February 1 2026, Sunday School Lesson

Solomon’s Dedication Prayer

Lesson Text: 1 Kings 8:22-30

Related Scriptures:2 Samuel 7:4-25; 2 Chronicles 7:11-16; Nehemiah 1:1-11; Acts 7:44-50; 17:22-28

TIME: about 959 B.C.

PLACE: Jerusalem

Golden Text “And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of they people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive” (1 Kings 8:30)

INTRODUCTION

It was a great day in Israel. The long-awaited temple was completed, and Solomon made a dedication prayer to God for His faithfulness to the nation.

Solomon was especially grateful for the covenant that God made with his father, David. In that covenant God promised that one of David’s descendants would reign over Israel.

The event that led to God’s promise was David’s desire to build a temple for the Lord. Until that time the ark of the covenant remained in a tent. David was concerned that it was unjust to Israel’s great God to dwell in such a lowly estate. He deserved better than that! But because David was honor would fall to Solomon.

The tabernacle functioned as God’s dwelling place when His people wandered in the wilderness after God led them out of Egypt and delivered them from the Egyptian army. The temple would take its place and fulfill the same function as God’s dwelling place.

LESSON OUTLINE

1. The Lord’s Loyal Love Displayed – 1 Kings 8:22-24

2. The Lord’s Loyal Love Continued – 1 Kings 8:25-26

3. The Lord’s Nearness to His People – 1 Kings 8:27-30

QUESTIONS

1. What was the symbolic location where Solomon made his prayer, and what did the symbol mean (1 Kgs. 8:22)?

2. Why was the temple necessary?

3. What was significant about Solomon’s hands and the altar during his prayer?

4. In what way is God unparalleled in the universe, according to Solomon’s prayer in verse 23?

5. What three things did God promise to David in the covenant that Solomon mentioned in his prayer (vs. 24)?

6. Why did Solomon quote to God the promise that He made to David about the future of his royal line (vs. 25)?

7. How could God promise David an eternal kingdom when David’s descendants were disobedient (ss. 25-26)?

8. Why did Solomon say that the temple ws technically unnecessary (vs. 27)?

9. Why was the temple important for the relationship between God and Israel (vss. 27-28)?

10. Why did Solomon prescribe praying toward the temple (vss. 28-30)?

ANSWERS

1. Solomon chose a symbolic location for His temple-dedication prayer – the altar. He could have prayed outside the temple’s entrance like a modern day ribbon cutting ceremony, but he chose the place where the temple’s atoning sacrifices would be made for Israel’s sins.

2. Sin is why the temple was necessary. Without sin, there would be no separation between humanity and God that needed to be mediated by blood.

3. It seems the narrator wants the readers to remember what the hands and the altar represent – need and atonement.

4. Third, Solomon said that there is a special way that God is unparalleled in the universe: He is faithful to the covenant promises He made to His people (1 Kgs. 8:23).

5. God promised David at least three things there: that David’s son would build the temple (2 Sam. 7:12-13) that God would discipline but not abandon David’s royal descendants (vss. 14-15), and that Davids royal line would never end (vs. 16).

6. Solomon was understandably concerned about the second and third elements of the promises to David: that God would discipline yet not abandon David’s line and that David’s royal line would rule forever.

7. God knows that human faithfulness and performance cannot secure an eternal dynasty. Reflecting on the same promises to David a few centuries later, Isaiah would remind God’s people that only the Lord’s strength can yield an eternal kingdom (cf. Isa. 9:7).

8. He did not want Israel’s hope to be in the temple itself, as would occur later in Israel’s history (cf. Jer. 7:4). He wanted their hope to be in God.

9. Despite the temple’s inability to hold or pin down the Lord, Solomon boldly believed that God would use the temple to interact with His people.

10. God did not need His people to face a certain way to be heard by Him, but perhaps He knew it would help them offer their bodies (cf. Rom. 122:1-2) in repentant prayer while postured toward home.