2 Chronicles 5

The Explanation

Solomon has finished building the temple. Seven years of work by thousands of people, gold on the walls, huge pillars, a room deep inside that no one is allowed to enter except the high priest, and only once a year. But an empty building is not yet a house of God. Something still has to come inside. Or rather, Someone.

Solomon calls all the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem. The elders, the tribal heads, the princes. It becomes a huge gathering, at the feast in the seventh month, probably the Feast of Tabernacles. And then they go to fetch the most precious thing Israel possesses: the ark of the covenant. A wooden chest, covered with gold, with two golden angels on the lid. Inside are the two stone tablets on which God Himself once wrote the ten commandments, back at Mount Horeb when the people had just come out of Egypt.

The priests carry the ark on long poles through the streets of Jerusalem, up to the temple. Along the way so many sheep and cattle are sacrificed that no one can count them. Imagine the smell, the sound, the crowds. Then the ark is brought into the innermost room, the Most Holy Place. Two enormous cherubim, angel figures made of wood and gold, spread their wings over it.

Then comes the moment. All the priests have made themselves ready, they have washed and prayed. The Levite singers stand ready with cymbals and harps. One hundred and twenty priests with trumpets. And when they all sound together as one voice, they sing: "For he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever!"

And then something happens that no one had arranged. A cloud fills the temple. So thick that the priests can no longer stand. They cannot do their work anymore, because God's glory fills the whole house. God Himself has come to live there.

What Does This Mean?

The temple was not just a beautiful building. It was the place where heaven and earth touched each other. Where God said: here I want to live among my people.

Notice something strange. When everything is finally ready, when the priests have done their very best, they cannot even stand up anymore. God is so overwhelmingly present that human work stops for a moment. That is important. The temple is not a machine you operate. God is not a guest who comes when we push the right buttons. He comes because He wants to, because He is good, because His loving kindness endures forever.

The word "covenant" keeps coming up. A covenant is a solemn promise between God and His people. In the ark lie the stone tablets, the sign of that promise. God says: I am your God, you are my people. And now He shows: I really mean it. I come to live with you.

The Common Thread

Centuries later something strange happens. Jesus stands in the temple and says: break down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. People do not understand Him. But He is speaking about His own body. Jesus Himself is the new temple. In Him, God comes to live among people, not in a building of stone but in a person of flesh and blood.

And after Jesus rose and went to heaven, something even stranger happens. At Pentecost, God's Spirit comes to live in ordinary people. Paul later writes to Christians: do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple? The cloud from 2 Chronicles 5 is looking for a place, and finally that place is people who belong to Jesus.

For You

You do not have to build a temple. But you can wonder: is there room in me for God? Not that you first have to become perfect, the priests were also not more special than others. They had simply made themselves ready. They wanted God to come.

You can do the same. You can say in the morning: God, come and live in my day today, in my school, in my thoughts, in how I deal with that one classmate. And you may know: He is good. His loving kindness endures forever. That is not a fairy tale line. That is what the singers already sang three thousand years ago, and it is still true.

Talk About It

Why do you think the priests could not stand anymore when the cloud came? What does that tell us about who God is?

If your body can be a temple of God, what changes then in how you look at yourself and at other people?

Praying Together

Lord God, You are so great that priests could not remain standing, and yet You want to live in ordinary people like me. Thank You that You are good. Thank You that Your loving kindness lasts forever, also for me. Come and live in my life today. Amen.