Commentary - 1 Kings 8:62-66

Bird's-eye view

This passage marks the glorious climax of the temple's dedication. After Solomon's magnificent prayer, the fire of God's approval has fallen, and the glory of the Lord has filled the house. What we see here is the nation's response. This is not a quiet, contemplative, individualistic affair. This is a loud, bloody, extravagant, and joyful national celebration. The central theme is the sheer scale and abundance of covenantal worship when God's people are united and grateful. The king leads, and all Israel follows, in offering sacrifices so numerous they overwhelm the prescribed architecture of worship. This is a picture of true revival, a nationwide festival of gratitude that culminates in the people returning to their homes with hearts full of gladness because of God's manifest goodness.

Outline

Commentary

62 Now the king and all Israel with him were offering sacrifices before Yahweh.

The first thing to note is the unity. It is "the king and all Israel with him." True worship is corporate. It is a covenantal activity. Solomon does not worship for the people, but with them. Righteous leadership facilitates and participates in the worship of the entire community. This is a far cry from our modern atomized spirituality, where faith is seen as a private matter between an individual and God. Here, the spiritual health of the nation is on full display as they gather as one body before Yahweh. Their worship is directed "before Yahweh," in His presence. They are not performing for one another; they are presenting themselves and their sacrifices to the God who has just filled His house with His glory.

63 And Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to Yahweh, 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh.

The numbers here are staggering, and we should not try to explain them away. This is holy extravagance. Twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. This is not a misprint; it is a theological statement about the nature of gratitude. Our worship should not be stingy. God's blessings are not stingy, and our response should not be either. These are peace offerings, which means this was a massive fellowship meal. The people partook of these sacrifices, eating together in the presence of God. This was a national barbecue, a feast signifying that they were at peace with God and with one another. All this blood and smoke points forward, of course, to the one final sacrifice of Christ. As immense as this offering was, it could not finally take away sin. It was a shadow, a type, pointing to the superabundant grace that would be poured out at the cross, where the Lamb of God would make a truly sufficient offering, once for all.

64 On the same day the king set apart as holy the middle of the court that was before the house of Yahweh, because there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings; for the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

This is a wonderful problem to have. The zeal and gratitude of the people are so immense that they overwhelm the divinely appointed means of worship. The bronze altar, built according to God's specifications, was simply too small. What does Solomon do? He doesn't tell the people to scale back their offerings. He doesn't say, "Sorry, the altar is full, come back next week." No, he consecrates the middle of the court, making a temporary, larger space for the sacrifices. This is righteous pragmatism. When the forms of worship cannot contain the substance of the people's gratitude, you don't diminish the gratitude; you expand the forms. This is a beautiful picture of what happens in the New Covenant. The old system, the temple and its altar, was too small to contain the influx of the Gentiles. A new and living way was required, and so God consecrated the whole world. The gospel overflows the boundaries of old Israel, just as these sacrifices overflowed the boundaries of the bronze altar.

65 So Solomon celebrated the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, for seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.

The scope of this celebration is the full extent of the promised land, from the northern border of Lebo-hamath to the southern border at the brook of Egypt. This is the entire covenant nation, gathered as one. It is a picture of the great eschatological feast, when God's people from every tribe and tongue will be gathered before Him. And the duration is remarkable: fourteen days. A seven-day feast for the dedication, followed immediately by the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles. This is a sustained, deep, national immersion in worship and celebration. True worship is not something to be rushed through in an hour on Sunday morning. It is meant to shape the rhythm of our lives. This fortnight of feasting demonstrates a people whose priorities are rightly ordered around the presence and goodness of their God.

66 On the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king. Then they went to their tents with gladness and goodness of heart because of all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people.

Here we see the fruit of true worship. First, the people bless their king. Good leadership that points the people to God is recognized and honored. Second, they go home not exhausted or burdened, but "with gladness and goodness of heart." The Hebrew is literally "good of heart." True worship doesn't just make you feel good; it makes you good. It reorders the affections and produces genuine joy. And notice the source of this joy: it is "because of all the goodness that Yahweh had shown." Their gladness is not a self-generated emotional high. It is a rational, grounded response to the objective reality of God's faithfulness. He had been good to David, their covenant head, and through David, He had been good to all of Israel. This is the very pattern of the gospel. God has shown all His goodness to His Son, David's greater Son, Jesus. And because we are in Him, that goodness overflows to us, His people. Our joy, therefore, is not in our performance, but in His.

Application

This passage is a profound rebuke to the thin, anemic, and individualistic nature of much modern worship. We are called to a worship that is corporate, extravagant, and joyful. Our offerings to God, whether of money, time, or praise, should not be calculated with a stingy minimalism, but should reflect an overwhelming gratitude for His superabundant grace in Christ. When our hearts are so full of thankfulness that our current structures can't contain it, we shouldn't stifle the thankfulness; we should be creative in finding new ways to express it.

And the goal of our worship is not simply to fulfill a duty, but to be sent away with glad and good hearts. This joy is not a fleeting emotion, but a deep-seated contentment rooted in the objective goodness of God shown to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Just as Israel rejoiced in what God had done for David and for them, we are to rejoice in what God has done for His servant Jesus, and for us, His people. True worship rehearses the gospel, and the result of rehearsing the gospel is always a profound and lasting joy.