12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice . 13 " If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain , or if I command the locust to devour the land , or if I send pestilence among My people , 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways , then I will hear from heaven , will forgive their sin and will heal their land . 15 " Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place . 16 "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever e , and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually e . 17 "As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked , even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances , 18 then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David , saying , ' You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel .' 19 " But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples . 21 "As for this house , which was exalted , everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say , ' Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house ?' 22 "And they will say , 'Because e they forsook the Lord , the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt , and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore e He has brought all this adversity on them.' "
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Chronicles 7:12-22
Chapter Contents
God's answer to Solomon's prayer.
God gave a gracious answer to Solomon's prayer. The mercies of God to sinners are made known in a manner well suited to impress all who receive them, with his majesty and holiness. The people worshipped and praised God. When he manifests himself as a consuming Fire to sinners, his people can rejoice in him as their Light. Nay, they had reason to say, that God was good in this. It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, but the sacrifice in our stead, for which we should be very thankful. And whoever beholds with true faith, the Saviour agonizing and dying for man's sin, will, by that view, find his godly sorrow enlarged, his hatred of sin increased, his soul made more watchful, and his life more holy. Solomon prosperously effected all he designed, for adorning both God's house and his own. Those who begin with the service of God, are likely to go on successfully in their own affairs. It was Solomon's praise, that what he undertook, he went through with; it was by the grace of God that he prospered in it. Let us then stand in awe, and sin not. Let us fear the Lord's displeasure, hope in his mercy, and walk in his commandments.