God On Earth? (1 Kings 8:27)

 


Tuesday, 9 September, 2025


Psalm 22:1-22

1 Kings 8:22-36

Acts 27:1-12


God On Earth? (1 Kings 8:27)


[Solomon prayed] “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”


I think I have mused before on an idea that we have about God, where we are little fish in a big sea, and God is a really big fish that we have to swim in a certain direction to try and find, where in reality, it is more the case that God is the ocean itself. King Solomon seems to have a similar idea as he dedicates the Temple, with almost Jewish humour, remarking that this amazing building is ridiculous when compared with the immensity of God.


The fact that God is really big is something I think we all learn pretty early on in our Christian journey. And even now I am falling into the same linguistic trap as Solomon: God is more than just “really big”; behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain him.


And yet we know that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. In him was the fullness of God. Heaven and the highest heaven could not contain God, much less Solomon’s Temple. Even so, the eternal Word of God was made flesh and made his dwelling among us.


Perhaps it is not so much that God is really big and we can’t build a house big enough that he won’t bump his head walking around; perhaps it is more the fact that we cannot build a box big enough to contain him. God does whatever God wants to do. And once upon a time, God wanted to walk on the earth and die for the sins of his people. And so the Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, of one being with the Father, veiled his divinity, took on human flesh, died on a cross, and rose again three days later. Things worked out really well for us when God exercised his free will like that.


Do you have anything going on right now that you really wish God would do something about? Is there a possibility that God is doing something about it, it’s just a bigger and better solution than anything you may have come up with?


Peerless God, Lord of heaven and earth: grant to us a trust in your plan for our lives, that we might see the greatness of your steadfast love for us.

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