Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 8:27
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?
27. will God in very deed dwell on the earth? ] The LXX. adds ‘with men.’
the heaven and heaven of heavens ] The expression is found in Deu 10:14; Ps. 67:36, Ps. 113:16, and is used to express the widest compass of heaven.
this house which I have builded ] The LXX. adds ‘for Thy name.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
heaven of heavens – Compare Deu 10:14; Psa 148:4. It seems to mean the heaven in its most extended compass. Solomon combines with his belief in Yahwehs special presence in the temple, the strongest conviction that He is no local or finite deity, but is ever present everywhere. Compare Psa 139:7-10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ki 8:27
But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Of the omnipresence of God
I. The truth of the assertion itself. That God must of necessity be omnipresent; tis to be observed that if being or existence be at all a perfection, it will follow, that in like manner as continuing to exist through larger periods of Time, so also extent of existence through larger portions of space, is the having a greater degree of this Perfection. And as that Being, which is absolutely perfect, must with regard to duration be Eternal; so, in respect of greatness, it must likewise be immense. Otherwise its perfections will be limited; which is the notion of imperfection; and, by being supposed to be finite in extent, the perfection of its power will as totally be destroyed, as it would be, supposing it to be temporary in duration. For as any Being, which is not always; at the time when it is not, is as if it never was; so whatever Being is not everywhere; in those places where it is not, is as if it had no Being in any place at all. For no being can act where it is not, any more than when it is not. Power, without existence, is but an empty word without any reality; and the scholastic fiction of a being acting in all places without being present in all places, is either making the notion of God an express contradiction, or else a supposing Him so to act by the ministry of others, as not to be Himself present to understand and know what they do. It cannot but be evident, that He who made all things, as He could not but be before the things that He made, so it is not possible but He must be present also, with the things that He made and governs. For things could not be made without the actual presence of the Power that made them; nor can things ever be governed with any certainty, unless the Wisdom that governs them be present with them. Whatever arguments therefore prove the Being of God, and His unerring Providence, must all be understood to prove equally likewise His actual omnipresence. He who exists by necessity of nature, tis manifest must exist in all places alike. For absolute necessity is at all times and in all places the same. Whatever can be absent at any time, may be absent at all times; and whatever can be absent from one place, may be absent from another; and consequently can have no necessity of existing at all. He therefore who exists necessarily, must necessarily exist always and everywhere: that is, as he must in duration be eternal, so he must also in immensity be omnipresent.
II. To offer some particular observations concerning the nature and circumstances of this Divine attribute.
1. The excellency of the perfections of God does not consist in impossible and contradictory notions, but in true greatness, dignity, majesty, and glory. The eternity of God does not consist in making time past to be still present, and future time to be already come, but it consists in a true proper everlasting duration, without beginning and without end. And in like manner the Immensity of God does not consist in making things to be where they are not, or not to be where they are, but it consists in this; that whereas all finite beings can be present but in one determinate place at once: and corporeal beings even in that one place very imperfectly and unequally, to any purpose of power or activity, only by the successive motion of different members and organs; the Supreme Cause on the contrary, being a uniform Infinite Essence, and comprehending all things perfectly in Himself, is at all times equally present, both in His real essence, and by the immediate and perfect exercise of all His attributes, to every point of the boundless immensity, as if it were all but one single point. Tis worthy of observation, that this right notion of the omnipresence of God, will very much assist us to form a just apprehension of the nature of that Providence, which attends to and inspects, not only the great events, but even the minutest circumstances of every the smallest action and event in the world: Even that Providence, without which not a sparrow falls to the ground, and by which the very hairs of our head are all numbered. There is a certain determinate number or quantity of things, which every intelligent creature, according to the proportion of its sphere of power and activity, is able to attend to. And by this we may judge, that as creatures of larger capacities can observe a much greater number of things at one and the same time, than beings of a lower rank can imagine it possible they should, so God, who is present everywhere, can with infinitely greater ease direct and govern all things in the world at once, than we can attend to those few things which fall within the compass of our short observation.
