{"id":2161,"date":"2019-03-04T20:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T03:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2019-03-05T00:01:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T07:01:24","slug":"1kings_8_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1kings_8_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Longing for More of God’s Powerful Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings 8:1-11\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 8:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 8:1-5 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.
\n2\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.
\n3\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,
\n4\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,
\n5\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-5:\u00a0 Here King Solomon holds a dedication service for the newly completed temple. He decides to hold it “at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month” (v2).\u00a0 Why is that significant?\u00a0 It’s because this festival was the Israelites’ Feast of Booths, a festival which annually celebrates the end of the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness and how God had brought them to their own land.\u00a0 King Solomon strategically thought, “The Feast of Booths would be a perfect time to dedicate the temple, since all the Israelites will be gathering anyway and their hearts will be expecting celebration and renewal.”\u00a0 Scheduling the dedication service during this festival was a wise strategic move.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0As God’s people we should be looking to share Jesus with the people\u00a0<\/strong>around us\u00a0<\/strong>and inviting them to church year round, both in season and out of season.\u00a0 But take special advantage of seasons in the year — like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter — when the hearts of people around you are especially receptive and open to coming to church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Kings 8:6-9 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>The priests then brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
\n7\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.
\n8\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.
\n9\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 6-9:\u00a0 The ark of the covenant was the most sacred religious item in Israel.\u00a0 It was a gold plated box that represented the presence of God (see Exodus 25:10-22).\u00a0 Because the newly constructed temple was to be Israel’s new centre of worship, and because Solomon and the people longed for God’s presence to fill the newly constructed temple, Solomon arranged for the ark to be carried into the Most Holy Place, a secret chamber inside the inner sanctuary of the temple.\u00a0\u00a0Since the people were not allowed to touch the ark, the priests would carry the ark using poles that were attached to the ark.\u00a0 So the ark sat in the Most Holy Place.\u00a0 Though they could not see the ark, the people could see the poles sticking out of the Most Holy Place, reminding them of God’s presence.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 I believe the poles attached to the ark are a picture of what Jesus would later do for us on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0Just as the poles attached to the ark allowed the people to have access to the ark and to move with the ark, it was the pole on which Jesus died — that is, the cross — that allowed us to experience the presence of God wherever we go<\/strong>.\u00a0 The most important and powerful pole in your life is the cross of Christ, for by it sinners like us can have access to God’s holy presence.\u00a0 Unlike the ark which only the high priest could see, the cross of Jesus Christ gives all who believe in Him 100%, 24\/7 access to the presence of God.\u00a0\u00a0Because Jesus paid the highest price to give us 24\/7 access to God’s presence, let’s treasure the cross where Jesus died and let’s long for more of God’s presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Kings 8:10-11 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n10\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.
\n11\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 10-11:\u00a0 Here we see that a cloud fills the temple after the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, so much so that Solomon’s dedication service had to stop.\u00a0 Like the ark, the cloud is a symbol of God’s presence and glory.\u00a0 It goes to show that\u00a0God loves to fill places where His people gather, worship and long for His presence<\/strong>.\u00a0 God’s presence is so awesome that sometimes all you can do is stop in your tracks and worship Him.<\/p>\n

So every day, take the time to draw close to God.\u00a0 Gather regularly with your brothers and sisters at church and draw close to God together.\u00a0\u00a0When you come to God with a hungry heart together with God’s people, you will experience His powerful presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You love to fill places where Your people are gathering in faith and are longing for You to come.\u00a0 God, I long for more of Your presence.\u00a0 Thank You for sending Jesus Christ Your Son to die on a pole, that by His attachment to the pole called the cross I am forgiven, made clean and whole.\u00a0 When I join my church in worshiping You with an expectant and thankful heart, Your powerful, overwhelming presence will come.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 8:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 8:1-5 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.\u00a0
\n3\u00a0When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,\u00a0
\n4\u00a0and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,\u00a0
\n5\u00a0and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2184,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/2184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}