2 Chronicles 7:1–10 (NIV)✞: The Dedication of the Temple
Passage
In the last passage they brought the Ark to the Temple and Solomon prayed for it. This passage picks up at the end of that prayer:
1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying,
“He is good;
his love endures forever.”
After this they offer sacrifices; if we’re to read verse 5✞ in a modern sense (see more below on this point), they offered 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. So many that they couldn’t use the altar for that purpose – there were simply too many sacrifices for one altar! So they had to consecrate the courtyard in front of the Temple for making sacrifices and do it there.
All of this took seven days – and then they took an additional seven days to hold a festival! In addition to the sacrifices there was music and, I presume, food, because you can’t have a festival without food.
Finally, finally, Solomon sends everyone home:
On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the LORD had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.
Thoughts
This is a pretty straightforward passage, and also marks a high point in Israel’s worship of God. From what I can tell, they’re doing everything right.
Even the point about having to use the courtyard instead of the altar for making sacrifices is important. It’s not just the number of sacrifices they’re making—elsewhere in the Bible God makes it clear that He isn’t impressed by sacrifices if they’re not made with a right heart—it’s the fact that they take the time to consecrate the area first. The word “consecrate” just means to make the area sacred – to set it apart for service to God. I like Merriam Webster’s “Kids Definition” a lot: “to devote to a purpose in a very sincere manner.” And I feel that’s exactly what Solomon and the Israelites are doing here: sincerely trying to dedicate the Temple in a way that will be acceptable to God.
God wasn’t impressed by the number of animals, except in the sense that the large number of animals was a sign of the Israelites’ heart.
Speaking of numbers, it’s worth mentioning that they didn’t use numbers in Old Testament times the same way we do. I know it’s very confusing to us, who have learned to use numbers in very specific ways—or rather, one very specific way!—but when it says 22K cattle or 120K sheep/goats it doesn’t mean they counted up the animals and that’s precisely how many there were. Numbers were used to communicate different information than what we’d call “scientific” – or even “mathematic,” I guess.
It doesn’t make the Bible inaccurate, it just wasn’t written to answer the questions we sometimes want it to answer, such as “how many animals were sacrificed exactly by the Israelites?” It’s why so many Bible commentaries will explain numbers used in the Bible according to their intended meaning (though my usual go-to commentary didn’t have anything to say about these numbers). Regardless, though, if the numbers weren’t exactly 22K and 120K, there were a lot of sacrifices made – enough that the altar couldn’t be used.
I figure this is a good passage to bring up this topic because it’s low stakes; nobody’s theology is going to be based on the specific number of cattle, sheep, and goats sacrificed by Solomon at the Temple1. On the other hand, if I was to bring up this point when it comes to, say, Revelation 13:18 (NIV)✞, I’m sure I’d get a lot of comments2. 🙃
Footnotes
- I say that, but it won’t surprise me to hear at some point that someone has created some kind of theological point on these numbers – we love creating weird, complex theories that go beyond what the Bible is trying to teach us. 🤣 ↩
- Of course I’m kidding. I don’t have enough readers to generate “a lot of comments,” no matter how controversial my posts are… ↩
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