3. As the beams of the sun are not at all soiled by the matter they shine upon, and as the purity and holiness of the Divine nature is not in the least diminished by beholding all the wickedness and moral impurity which is acted in the world, so the omnipresent Essence of God is not at all affected, by any natural impurity of things or places whatsoever; it being the superlative excellency and prerogative of His nature, to act always upon all things everywhere, and itself to be acted upon by nothing. All the sensible qualities of matter are merely relative to us in our present state, depending on the frame of our bodily organs, and not being anything really inherent in the things themselves. We behold only the outward surfaces of things, and are affected only by the various motions and figures of certain small parts of matter, which, by the help of microscopes, appear even to us to be really very different in themselves from what our senses represent them; and to a spirit, which sees the inward real essences of things, and not the external sensible images which affect us, they have no similitude at all with our imaginations.
4. The true meaning therefore of Gods being in heaven, is to express His height and dignity, not in place, but in power: It being only a similitude drawn into common speech, from the situation of things in nature. As the heavenly bodies, the sun and stars, are high above us in place, and all earthly blessings depend on the sun and rain and the descent of kindly influences literally from above, so, by an easy figure of speech, whatsoever is above us in power, we are from hence used to represent as being above us in place.
III. Some useful inferences from what has been said.
1. By this character of omnipresence, the true God of the universe is distinguished from all false deities; and the vanity of idolatry, made plainly to appear. The gods of the nations pretended to be but gods of particular countries; as the gods of Henah, Ivah, and Sepharvaim (2Ki 18:34). Or, of particular parts of the same country; as gods of the hills, and not of the valleys (1Ki 20:28).
2. If God is omnipresent, from hence it follows that he is to be worshipped and reverenced everywhere, in private as well as in public. Honour is to be paid Him, not only by angels before His throne in heaven, and by the congregation publicly in His Temple on earth, but also by every man singly in his most private retirements.
3. From the consideration of Gods being omnipresent, it follows that His power (as well as knowledge) is unlimited; to Be everywhere relied on by good men, and to be feared by bad. As there is no time, so neither is there any place, where He is not at hand to protect His servants (Psa 46:1). (S. Clarke, D. D.)
Gods dwelling-place
Collins the free-thinker met a simple countryman one Sunday morning going to church. He asked him where he was going. To church, sir, was the mans reply. And what do you do when you get there said the free-thinker. I worship God. Pray tell me, said Collins, whether your God is a great God or a little God? He is both, said the man. How can He be both? said Collins. Why, sir, was the answer, He is so great that the heavens cannot contain Him, and so little that He can dwell in my heart. Collins afterwards declared that this simple answer from the countryman had more effect upon his mind than all the books the learned men had written against him. (Quiver.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth?] This expression is full of astonishment, veneration, and delight. He is struck with the immensity, dignity, and grandeur of the Divine Being, but especially at his condescension to dwell with men: and though he sees, by his filling the place, that he has come now to make his abode with them, yet he cannot help asking the question, How can such a God dwell in such a place, and with such creatures?
Behold, the heaven] The words are all in the plural number in the Hebrew: hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; “the heavens, and the heavens of heavens.” What do these words imply? That there are systems, and systems of systems, each possessing its sun, its primary and secondary planets, all extending beyond each other in unlimited space, in the same regular and graduated order which we find to prevail in what we call our solar system; which probably, in its thousands of millions of miles in diameter, is, to some others, no more than the area of the lunar orbit to that of the Georgium Sidus. When God, his manifold wisdom, his creative energy, and that space which is unlimited, are considered, it is no hyperbole to say that, although the earth has been created nearly six thousand years ago, suns, the centres of systems, may have been created at so immense a distance that their light has not yet reached our earth, though travelling at the rate of one hundred and ninety thousand miles every second, or upwards of a million times swifter than the motion of a cannon ball! This may be said to be inconceivable; but what is even all this to the vast immensity of space! Had God created a system like ours in every six days since the foundation of the world, and kept every seventh as a Sabbath; and though there might have been by this time [A.M. 5823 ineunte, A.D. 1819, ineunte] three hundred and three thousand five hundred and seventy-five mundane systems, they would occupy but a speck in the inconceivable immensity of space. Reader, all this and millions more is demonstrably possible; and if so, what must God be – illud inexprimibile – who i-n-h-a-b-i-t-e-t-h E-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Reflecting upon Gods performance of his promise concerning the building of the temple, he breaks forth into admiration, Is it possible that the great, and high, and lofty God should stoop so low, as to take up his dwelling here amongst men? O astonishing condescension!
