Forgiveness

Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication (1 Kings 8) is a prayer about prayer. It’s a prayer that future prayers will be heard. His petitions take the form: “When Israel suffers from X, and turns to You in Your house, deliver them from X.”

Solomon’s petitions for future petitions repeatedly deal with sin and forgiveness. Defeat before an enemy is “because they have sinned against You” (v. 33); drought comes “because they have sinned against you” (v. 35); at the extreme, Israel may be driven from the land because “You are angry with them” (v. 46). If sin is the cause of Israel’s distress, then what they seek is forgiveness. And that’s what Solomon asks Yahweh to grant (vv. 34, 36, 39, 50).

It is clear throughout the prayer that “mere” forgiveness won’t do. If Israel is defeated before an enemy, it’s not enough for Yahweh to forgive. Having forgiven, Solomon hopes He will also “bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers” (v. 34). Having forgiven during drought, Solomon asks Yahweh to “send rain on Your land” (v. 36).

Forgiveness is not merely a restoration of Israel’s standing or communion with God. Forgiveness is integrally linked with Yahweh’s intervention to change Israel’s condition. Forgiveness will have public consequences: Enemy armies will flee, rain will fall, food will be abundant, Israel will return from exile.