David's Heart

2 Chronicles 6:7
"My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 6:8
But the LORD said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart.
2 Chronicles 6:14
He said: "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.
2 Chronicles 6:30
then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men),
2 Chronicles 6:37
and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly';
2 Chronicles 6:38
and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name;
2 Chronicles 7:10
On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the LORD had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.
2 Chronicles 7:16
I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.


Five chapters later, the temple is built, and Solomon's grand speech/prayer/sermon begins.
I made an executive decision to include all of these verses in one entry. Most of this speech is exactly the same as 1 Kings 8. I think that is important in itself. This may have been the one most wonderful day that ever happened to Israel. Solomon was young and dazzling, wise and charismatic. Israel itself was young, as a nation, being only on its third king. The Temple was brand new, the gold and the white stone gleaming in the sun on its hill in Jerusalem. Yahweh had agreed to live there.
Maybe it was a tiny bit like eternity, when all will be new and bright, and God will be right there with us.

Heart's Desire

2 Chronicles 1:11
God said to Solomon, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king,

Second Chronicles begins. I looked for the last time this even came up, and it was some 40 hearts ago, in 1 Kings 3:10-14. So I will simply take it at face value, not to worry what I wrote last time.
The setting for this incident is described in the first verses of the book and chapter. Solomon's whole entourage--everybody who was anybody in Israel--went up to Gibeon, also described as a high place. Why? "God's Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the LORD's servant had made in the desert."
This blows me away. The actual Tabernacle, with the woven panels and the various protective leather panels, was at Gibeon. So was the bronze altar, which was why they went there.
The Ark had its own tent, in Jerusalem, thanks to David, but apparently everything else was at Gibeon. Now this is sort of interesting as regards the worship. The Ark was the location of God's presence, and it still had its power. Witness the incident in which it took badly to the unauthorized touch of a hand.
Yet it had been removed from its home in Moses' Tabernacle. Was it as if the heart was taken out of an organism? But God is good and merciful, and perhaps even then He was moving toward a more spiritual, less material worship.
Because He certainly met Solomon at Gibeon after the sacrifices. Wisdom and knowledge are called his heart's desire, and God granted it.
Which leads me to ask myself, what is my heart's desire? With my conscious energy, I try to make it more and more...only Jesus.