The heaven; all this vast space of the visible heaven.
And heaven of heavens; the third and highest, and therefore the largest heaven, called the heaven of heavens here, as also Deu 10:14; Psa 148:4, for its eminency and comprehensiveness.
Cannot contain thee; for thy essence teacheth far beyond them, being omnipresent.
How much less this house that I have builded? this house therefore was not built as if it were proportionable to thy greatness, or could contain thee, but only that therein we might serve and glorify thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But will God indeed dwell on the earth?…. Is it true? Can any credit be given to it? Who could ever have thought it, that so great and glorious a Being, who inhabits eternity, dwells in the highest heavens, should ever condescend to dwell on earth? Such was the amazing condescension of Christ, the Son of God, to tabernacle in human nature with men on earth, to which Solomon perhaps might have respect; his temple being the figure of his body, in which the Godhead dwells, Joh 2:19
behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; not, only the visible heavens, but the third heaven, where the throne of God is, and is the habitation of angels and saints; though there God makes the most glorious displays of himself yet he is so immense and infinite, that he is not to be comprehended and circumscribed in any place whatever:
how much less this house that I have builded? Though temples built for idols contain them, and are large enough, yet Solomon had no notion, when he built his temple, though it was for the name of God, that he was restrained to it, but dwelt everywhere, filling heaven and earth with his presence.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(27, 28) Will God indeed dwell.The thought expressed here exemplifies a constant antithesis which run through the Old Testament. On the one hand, there is the most profound and unvarying conception of the Infinity, eternal, invisible, incomprehensible, of the Lord, as the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity, whom the heaven of heavensthe heaven, that is, in all its vastest extentcannot contain; and the spirituality of this conception is guarded by the sternest prohibition of that idolatry which limited and degraded the idea of God, and by rebuke of the superstition which trusted in an intrinsic sacredness of the Ark or the Temple. On the other hand, there is an equally vivid conviction that the Infinite Jehovah is yet pleased to enter into a special covenant with Israel, beyond all other nations, to reveal Himself by the cloud in the midst of His people, to bless, with a peculiar blessing, the place which He chooses to place His Name there. The two conceptions co-exist, as in the text, in complete harmony, both preparing for the perfect manifestation of a God with us in that kingdom of the Messiah, which was at once to perfect the covenant with Israel, and to include all peoples, nations, and languages for ever and ever. The words of Solomon in spirit anticipate the utterance of the prophet (Isa. 66:1), quoted by St. Stephen against idolatry of the Temple (Act. 7:48), and even the greater declaration of our Lord (Joh. 4:21-24) as to the universal presence of God to all spiritual worship. Yet he feels the reality of the consecration of the House raised by the command of God; and prays that all who recognise it by prayer toward this house, may enter into the special unity with God which it symbolises, and be heard by Him from heaven. By an instructive contrast, the Temple is described as the place where Gods Namethat is, His self-revelationis made to dwell; but heaven, and it alone, as the true dwelling- place of God Himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Will God indeed dwell on the earth An expression of pious wonder and astonishment, and, with the sequel, an utter refutation of those rationalistic critics who affirm that the Israelites had no worthy and enlarged conceptions of Deity.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built.”
