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Verse:And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them. —1 Kings 8:50
Solomon recognized the possibility that Israel would sin so grievously that the Lord would be forced to withdraw His protection, and he prayed God would not forget His people and would show them compassion. “This prayer of Solomon, offered three and a half centuries before the Exile, is very similar to the prayer of Daniel at the time the captivity in Babylon was drawing to its close (Dan. 9:2–19). As the Temple was being dedicated there seemed little need for such a prayer as this. But with inspired foresight, Solomon envisioned an hour when that splendid Temple would lie in ruins, when the Land of Promise would be a land of bitterness and distress, and the children of Israel would be outcasts in an alien land. There is a touching pathos in the fact that at the hour of Israel’s greatest glory, Solomon prayed the same kind of prayer that Daniel prayed at the hour of his nation’s greatest shame. Both prayers were needed and both were heard. The first was not only a prayer, it was also a message of warning that would help to avert the doom that transgression would bring. The other would rise to a God in heaven who waited only for a genuine repentance on the part of His people before permitting their return from captivity.” Solomon believed the deliverance from Egyptian bondage was proof God would not desert His people should they fall captive to another nation. Israel was God’s inheritance and His chosen people (Deuteronomy 4:20; 9:26, 29). God chose them from among all nations of the earth and made a covenant with them. He established them in the Promised Land (Exodus 19:4–6; Deuteronomy 9:29; 2 Samuel 7:23; Psalm 135:4). To reject them in the future would bring dishonor to His name (Psalm 79:9, 10; Daniel 9:19; Ezekiel 20:9, 14, 22).
But God’s promise of protection was always conditional on His people keeping His commandments. Solomon’s touching prayer stands for all who need grace and redemption! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).