Hear in Heaven
1/14/26 Bible Thought (1 Kings 8)
The same God whom the heavens cannot contain makes Himself available to us.
A Look at 1 Kings 8
In 1 Kings 8, we see the dedication of the temple after the ark of the covenant is brought into it. Throughout Israel’s history, the ark was a symbol of God’s dwelling amongst His people. Essentially, it was His earthly throne.
The Israelites were forbidden to make idols that would represent God. Instead, the ark was given to fill this void as a tangible reminder of His presence. However, it did not physically represent God, for He is not rectangular.
With this, Solomon offered an extensive prayer of dedication.
He recounted the faithfulness of God (1 Kings 8:15, 23-24, 56). Then, in light of that faithfulness, he offered a plea that the temple would be a place where God would put His name and hear the prayers of His people. In fact, seven different times Solomon put forth the request that God would “hear in heaven” as His people prayed towards His earthly dwelling.
It was in light of God’s promise-making and promise-keeping nature that Solomon lifted his prayer to God. There would be no reason to pray to an unfaithful God—but to an unchanging God who is faithful, and kind, and just, surely we can rest assured that He will do what is good.
Solomon then closed his prayer with the desire that his words would ever be near the Lord (1 Kings 8:59) and that God would heed His request and be glorified in and through His people.
Bringing it Home
At present, Christ is now the place where the human and the divine meet, for both these natures were bound up together in His person.
No longer would Jerusalem hold pride of place as the earthly throne of God, for it is in Christ that people have access to the Father. He is the great high priest, and in Him the temple is fulfilled as He came down to dwell amongst us (Jn. 1:14) as Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23).
With His sacrificial death, the veil that separated the people from the presence was rent asunder (Matt. 27:51). Now, in Christ, we can come with confidence before the throne of God’s grace (Heb. 4:16) through our one and only mediator, Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5).
With this, we have a wonderful, blessed hope in prayer:
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 Jn. 5:14-15).
The same God with whom Solomon pleaded is the God who has lent His ear to us today in Christ. The cry, “Hear in heaven!” is now permanently answered as heaven came down to us.
The same God, who, although the highest of heavens cannot contain Him, is now merely a prayer away for the one who has put their trust in Jesus Christ and has been born again as one of God’s children. What a scandalous, amazing grace we experience in Christ! What a wonder it is to be children of God! (see 1 Jn. 3:1).
Challenge for Today: Do I realize the great privilege of prayer and that the God of heaven lends a listening ear to me today?