II Chronicles 6: 32-33
As for the foreigner who does not belong to Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great Name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm--when he comes and prays toward this Temple, then hear from Heaven, Your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the Earth may know Your Name and fear You, as do Your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears Your Name.
Solomon has just finished building and furnishing the Temple, the first ever built for the Lord God, and is praying over it, at its dedication.
King Solomon asked God for several things in this prayer, but I think the most memorable is this part, where he asks that when some foreign person who has no genetic connection to Israel at all (since Noah) comes to pray in or toward this Temple that is now God's dwelling place on Earth, that God would also hear his prayer, and respond in answer. That will allow other Nations, other peoples, to know that God is not only the God of Israel, but the Almighty God over the whole Earth, and have that reverential respect that is called fear for Him, and honor Him, and worship Him as the only God that He is.
God chose one Nation to receive His Law, build His Temple, and demonstrate to the World how good God is, and how much He loves people, all people everywhere. It is a great tragedy that Israel did not continue to honor God, but were so soon and often drawn away to other ways of thinking and living.
The Epistle to the Hebrew Christians begins by saying that, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, and through Whom He made the Universe" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
God spoke to Solomon, and He spoke through Solomon in expressing His desire to dwell with Mankind. He traveled with Israel through the Desert in a tent, the Tabernacle; now Solomon has built Him a magnificent House, The Temple, for God to dwell there with His people. Today He dwells with us in His Holy Spirit, right inside our own spirits. He gave His Law to Israel on stone tablets; He writes His Law on our hearts today, to not just consider the "letter of the law," but to understand the righteous moral principles that The Law was based on, going far deeper into obedience to His ways than ancient Israel understood.
May God's people today, Christians, found among both Israel and all other Nations of the World, be the example to the rest of the people of the World of how good, compassionate and just He is, the only God, the Maker and Sustainer of the whole Universe.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
