The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 91

fearful fulfilment of the solemn warning of the text. God deals with families and with notions now as he dicl with his own people. If they walk in truth, in wisdom, in righteousness, in godliness, they are established; but if they depart from faith and purity, they fall. History will furnish ample illustration of the doctrine; the observation of one long life will supply strong corroboration of its truth. III. 'l'HE INDIVIDUAL BOUL. God makes very great promises to us all; they are "exceeding great and precious n (2 Pet. i. 4). 'fhey include the forgiveness of sins, restoration to perfect eonship, guidance and provision through all our earthly course, the preservation of our spiritual integrity in trial and temptation, a full response to our prayer and our Christian effort, peace in death, everlasting glory. But not one of these is promised to us irrespective of our attitude or our action. We must repent of our sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we would be forgiven and restored; we must seek first the kingdom of God, and ask honestly and sincerely for Di vine help, if we would receive all needful blessings for the life that now is; we must shun the spiritual peril which we are not called upon to face, and strive against the enemy we have to encounter, if we would prevail against our adversaries ; we must abide in Christ, if we would bear the fruits of the Spirit of God; we must be prayerful and persevering and devoted, if we would work a good work for our Lord and our race; we must be faithful unto death, if we would wear and win "the crown of life."--C. Vers.1-7.-Theacceptanceof Solomon'sprayer. I. THE ANSWERING Goo. (Vers.1, 2.) By himself set forth (Isa. !xv. 24; Jer. xxxiii. 3), by his people recognized (Ps. !xv. 2; xcix. 8; Isa. !viii. 9), and by Christ revealed (Matt. vii. 7-11; xviii. 19; John xvi. 23) as a Hearer of prayer, Jehovah responded to the intercession of Israel's king by a twofold sign. 1. By fire from heaven. "The God that answereth by fire," said Elijah upon Carmel," let him be God" (1 Kings xviii. 24); and in this case" the fire came down from heaven and consumed"-not the people, as it did Nadab and Abihu (Lev. x. 2), and Azariah's captains with their fifties (2 Kings i. 10, 12, 14), and as James and John wished it to do to the Samaritans (Luke ix. 54); but the sac1ifices, as it did with Moses (Lev. ix. 24), Gideon (Judg. vi. 21), David (1 Chron. xxi. 26), and Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 38). 'l'hat this fire was that which symbolized Jehovab's presence at the bush (Exod. iii. 2), on Mount Sinai (Exod. xix. 18), at Horeb (1 Kings xix. 12), on the Chebar (Ezek. i. 4), in Babylon (Dan. vii. 9), and now also in the temple, may be assumed. 'l'hat as a symbol this fire pointed to the holiness and judicial wrath of God against sin seems pl_ausi~le and indeed probable (see Delitzsch's' Biblical Psychology,' p. 225, Eng. trans.); 1f so 1t becomes apparent, without comment, why the sacrifices and not the people were devoured. 'l'he victims on the altars were the people's substitutes the bearers of the people's sins ; hence on them rather than on the people the fire fro~ heaven fell. 'l'he consumption of the sacrifices was an intimation that the people were accepted. Ori if_ fire be ta.ken as the symbol of God's refining and sanctifying power (Kurtz,' Sacnfic1al Worship of the Old Testament,' p. 155, Eng. trans.), the notion is hard~y different, since God refines and sanctifies by burning up and destroying (legally ~y his judicial wrath, and spiritually by his gracious influences within the soul) all that is smful, and therefore obnoxious to his holiness and justice alike (cf. Heb. xii. 29). So God still accepts the inward spiritual sacrifices of his people by sending down upon them fire from heaven, by annihilating and destroying the sin that attaches to them, through the fire of Christ's Passion, and by refining the hearts that offer them through the fire of his Spirit (Matt. iii. 11). 2. By the glory-cloud. This, which appears to have taken possession of the holy of holies, and indeed of the entire shrine i=ediately on the close of the ceremony of the introduction of the ark (ver. 14), is again said to have filled the house. Not that it had withdrawn from the house and afterwards returned. when Solomon had ended his prayer ; but merely that the two things are now brought together--the fire upon the altar and the glory in the house as parts of one and the same complex phenomenon, which indicated the acceptance of Solomon's temple and prayer. The heart which God :accepts he stills fills with his glory-the ~lory of his presence as e. prayer-hearing, sin-forgiving, love-manifesting, holiness-working, glory- preparing God (John xiv. 21, 23; Rom. v. 6; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Col. i. 27; Rev. iii. 20). II. TnE WOI\SHil'PING PEOPLE. (Ver. 3.) Overawed by the spectacle they beheld, the people adored the presence of their covenant God and condescending King, preseuting 92 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICL~S. [on. vit, 1-22,