His Glory

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

HIS GLORY

1 Kings 8:1-11

8:1 Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD's covenant from Zion, the City of David. 2 All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. 3 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, 4 and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, 5 and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted. 6 The priests then brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. 8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. 10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.

NIV

Interestingly, it would seem there were two tents of meeting, but there would have been only one ark of the covenant in the tabernacle built by Moses under the LORD's instruction. According to this record, the tabernacle was in the city of David, Zion, or Bethlehem, while there was a tent of meeting at Gibeon on a high place where Solomon met with the LORD and was told he could ask for anything; that is where he requested a discerning heart. But the ark was brought from Bethlehem, so we think that is where the whole of the first tabernacle was kept by David until it was time for the temple to be built. The other thought by some is that the original tabernacle was at Gibeon, but David had built a temporary one to house the ark of the Covenant in Zion. Is it that important as to where the ark was, as it is that it was brought up and placed in the Holy of Holies, and then the LORD’s presence filled his temple? This is the truth that brings it home for us. Although we are told that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we do not belong to us, but He, the Holy Spirit, fills His temple. His presence filled the temple that Solomon built, but it is referred to as the glory of the LORD filling his temple. We cannot build ourselves into a temple, for that is the work of Jesus when we, through faith, accept him as our Lord and Savior. Once we made that commitment, then he does the work within us, making us into the temple in which the Holy Spirit comes to dwell. In the case of the temple that Solomon built, it was the glory of the LORD, which does not mean the LORD Himself, that filled the temple. However, it is not just the glory of the Holy Spirit that fills us, but it is the Holy Spirit Himself that fills us, as we are baptized with Him, or immersed in Him, as He fills His temple. We simply offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, and He is the one who makes us holy and pleasing to Himself, the Lord. However, it still comes back to the truth that because we are that temple of the Holy Spirit, who is full of glory, and his glory has filled us, we then are filled with the glory of the Lord, and should reflect His glory, which means we have no glory of our own, but only are filled with His glory.