Solomon's Closing Blessing Of The People (1 Kings 8:55-62).
In his first blessing (1 Kings 8:14-21), prior to his major prayer, Solomon had been concerned to establish the credentials of the Temple. Now, however, his concern was for the spiritual life of the people in a blessing which to begin with clearly echoes the last part of the Book of Joshua. Like Joshua he was calling on them once again to renew the covenant (see Joshua 24). He consequently called on YHWH not to forsake them but to incline their hearts to obey and follow Him, and to so hear the intercession that he had made that He would maintain the cause of His people and bring glory to His Name throughout the earth. And he then completed his blessing with a call to the people of Israel to walk truly with God in full obedience to His commandments.
Analysis.
a And he stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be YHWH, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word (dabar) of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant” (1 Kings 8:55-56)
b “YHWH our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us, nor forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers” (1 Kings 8:57-58).
c “And let these my words, with which I have made supplication before YHWH, be nigh to YHWH our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that YHWH, he is God; there is none else” (1 Kings 8:59-60)
b “Let your heart therefore be perfect with YHWH our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day” (1 Kings 8:61).
a And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before YHWH (1 Kings 8:62).
Note that in ‘a' Solomon blessed the assembly of Israel and pointed out what YHWH had done for them, and in the parallel the king and all Israel offered sacrifices before YHWH. In ‘b' He calls on God to incline their heart to obedience to His commandments, and in the parallel he urges the people to obey His commandments. Centrally in ‘c' he asks that YHWH would so hear the prayer that he had prayed that He might maintain their cause and bring glory to His own Name around the world.
‘ And he stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be YHWH, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word (dabar) of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.”
Having completed his dedicatory prayer Solomon then stood and blessed ‘the assembly of Israel', pointing out that YHWH had fulfilled, in an even greater way than He had previously, His promise to Israel of rest from all their enemies. He saw his day as being the culmination of all God's promises of rest, for as he looked around the kingdom appeared stable, and no enemies were remotely threatening.
His words here very much have the closing Chapter s of the Book of Joshua in mind, with Solomon extending the ideas to his own day. We should consider, for example, Joshua 22:4, ‘and now YHWH your God has given rest to your brothers as He spoke to them '. Joshua 23:1, ‘and it came about after many days, when YHWH had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about.' Joshua 23:14, ‘ not one good word (dabar) has failed of all the good things which YHWH your God promised concerning you' (said Moses).. Thus Solomon saw these words as finding even deeper fulfilment in the circumstances in which Israel now found themselves than they had in Joshua's day. And we should note that in these words Joshua was leading Israel up to the point of renewing the covenant and renouncing all other gods (Joshua 24:23-25).
And many a time after that Israel had found rest from all their enemies. It was not a new concept. Consider for example Judges 3:11; Judges 3:30; Judges 5:31. But the problem was that every time that rest had been disturbed because other enemies had arisen. But now at last it appeared as though God had given permanent rest to His people.
This idea of God's rest now given was again prominent in 2 Samuel 7:1; 2 Samuel 7:11, where it led up to the giving of the everlasting covenant to David. And in 1 Kings 5:4 Solomon saw it as grounds for building the Temple, which he saw as associated with that covenant. It may well be that he had Deuteronomy 12:10-11 in mind where the arrival of God's rest was to be followed by the establishing of His Sanctuary at the place where YHWH would choose, which Solomon now saw (and wanted the people to see) as Jerusalem. These words in Deuteronomy had already, however, been fulfilled, when Joshua renewed the covenant at the holy site at Shechem (Joshua 8:30), the place at which YHWH had clearly recorded His Name (note how Exodus 20:24-25 is cited as authority for his act), prior to His choosing Shiloh. And we need have no doubt that Joshua had arranged for the offering of burnt offerings on the altar on Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30) at that covenant ceremony, for no covenant ceremony would have been complete without them. (See also 1 Chronicles 22:9; 1 Chronicles 22:18; 1 Chronicles 23:25).
And now as Solomon looked around at his great empire, and his doughty warriors, and his powerful chariots, he probably felt that they had attained to the ultimate rest. For what could possibly disturb the peace of such an empire? And he wanted it known that the Temple was closely connected with this final fulfilment of YHWH's promises of rest, as the Sanctuary to supersede all sanctuaries. It must have appeared that all was well indeed.