1 Kings 8:51 presents Solomon's reason for the plea that the Lord should be open to the prayers of his people in the various circumstances that he had previously mentioned. That reason has to do with the identity of Israel as the Lord’s people and his heritage. In addition to that idea is the reminder that God had brought up this people out of Egypt.
Solomon mentioned one noteworthy thing that we might be tempted to pass over as he talks about Israel and Egypt. He said that the people were delivered from the midst of the iron furnace. We know from the book of Exodus that the task of the Israelites in slavery was the making of bricks in order for building projects to be undertaken. That would have required the burning of the bricks in kilns. When Solomon spoke of the iron furnace
did he mean literally the brick kiln, or did he refer to the heat of the blazing sun in Egypt as the people went about their labours? It does seem that the language Solomon employed at this point was reminiscent of both things. Perhaps in his mind the furnace of the kiln was a reminder of the heat under which the people laboured.
Yet, we should not let this interesting question derail our thinking. The main point of 1 Kings 8:53 is Solomon’s reminder that Israel was the inheritance of the Lord that he had delivered from slavery in Egypt. The reasoning seems to be that if God would leave Israel to perish because of their sin as his covenant people, then why choose them in the first place? A large activity in bringing redemption to the Israelite slaves created in Solomon’s mind a reason to suppose that God’s ears would be open to the pleas of a repentant people.
51 (for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace).