2 Chronicles 7

Fire from heaven consumes offering

As soon as Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices as the Existing One's majesty filled the temple. The priests couldn't even enter the building because the Existing One's majesty was so thick. When Israel saw the fire and the Existing One's majesty, they bowed their faces to the ground and thanked the Existing One, saying, “He is good, and his steady love never ends.”

Then the king and all the people offered a sacrifice to the Existing One. Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So they all dedicated God's house. The priests and stood at their posts, and so did the Levites with the instruments David made for thanking the Existing One with music. (Whenever David praised God's unending love, all the Israelites would stand up, and the priests would blow their trumpets.)

Solomon dedicated the middle of the courtyard in front of the Existing One's house. He offered burnt offering and the peace offerings there since the bronze altar couldn't hold all the grain and fat from the offerings.

7-day celebration feast

Solomon held a feast that went on for seven days and spanned across the entire country from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. Then on the eighth day they held a ceremony after dedicating the alter with a feast for seven days. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people back to their homes with happy hearts for the prosperity that the Existing One had granted to David, Solomon, and his people.

God reminds Solomon to follow his orders

That's how Solomon completed the Existing One's house and the king's house. He successfully accomplished everything that he had planned to do in both houses. Then the Existing One appeared to Solomon at night and told him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place as a house of sacrifice for myself. When I hold back the rain, or command the insects to consume the land, or send disease among my people, if the people who call themselves mine will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their corrupted ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their offenses, and mend their property. From now on I will have open eyes and ears toward the prayers that are made here. I have chosen and dedicated this house as my own forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you walk in my ways like your father David did, living in step with my orders and adhering to my decrees, then I will establish your royal throne like I vowed to David saying, ‘You'll always have a descendant to rule Israel.’

“But if you turn away, forsake my orders and decrees, and worship other gods, then I will uproot you from my land I've entrusted you with, and I will turn my back on this house I've dedicated to myself and throw it away. I will turn it into a mockery known all throughout the world. Everyone who walks past this house which used to be famous will be astonished and say, ‘Why did the Existing One do this to this house and this land?’ Then they'll say, ‘They abandoned the Existing One, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they started worshiping and serving other gods. That's why he brought this disaster upon them.’”

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2 Chronicles 8

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2 Chronicles 6