May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. [1 Kings 8.30 and 2 Chronicles 6.21]
The "place" Solomon was talking about was the newly constructed Temple. I want to explore what this might mean...
The Temple no longer exists as it was described in today's OYCB reading. It has long since been destroyed but not without a significant event occurring before its destruction. That significant event was that the veil (the curtain dividing the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where God met exclusively with the High Priest - the only person allowed in there) was supernaturally torn from top to bottom concurrent with the death of Jesus Christ.
The entire reason to look to the Temple as described by Solomon in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles was to obtain forgiveness. That forgiveness came from the One behind the aforementioned veil.
It should be understood that for the veil in the Temple to be torn was quite literally, "a deal breaker." For it to be torn from top to bottom is of utmost importance! Had the veil been torn from bottom to top, it would have signified the breach of man into God's realm - a sure death penalty. However, because it was torn from top to bottom, it signified just the opposite - the breach of God into man's realm!
Look at it like this: Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, revealed that man had to look to (and the High Priest go in the Most Holy Place of) the Temple to obtain forgiveness. Because of Adam's sin, every problem known to man is the result of that sin and therefore can only be remedied by forgiveness. That forgiveness came from behind the veil. But when that veil was torn by God, it was His bold move to breach that divider between Him and man to bring forgiveness to man instead of man having to come to Him for it. Stay with me... Because of His justice, the only way that veil could be removed without destroying mankind was for it to be removed by Himself (top to bottom), but also from the outside - man's side - and only by a perfect man presenting His perfect blood (to fulfill legal covenant terms), Jesus.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. [John 3.16-17]
Let's consider then what it means today to "look toward the Temple" when we pray... To receive forgiveness, we must receive Jesus. This is not our choice, but His choice:
You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. [John 15.16]
Jesus chose us when He died on the Cross. In fact, He chose everyone past, present and future, who looked, or ever would look to, Messiah as promised in Scripture. He chose us to forgive us, but there is a catch... While God devised the plan to tear the veil in the Temple, there remained another veil to be breached: the human heart. Unlike the veil of the Temple where God dwelt that had to be torn from the outside (top to bottom, from the position of perfection), the human heart's veil has to be torn from the inside (bottom to top, from the position of sinner). Jesus said it like this:
Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. [Revelation 3.20]
So let's get back to "the place" where we are to direct our prayer... As Jesus (One with God) comes to live in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, our prayers then don't have far to go! We don't pray to ourselves, but to God, Who dwells in us by the Holy Spirit commissioned by Jesus. Forgiveness is as near as our own heart.
Now, it seems so much more understandable that Jesus would teach us to pray these words:
...and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. [Matthew 6.12]
Why? Because forgiveness coming from our hearts is the same "pipeline" through which God's forgiveness comes to us!
If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. [Matthew 6.14-15]
When God gave His one and only Son, what He made available was forgiveness - the one thing man needed that he could not provide for himself in any way (this renders the whole popular phrase "you must first forgive yourself" purely nonsensical!). God, Who is love, forgives. That is what love does (see 1 Corinthians 13) - the action of love is forgiveness. This brings up an eternally significant point...
On the Cross, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing." (Luke 23.34) Jesus did not say this in response to their love toward Him! They were literally killing (crucifying) Him! Jesus said this out of the same faith WE ARE TO SAY IT. Jesus forgave with the same preemptive forgiveness we are to forgive with! Why? So HE MIGHT SECURE FORGIVENESS FOR ALL WHO ARE IN HIM SHOWING US THE WAY THAT FORGIVENESS TRANSMITS THE LOVE OF GOD!
How eternally tragic is it then that we can pray to God, as near to us as "the place" of our own heart, and still miss Him because we refuse to give to others the very thing we need from Him - forgiveness?
Father, may my prayer for, and resolve to, the world be forgiveness.
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