Though it happened at the dedication of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, I imagine it to have been a scene in a Monty Python movie! Solomon is praying in I Kings 8. And most of what he has prayed for is really good for the people of Israel. He’s asked God to bring justice between two individuals at the temple and to forgive them when they are defeated in battle because of their sin, and to help them when bad things like drought come their way. And you can just sense the power of the prayer. And you can feel the response of the people. I don’t know if they had their heads bowed or their heads raised. I don’t know if their hands were by their sides or if they all had them raised up like Solomon. There had to be some “Amens,” and some “Yes, Lords!” going on with this one. There just had to be chills up and down spines and tears streaming down faces. It had taken almost 500 years to get here. Five hundred years of bebopping around in the desert and battles and wars and inter-tribal conflict and it had all come together at one moment in Jerusalem and with the building of this temple for them, God’s chosen people. God now really dwelt in their midst and had a permanent place.
And then it happened. I wonder if Solomon paused before he said it. I wonder if he took a big gulp before he plunged in. What he utters is possibly the most universalistic passage in the Hebrew Bible—and I doubt that anybody expected it. Everyone is in a rhythm here—–
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