“But can God actually live on the earth? Why, heaven itself, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain you; so how much less this house I have built?”-1 Kings 8:27
In verse 27, Solomon expresses a truth modern believers take for granted but still wrestle with.
He says the Lord dwells in the Temple up on Mount Moriah.
Yet at the same time, He dwells in the heavens.
How can this be?
The idea of omnipresence is being declared here.
Solomon recognizes that God is not a man who is trapped in a physical body and thus can only occupy one physical sphere at a time.
The Lord doesn’t have to pack his bags and book a flight with EL AL or American Airlines if he wants to travel somewhere.
His presence is in heaven and wherever else He chooses to be at the same time.
Solomon is basically saying…
“I know your presence is right here with us in the Temple.
Heck, your Spirit just drove my priests outta here.
But how can your presence be here?
And also somewhere else at the same time?
I have no idea.
Yet, I accept this truth on faith.”
And that’s the point.
Solomon doesn’t wait around for perfect comprehension.
He goes right on praying.
“Even so, Adonai my God, pay attention to your servant’s prayer and plea, listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying before you today, that your eyes will be open toward this house night and day — toward the place concerning which you said, ‘My name will be there’ — to listen to the prayer your servant will pray toward this place.” – 1 Kings 8:28-29
Again, notice what Solomon leans on.
It ain’t his understanding.
But God’s promise that His Name will be there.
That’s all Solomon’s got.
And he builds the prayer life of a whole nation on it.
Interestingly, the word for “listen” here is SHEMA.
As I’ve explained many times before, that term doesn’t mean to passively listen to something.
SHEMA is a very proactive word.
It means to listen and then get off your butt and act on what you just heard.
So Solomon isn’t asking God to nod along.
He’s asking God to move.
There’s an interesting takeaway here.
There are many mysteries of the Lord we cannot explain.
But just because we can’t comprehend them ain’t a reason to just write them off.
That’s what an atheist does.
But not Solomon.
He confessed that he couldn’t fully understand.
But then he went in the opposite direction from the atheist.
He said, despite not fully comprehending your mysteries…
Out of faith I choose to trust and follow you.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Yeshua said, ‘Lady, believe me,
the time is coming when you will
worship the Father neither
on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim.
You people don’t know what
you are worshipping;
we worship what we do know,
because salvation comes from the Jews.
But the time is coming
— indeed, it’s here now —
when the true worshippers
will worship the Father
spiritually and truly,
for these are the kind of people
the Father wants worshipping him.
God is spirit;
and worshippers must worship
him spiritually and truly.“
– John 4:21-24
“Don’t you know that you
yourselves are God’s temple
and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?“
– 1 Corinthians 3:16
I once read about how the Rabbis of old couldn’t understand how God, being everywhere at once, was able to “go down” to see what was happening on the earth.
And we are also told in Deuteronomy 29:29 that the secret things of the Lord belong to him, which means (essentially) that we get to know what we know only when God considers it something we need to know.
And how he does what he does is not a “Need-to-Know” thing.
That’s why the writer of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) was so “down” all the time: he wanted to know the “why” of everything, just as God does, and was always disappointed that he just couldn’t figure it out. His conclusion matches your point today, Rich- just trust in God and be grateful for what you do know.