The High Cost of Gladness Text: 2 Chronicles 7:4-10
Introduction: Worship That Costs Something
We live in an age of cheap grace, cheap worship, and cheap sentimentality. We treat our corporate gatherings like a trip to the cinema, where the goal is to be entertained for an hour or so, and then to go home unchanged. We want a faith that costs us nothing, a cross that is light as a feather, and a God who demands very little. Our worship songs are often filled with more therapeutic self-talk than they are with the high praises of God. We have domesticated the lion of Judah and turned him into a housecat.
This passage before us is a violent, glorious corrective to all that. This is not tame worship. This is not convenient worship. This is costly, bloody, extravagant, all-consuming worship. The dedication of Solomon's temple was the high-water mark of Israel's national life, a moment when the entire nation was caught up in a single, unified act of devotion to Yahweh. The sheer scale of it is staggering to our modern sensibilities. Twenty-two thousand oxen. One hundred and twenty thousand sheep. This is not the worship of a people trying to fit God into their schedule. This is the worship of a people whose entire schedule, whose entire economy, whose entire national identity is being oriented around the glorious presence of God in their midst.
We must understand that this is not just an interesting historical account of an ancient barbecue. This is a theological statement. This is a picture of what true worship looks like. It is sacrificial, it is ordered, it is musical, it is corporate, and it results in overflowing, heartfelt joy. As we unpack these verses, we must ask ourselves if our worship bears any family resemblance to what is described here. Does our devotion to God cost us anything? Does it reorder our lives? Does it culminate in a gladness that is rooted not in our circumstances, but in the manifest goodness of God?
The Text
Now the king and all the people were offering sacrifices before Yahweh. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. And the priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the instruments of music to Yahweh, which King David had made for giving thanks to Yahweh, “for His lovingkindness endures forever”, whenever he gave praise by their hand, while the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.
Then Solomon set apart as holy the middle of the court that was before the house of Yahweh, because there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings; for the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat.
So Solomon celebrated the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they celebrated a solemn assembly; for the dedication of the altar they celebrated seven days and the feast seven days. And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, with gladness and goodness of heart because of the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel His people.
(2 Chronicles 7:4-10 LSB)
Extravagant Sacrifice (v. 4-5)
The first thing that confronts us is the sheer magnitude of the sacrifice.
"Now the king and all the people were offering sacrifices before Yahweh. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God." (2 Chronicles 7:4-5)
Let's be clear. This is not a typo. These numbers are meant to shock us. This is a staggering amount of wealth being offered up in smoke and celebration. This was a national act. "The king and all the people." This was not Solomon's private devotion; he was leading the entire nation in this corporate act of dedication. True worship is never a merely individualistic affair. It is corporate. We are saved as individuals, but we are saved into a body, a people, a kingdom.
The majority of these were likely peace offerings. In a peace offering, the fat portions were burned on the altar to God as a pleasing aroma, a portion was given to the priests, and the rest of the meat was returned to the worshiper to be eaten in a celebratory feast. This was not a somber, mournful occasion. This was a fourteen-day national feast before the Lord. Imagine the logistics. The entire nation, gathered in Jerusalem, feasting on the goodness of God's provision. This was a tangible expression of fellowship with God and with one another. They were, quite literally, eating at God's table.
This kind of extravagant sacrifice is a rebuke to our stingy, calculated Christianity. We want to know the bare minimum required. "How little can I give and still be okay?" "How infrequently can I attend worship and still be considered a member?" Solomon and Israel are asking a different question: "How much can we possibly give to honor the God who has given us everything?" This is the logic of grace. Because God has been extravagantly generous to us, our response should be one of extravagant gratitude. The ultimate expression of this, of course, is Christ, who did not hold back but gave Himself entirely for us. Our worship, our giving, our very lives are to be a responsive sacrifice, "holy and acceptable to God" (Romans 12:1).
Ordered Worship (v. 6)
This massive, explosive celebration was not chaotic. It was carefully ordered and structured.
"And the priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the instruments of music to Yahweh, which King David had made for giving thanks to Yahweh, 'for His lovingkindness endures forever', whenever he gave praise by their hand, while the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing." (2 Chronicles 7:6)
Everyone had their assigned role. The priests were at their posts, performing the sacrifices. The Levites were leading the music. The people were standing in reverence. This is a picture of liturgy. Liturgy is not a dirty word; it simply means the work of the people. God is a God of order, not of confusion, and His worship should reflect His character. The spontaneity of the Holy Spirit does not exclude the structure of thoughtful, biblical order. In fact, true freedom is found within the banks of God's ordained structure.
