2 Chronicles 2:5–6: “And the temple which I [Solomon] build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a temple, except to burn sacrifice before Him?”

September 19th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

King Solomon wanted to build an extravagant building for God. He understood that nothing man-made could contain the Creator of the cosmos, as even the universe is too small to enclose Him. And neither was he deceived into believing that somehow God needed him. When Solomon said the temple he built “will be great,” the literal meaning is “must be great.” This revealed Solomon’s heart for God. He wanted to honor God through the greatness of the building.

A country singer sang, “How big is God? / He’s big enough to rule the mighty universe, / Yet small enough to live within my heart.” God is bigger than all of life’s challenges. He is even bigger than the future. In fact, He is already there waiting for us. He is bigger than our shortcomings, our sins, our problems, and our failures. He is big enough to create and maintain all that exists and yet still able to intimately stoop down to the lowest sinner with His saving gift of grace. If God seems too vast, too distant to be reached, it is not a problem of dimension, size, or power on His part, but a problem of submission on ours.

Arturo Tuscani was a famous Italian symphony conductor who loved the works of Beethoven. While conducting the Philadelphia Symphony one evening in the Ninth Symphony, one of the most difficult pieces to direct, everything worked. It was so majestic and so moving that when the piece was completed, the audience stood for round after round of applause. The conductor bowed again and again. He turned to the orchestra; they bowed. The audience continued to clap and cheer. The orchestra members themselves were smiling and clapping. Finally, the conductor turned his back to the audience, and spoke quietly to the gifted musicians in the orchestra who had performed the piece so well. He said, “Ladies, gentlemen—I am nothing. You are nothing. Beethoven is everything.” This is a good illustration of how we should approach our God.

“LORD, You know we are nothing, but You, who are everything, have condescended to include us in Your kingdom. We surrender afresh to Your Lordship this day, O God.”