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2 Chronicles 6:14-42 – Praying though the Bible #134 – A Prayer that Keeps God Busy
What does God do more than anything else? Maybe the answer is tied to another question. What does man do more than anything else?
Like any other man, Solomon’s greatest accomplishment is connected to God. All great things are connected to God. David’s son finishes what David began. He built a temple for Yahweh. His great accomplishment though is understandably greatly inadequate: “But will God indeed live on earth, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built” (2 Chronicles 6.18). God is too great for anything less than God.
“But will God indeed live on earth?” “But will God the Son indeed live on earth?” Such shows the utter paradox of One whom the highest heaven cannot contain, living in the form of a man on this lowly earth. This man who was Jesus was God’s temple on earth; God’s walking tabernacle. But why a temple? Why an incarnation? In the prayer of Solomon dedicating the temple of Yahweh, there is a recurring word, “hear,” often found in a recurring phrase, “May you hear,” followed by a recurring plea, “and forgive.”
The purpose of the temple was to glorify God, and more. It was a place for man to come to God, because God came to man in the temple: “The glory of the LORD filled the temple” (7.1). Do you see Jesus again in this? Jesus becoming man was to glorify God, and more. He came to man so man could come to God, because God came to man in the flesh. Jesus showed them what they could not see, God.
“What did Jesus actually bring if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham, then to Moses and the Prophets…. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God….” (Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI).
Besides God, there is something else man sees when seeing God: his sinfulness, his spiritual inadequacy. What does God do more than anything else? One answer might be, hearing our prayers. While amazing, that a divine being whom the heavens cannot contain, takes the time to listen to failed humans, there is another possible answer even more wonderful. Remember, it might be tied to what man does more than anything else. Man sins. The temple was a place of forgiveness. Jesus is our place of forgiveness. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus shows us the Father (John 14.6-7). What does God do more than anything else? Could it be that He forgives?
Prayer Challenge: When we pray, let us focus on how many times God forgives; and then pray to be more like God.
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