But Solomon was very much aware of the greatness and the glory of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and recognised that such a God could not be limited to earth, even though He might have dealings with man on earth. He was after all the ‘Creator of Heaven and earth’ (Gen 1:1), ‘the Judge of all the earth’ (Gen 18:25), the One Who had a stairway between earth and Heaven and ministered on earth through His angels (Gen 28:12-17), the One Who ‘will be what He will be’ (Exo 3:14), the deliverer from and devastater of mighty Egypt (Exo 20:2), the God of Sinai Who could come and go as He would (Exo 19:16-18; Exo 24:16-17), God Almighty (Gen 17:1). How then could such a God be confined to a building on earth?
Indeed he recognised that God was so great that Heaven itself, and even the extremest Heaven, could not contain Him. He could break out in power wherever He would. How then could He be contained in a man built house? Such a concept was only unique, firstly in its concept of the overall greatness of the One God, and secondly in that it had as its background the Scriptures, for no nations of that day in fact believed that they could confine their gods to their temples. The difference lay rather in the fact that they thought that through their temples and their priests they could manipulate their gods, while Solomon was well aware that God could not be manipulated, and instead worked His own will. ‘I will be what I will be’ (Exo 3:14). He was bound only because of His covenant promises, and even they were largely (although not wholly) dependent on the obedience of His servants. He was the One Who acted as He would, where He would.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
Ver. 27. Will God indeed dwell on the earth? ] Mirabundus ita exclamat, saith Vatablus, who further observeth here, that the Hebrew words are preposterously put together, as importing an ecstasy of admiration.
Behold, the heaven.
And heaven of heavens.
Cannot contain thee.
a Bernard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
will. ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6. Compare 2Ch 6:18. Isa 66:1. Act 7:48, Act 7:49.
indeed = in truth.
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
heaven, &c. Figure of speech Polyptoton (App-6), for emphasis.
how much. ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
But will: 2Ch 6:18, Isa 66:1, Joh 1:14, Act 7:48, Act 7:49, Act 17:24, 2Co 6:16, 1Jo 3:1
the heaven: Deu 10:14, 2Ch 2:6, Psa 113:4, Psa 139:7-16, Jer 23:24, 2Co 12:2
Reciprocal: Exo 15:2 – an habitation Lev 26:11 – I will Deu 12:5 – habitation Deu 26:15 – Look down 2Sa 6:9 – How shall 1Ki 6:13 – I will dwell 1Ch 13:12 – How 1Ch 17:5 – dwelt 1Ch 23:25 – that they may dwell in Jerusalem Ezr 1:2 – Lord God Neh 9:5 – exalted Neh 9:6 – the heaven Job 9:14 – How much Job 35:5 – Look Job 36:26 – we Psa 8:1 – thy Psa 18:6 – my cry Psa 33:14 – General Psa 132:5 – an habitation Psa 132:14 – here will Psa 148:4 – heavens Isa 57:15 – I dwell Isa 63:15 – the habitation Dan 2:11 – whose Mat 23:21 – and by Act 17:27 – he be Rev 21:3 – Behold Rev 21:22 – I saw
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GODS DWELLING PLACE
Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
1Ki 8:27
I. Every one will recall the scene of Solomon, the master-mind stored with all the learning of the day, dedicating the Temple to God.He was speaking to a nation naturally given to idolatry and to the localisation of worship, to a nation exclusive in their religion and almost incurable in their low, semi-materialistic ideas of God, speaking, too, at the moment of dedicating their most magnificent Temple to their national God; and yet he rises far abovenay, he cuts clean acrossall their national prejudices, and in these sublime words reveals that God is infinite, not to be comprehended in temple or shrine. It was a stage in the revelation of God given to the world through Solomon, the great student of His works, a further revelation of the immensity, the inconceivability, of God. And yet Solomon dedicated the Temple to become the centre of the passionate religious fervour of the nation, to be deemed for a thousand years the most sacred spot in all the earth. How shall we regard this? Was it in Solomon a hypocritical condescension to popular superstition, and in the people an unconscious or forced inconsistency, or was it not rather in both a flash of anticipation of the great truth that every form of worship is inadequate and even misleading until we see its inadequacy?
