After all this work the Lord appeared to Solomon again. Note that this was many years after the Lord had last appeared to Solomon. In our Bibles it is just a few chapters, but in reality it covered many years. Now, through the Holy Spirit, we have direct contact with the Lord daily. Even so, there will be times when we are more aware of God's presence than others.
God promises Solomon that if he continues to walk faithfully with Him as David did his throne would be established forever. This raises one or two questions. First, David was not perfect in many ways, and there are two key failings in his life (the Bathsheeba episode and the census). Secondly, Solomon did not, indeed could not, walk faithfully, so what was the point of the promise? Maybe it is all to demonstrate the utter failure of man. We are so convinced that we can make it on our own. Yet Solomon was not set that high standard (David), but he could not attain even to that.
The converse is that if Israel turns away from God then they will be cut-off from the land and the Lord would reject the temple. Indeed the temple will become a heap of rubble. These words about the temple are very significant. In the time before the Babylonian invasion the people were convinced that God would not abandon the temple, they should have paid heed to these words given at the birth of the temple. Moreover, they are relevant to Jesus' words about the temple in Matthew 24:2.
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