Summary

1 Kings 8:46–53 presents a big difficulty for the commentator who is trying to do verse-by-verse commentary. The verses are so intertwined that it is difficult to deal with them separately, but each part of this petition does have meaning that needs to come to the front. So we can deal with them in short sections but with the understanding that the thoughts are very much tied together.

The last specific example of prayer to God toward the temple is in one sense dealing with a certain perceived issue but at the same time it takes into consideration the general state of all humanity.

The supposition is that the people have sinned against God, incurred his anger, and found themselves carried away captive. When we consider this circumstance, thought must be given to the fact that in the first place, they were warned against this by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. In the second place, we know from the history that 2 Kings itself records that the situation of captivity would become a reality, first for the northern kingdom of Israel and then for Judah. Therefore, we are dealing with something that is not merely hypothetical but that would become in centuries later a grim reality for both Israel and Judah.

The translators have used the word if to begin the petition. There is, however, no doubt that this will be the case, that people will sin. Solomon in his prayer made sure that this certainty was understood. For he includes the explanatory clause, For there is no one who does not sin. Thus, Solomon shows that he knew that sin was universal and no one escaped guilt in regard to that.

There is, however, something that we might miss if we read this petition too rapidly. The circumstance that Solomon foresees is not that the sin receives a mere slap on the wrist but that the sin was serious enough to bring captivity to the people of Israel. We need to look at the statement that there is no one who does not sin, together with the truth that the sin Solomon foresaw would lead to captivity. This teaches us that the statement about the universality of sin is also meant to instruct us as to the dire sinfulness of sin. Solomon said that the sin of which everyone is guilty is serious enough to bring the promised judgment of captivity of which Moses had spoken so long ago. To sin against God is no light matter. Whether or not captivity would be God’s judgment on every sin committed in Israel, Solomon was teaching here that there would be a just punishment for any sin.

Looking a little deeper into the matter of the language that Solomon used in this petition, a question might very well arise in our minds. How could Solomon be so confident to make the statement about the universality of sin? Did he make a general statement based upon his experience and nothing more? Did he rather make a statement that showed that he had an understanding of what today we call original sin? If the former is true, then Solomon would be left with an insoluble question: Why does everyone sin? Why is sin a calamity that infects every human being? Israel sinned, the nations around them certainly sinned. The mind cries out for a solution to this puzzle, and if original sin and its effects on all humankind do not provide the answer, then no answer exists.