II. We also have to learn this lesson, that all opinions about God, all systems of theology, are provisional, temporary, educational, like the Temple.They are not the essence of truth. It is the deepest conviction, not of philosophers only, but of the pious congregations of our land also, that the harmony, and co-operation, and brotherhood of Christians is the will of God concerning us, and that it is not to be sought for in unity of opinion, and can never be obtained as long as opinion is held to be of primary importance in religion. It is to be sought for in some far deeper unity of faith in Christ and service to Him. In the ideal Christianity which Christ taught opinion is nothing, and purity of life, charity, and the love of God are everything. Let us, each in our own little circles, try to assist in this glorious transformation of Christianity by the steady subordination of opinion to the practical service of Jesus Christ.
Canon J. M. Wilson.
Illustrations
(1) We have here a striking description of the immensity and omnipresence of God. We have frequent expressions in Scripture of God being in heaven; the meaning of which is, not that He Who is in all places can be confined to any, or that any proper habitation can be ascribed to Him, Whom, as Solomon declares, the heaven of heavens cannot contain; but they are intended to represent His amazing height and dignity, not in place, but in power. Another reason of the expression of Gods being in heaven, is to signify that, though of His real, actual presence there is no confinement, yet of His glory and majesty there is in the heavens a particular manifestation. There it is that His glory is declared, and there the righteous shall see His face, and be blessed with the peculiar manifestation of His power and majesty. In like manner here upon earth; in those places where He has been pleased more particularly to manifest His glory, to place His name, and to receive the homage of His servants, there God, in Scripture phrase, is said to be. Thus in the Temple at Jerusalem, He, Whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, did at this time deign to dwell, having appointed there to receive His tribute of worship.
(2) Heaven of heavens is a Hebrew superlative, like holy of holies, servant of servants, king of kings, song of songs, and denotes the highest heavens, the supreme place of the Divine abode (cf. 2Co 12:2). The immensity of Gods being is such, that He cannot be limited to any locality however vast or glorious (cf. Isa 66:1). In building a house for God, therefore, Solomon had no gross or materialistic conception of the Most High. He was fully aware of Jehovahs infinity, spirituality, and omnipresence; but he hoped and prayed that there might be a special manifestation of Gods presence in this house to His worshipping people.
(3) Solomon was not afraid to pray because some one might see or hear him do so. He would not have gone to prayer-meeting every week for thirty years without ever opening his lips.
Solomon prayed with his voice, his hands, and his heartwith all of himself. So does every wise man who prays wisely.
Solomon prayed because he had something to pray for, and not because it is customary to have two prayers before the sermon and one after, or because there were yet fifteen minutes before the time to close the meeting, and that quarter of an hour must be occupied somehow.
Solomon did not address the Lord as an equal; neither did he patronise the providence of God. He could be the richest man in the Church and still be a Christian.
Solomon did not hesitate, however, to assume that he had a claim upon the Lord. Every believer has such a claimelse what would be the signficance of the Divine promises?
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Ki 8:27. But will God indeed dwell on earth? Is it possible that the great and high and holy God, the infinite, the eternal, should stoop so low as to take up his dwelling among men? Behold the heaven, &c. All this vast space of the visible heaven; nay, the third and highest, therefore most extensive heaven, called, for its eminence and comprehensiveness, the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee For thy essence reacheth far beyond them, being omnipresent. Much less this house Which, therefore, was not built as if it were proportionable to thy greatness, or could contain thee, but only that therein we might serve and glorify thee.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:27 {i} But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
(i) He is ravished with the admiration of God’s mercies, who being incomprehensible and Lord over all will become familiar with men.