Let him not leave us, nor forsake us

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5

1 Kings 8:57-58 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: 58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple. Please notice he had an eye on the past as he prayed. He knew of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and his father, David. He wanted to know the presence of God as these men knew him.

He also wanted to know that God would not leave them or forsake them. He had an eye on the future and he wanted a promise from God of his continued presence into the future.

Solomon was looking at the present as he prayed asking God to 'incline' the hearts of his people to himself. The Hebrew word here translated 'incline' means to bend or to stretch out. Solomon was asking God to bend the hearts of the people in God's direction. To literally stretch the people toward him! Like a sapling bending from the force of the wind, Solomon wanted the hearts of the people to feel the force of God's Spirit acting upon them to incline them in God's direction.

All of these prayers were answered in Jesus! For you an I who are the beneficiaries of the New Covenant, we have these promises.

John 14:16-20 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Jesus promised his continual presence with us.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

He has also has given us his Spirit.

John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

The Spirit of God is at work like the wind to incline our hearts in his direction.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

What a wonderful realization that our relationship with Jesus promises us his continual presence in our lives and the promise of changing us to be more like him.

In Christ,
Rody