Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 206
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KINGDOMS
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you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and
toward this Temple I have built to honor your name—then hear their
prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold
their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive
all the offenses they have committed against you. Make their captors
merciful to them, for they are your p eople—your special p ossession—
whom you brought out of the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt.
“May your eyes be open to my requests and to the requests of your
people Israel. May you hear and answer them whenever they cry out
to you. For when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Sovereign
Lord, you told your servant Moses that you had set Israel apart from
all the nations of the earth to be your own special possession.”
When Solomon finished making these prayers and petitions to the Lord,
he stood up in front of the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling
with his hands raised toward heaven. He stood and in a loud voice blessed
the entire congregation of Israel:
“Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he
promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave
through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was
with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. May he give
us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands,
decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors. And may these words
that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly,
day and night, so that the Lord our God may give justice to me and to
his people Israel, according to each day’s needs. Then people all over the
earth will know that the Lord alone is God and there is no other. And may
you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his
decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”
Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. Sol
omon offered to the Lord a peace offering of 22,000 cattle and 120,000
sheep and goats. And so the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the
Temple of the Lord.
That same day the king consecrated the central area of the courtyard in
front of the Lord’s Temple. He offered burnt offerings, grain offerings,
and the fat of peace offerings there, because the bronze altar in the Lord’s
presence was too small to hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and
the fat of the peace offerings.
Then Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters in the
presence of the Lord our God. A large congregation had gathered from
as far away as L
ebo-hamath in the north and the Brook of Egypt in the
south. The celebration went on for fourteen days in all—seven days for