Notice the instruments. These were not an afterthought. They were specifically designed by King David "for giving thanks to Yahweh." David, a man after God's own heart, understood that worship involves the whole person, and that music is a powerful, God-given tool for expressing the praises of God. The trumpets, the strings, the voices, all were marshalled for this one purpose. This is a far cry from the idea that worship is just a disembodied, intellectual exercise. It is robust, loud, and physical.
And what was the lyrical centerpiece? "For His lovingkindness endures forever." This is the great theme of Israel's worship. The Hebrew word is hesed. It is a rich, covenantal term that means loyal love, steadfast faithfulness, mercy, and goodness. This is the anchor of their praise. In the midst of this overwhelming display of fire and glory and sacrifice, the central message is the unchanging, covenant-keeping faithfulness of God. Our worship must be centered on the same reality. It is not about our feelings, our experiences, or our merits. It is about His hesed, His lovingkindness, which is most perfectly and finally displayed at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Overwhelmed Capacity (v. 7)
The sheer scale of the people's response overwhelmed the divinely appointed means of sacrifice.
"Then Solomon set apart as holy the middle of the court that was before the house of Yahweh, because there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings; for the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat." (2 Chronicles 7:7)
The bronze altar, built according to God's specifications, was simply too small. The gratitude of the people was so immense that it could not be contained by the ordinary structures. So Solomon consecrates the courtyard itself, turning the whole area into a temporary altar. This is a beautiful picture of how a right response to God's glory can, and should, stretch our categories.
There is a forward-looking reality here. The sacrificial system, with its bronze altar, was always a temporary measure. It could never truly take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). It was a type and a shadow, pointing forward to the one, final, all-sufficient sacrifice. The fact that the altar was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of animal sacrifices demonstrates the inadequacy of that system. It was a picture that was bursting at the seams, crying out for its fulfillment. When Christ offered Himself on the cross, He was the final altar and the final sacrifice. The worship that He inaugurates is not confined to one physical location, but is to fill the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea. The praise of God's people in the New Covenant is meant to overwhelm all earthly containers.
Extended Celebration and Abundant Joy (v. 8-10)
The worship culminates in a prolonged period of feasting and a joyful dismissal.
"So Solomon celebrated the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they celebrated a solemn assembly; for the dedication of the altar they celebrated seven days and the feast seven days. And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, with gladness and goodness of heart because of the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel His people." (2 Chronicles 7:8-10)
This was a two-week national holiday. Seven days for the dedication of the altar, followed immediately by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. This was a complete disruption of normal life. The entire nation, from the northernmost border ("Lebo-hamath") to the southernmost ("the brook of Egypt"), stopped everything to feast in the presence of God. This is the principle of the Sabbath writ large. True worship reorients our time, our work, and our priorities around God.
And what is the result of all this costly sacrifice, this ordered liturgy, this extended celebration? "Gladness and goodness of heart." The Hebrew is "joyful and good of heart." This is not a superficial happiness based on circumstance. This is a deep, theological joy. It is a gladness rooted in a specific cause: "because of the goodness that Yahweh had shown." Their joy was a direct response to God's revealed character and His covenant faithfulness to His promises to David, to Solomon, and to the entire nation.
This is the end game of true worship. God does not demand our worship because He is a cosmic egomaniac who needs our affirmation. He commands our worship because it is in the act of giving Him glory that we find our deepest and most enduring joy. As C.S. Lewis noted, we praise what we enjoy. The command to praise God is the command to enjoy Him. When we see His goodness clearly, the only right and natural response is gladness of heart. This is why joyless Christianity is a contradiction in terms. A gloomy Christian is a theological absurdity. It means that somewhere along the line, we have lost sight of the overwhelming goodness of God.
From Temple Courts to the Tents of Life
The people are sent home. They go "to their tents." The worship service has an end, but its effects do not. They carry this gladness and goodness of heart back into their ordinary lives, into their homes, their fields, and their marketplaces. True worship is not an escape from reality; it is a re-calibration that equips us to live in reality for the glory of God.
The dedication of this physical temple was a shadow of a greater reality. The Lord Jesus stood in the temple courts and said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). He was speaking of the temple of His body. He is the true temple, the place where God and man meet. Through His sacrifice, the one that all these thousands of oxen and sheep pointed to, He has made us into a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). We, the church, are now the house of God.
Therefore, our lives are to be a continual act of dedication. Our worship is not confined to one building or one day of the week. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Our song is to be, "For His lovingkindness endures forever." And the result should be the same: a profound and unshakable gladness of heart, rooted in the goodness God has shown us in His Son. This is the kind of costly, joyful, world-altering worship that God desires, and it is the kind that will, in the end, fill the whole earth with His praise.