 9 (Downers Grove: IVP/Nottingham: Apollos, 2014), 135.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others.