The day of the dedication of the newly built temple in Jerusalem was a remarkable moment. When the priests had installed the ark in the Most Holy Place, as they came out, God turned up. When Israel had travelled through the desert after the exodus from Egypt, God led them in a pillar of cloud and fire. This pillar of cloud had been over the tabernacle the whole time Israel was in the desert but after the entrance into Canaan we don’t hear any more about it. The tabernacle was still there but the pillar of cloud had gone. The time after Joshua’s death to the time of David was a dark time for Israel. She had forsaken God and it seemed that God had forsaken her. But now, as Solomon dedicates the temple, God appears again in the cloud of his glory. Have you ever felt that you have lost a sense of God’s presence that you once had in your life? I encourage you, as I said a few days ago, to build a temple for God, a place of meeting. In addition to what I said earlier, building a temple for God in your life means giving God the highest place, not letting anything else take that place of primary influence on you. It means dedicating yourself to him. God inhabits the lives of those who dedicate themselves to him.
Dedicate yourself to God.
Read 1 Kings 8:1-21
