1 Kings 8:14-22 is another record of Solomon’s words at the dedication.
The Lord appeared in a dark cloud when the temple that Solomon built was dedicated (5:14,16:1). A cloud also enveloped Mount Sinai when the Lord God descended to talk with Moses, giving him the Ten Commandments. A pillar of cloud also led the Israelites in the desert to the promised land. Solomon remembered that the Lord dwells in a dark cloud. He and all Israel knew that the Lord God entered the temple when they dedicated it.
The Lord never told anyone to build a temple (5). This was David’s idea (1 Kings 8:17). The Lord never told David to build it in Jerusalem (5). This was David’s idea from seeing the angel of death stop at that location. However, at the dedication, the LORD God, the God of Israel, chose the temple in Jerusalem for his Name to be there (6).
The Name signifies God’s revealed character or self-revelation as a person. The Name is equivalent to the Lord himself. The temple in Jerusalem bore the Name as long as the Lord dwelt there as a place where people could meet with the Lord. However, because of sin, Israel went into captivity. So the Lord left the temple and traveled with them.
Two thousand years ago, the Lord left the temple again. The curtain tore in two as the Lord left. He now dwells in the temple inside his followers. The Name now dwells in his people (John 14:20; Eph. 2:21). 1 Cor. 3:16 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”
Jesus tells his people, “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the Name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new Name.” (Rev. 3:1-12)
