ERCC DEVOTIONAL (TEKAN) DAILY SPIRITUAL DIET FRIDAY 4TH AUGUST, 2023
TEXT: 1 KINGS 8: 1-11
SPIRITUAL FOCUS: THE LORD IS WITH HIS PEOPLE .
Solomon's father, King David, decided to build a temple for the Lord, Lord the Lord did not allow him because his hands were stained with blood. Instead of David, the Lord commissioned Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:10) to build a temple for worship, and for His presence among His people, to show that He was with them.
After the prayer of dedication, Solomon gathered the people together to pray and celebrate the dedication of the temple. It was then that the Ark of the Covenant was brought and set in the proper place. Inside the Ark were the stone tablets of the law of the Lord, the sign of His promise to the children of Israel.
The Feast of Tabernacles was a day when the Lord again revealed His glory when a cloud covered the Temple (verse 10), a sign of the Lord's presence with them. The glory that filled the Temple was a guarantee that the Lord would continue to lead them as He had done in the wilderness. Happily, even today the still has the desire to be with us. But sin blinded us and separated us from Him. He therefore, turned His back on us so that He would not hear us (Isa. 59: 2). As a result, we do not understand His secrets. But if we draw close to Him, He will draw close to us and bless us.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Lord knows all our troubles.
PRAYER: Lord God, make my heart Your temple in the name of Jesus, Amen.
1 Kings:8: 1-11 (NLT).
1 The Ark Brought to the Temple
Solomon then summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribesthe leaders of the ancestral families of the Israelites. They were to bring the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant to the Temple from its location in the City of David, also known as Zion.
2 So all the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the annual Festival of Shelters, which is held in early autumn in the month of Ethanim.
3 When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests picked up the Ark.
4 The priests and Levites brought up the Ark of the Lord along with the special tent and all the sacred items that had been in it.
5 There, before the Ark, King Solomon and the entire community of Israel sacrificed so many sheep, goats, and cattle that no one could keep count!
6 Then the priests carried the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant into the inner sanctuary of the Templethe Most Holy Placeand placed it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
7 The cherubim spread their wings over the Ark, forming a canopy over the Ark and its carrying poles.
8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Temple’s main roomthe Holy Placebut not from the outside. They are still there to this day.
9 Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Mount Sinai, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel when they left the land of Egypt.
10 When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord.
11 The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple.
