1 Kings 8:27

ONLY GOD'S NAME (NOT HIS ACTUAL PRESENCE) DWELT IN THE TEMPLE

"But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth to thee this day; that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place whereof thou hast said, MY NAME SHALL BE THERE; to hearken to the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and that of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive."

"Heaven of heavens cannot contain thee" (1 Kings 8:27). "These words are actually a reminiscence of Deuteronomy 10:14, and are found elsewhere only five times including the parallel in 2 Chronicles 6:18."[18]

"My name shall be there" (1 Kings 8:29). In these words, as they are compared with 1 Kings 8:27, Solomon makes it clear that, "It is not God Himself in his fullness who will dwell in the Temple, but only his name."[19] We reject as untenable, even ridiculous, the dictum of critics that Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, was such a dunce as he is described by Dentan who wrote that, "Solomon really believed that he could build God `an exalted house,' a place for him to dwell in for ever."[20] Such a critical allegation more effectively reflects upon the intelligence of such critics than it does upon that of Solomon.

Of course, the community of radical critics finds here an effective contradiction of their evolutionary hypothesis regarding the theology of Israel; and their only defense of their theory is to ascribe a passage like this to their mythical `Deuteronomist.' The true Deuteronomist, of course, is none other than Moses, as proved by the Book of Deuteronomy itself, where the mid-second millennium vocabulary, the sustained pattern of the ancient suzerain treaties, and the book's absolute conformity with the rest of the Mosaic writings make it impossible to date the book any later than the death of Moses about 1,400 B.C.

This wonderful passage shows that, "Solomon had no unworthy ideas such as were prevalent in that age, nor did he suppose that God was merely a local deity who could be limited to a given place. These words clearly prove his grasp of the omnipresence and infinity of God."[21]

This first section of Solomon's prayer is somewhat general in nature, but the remainder (1 Kings 8:31-53) has seven specific petitions: