Vision Casting – 1 Kings 8:54-66

There are famous speeches that have moved men and women to great actions and to accomplish world-changing achievements. Winston Churchill’s June 4th, 1944 speech on radio to an England facing the onslaught of Nazi Germany moving toward their shores, bolstered that nation to resist and “never surrender.” Patrick Henry’s “give me liberty or give me death” speech in 1775 stirred the colonial leaders to declare independence from England. And who can forget Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech at the 1963 march on Washington?

Great leaders make great and inspiring speeches that make clear their vision of what is right and good. Solomon was no exception.

Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to receive the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings.

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days. On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people. (1 Kings 8:54-66, ESV)

Solomon rises from his kneeling posture of prayer to bless Israel. Like Joshua before him (Joshua 21:45; 23:14) he declares that Yahweh has fulfilled His promise as to the extent of the land that He would give to Abraham and his descendants. So twice now God has brought all the land under Israelite control. God told Moses that Israel would one day be expelled from the land (Deuteronomy 30) and how, even as Solomon prayed, Israel would repent and be restored, and this shows that in each generation that Israel gains all the promised land God is considered to have kept His promise. But the promise is that Israel will have this land forever so there is a final aspect to the promise that will only be fulfilled in the kingdom when believing Israel has the land never to lose it again.

Solomon wants God to remain with Israel so that He might incline her heart to Him (because no heart moves toward God on its own). God does not want simple obedience. He wants our hearts. And He is not content, as Solomon acknowledges, for Israel alone to know Him this way, but wants all the peoples of earth to know that He is God. So Solomon charges Israel to keep covenant with Yahweh and then sacrifices what Yahweh requires, and more, in seven days of festival to acknowledge how majestic and wonderful God is and to provide enough food for all the people to feast.

A lot is said about how leaders communicate their vision for those they lead, a vision of where things have been but also of where they need to go to improve. There is no greater vision than that of knowing God, and Solomon exemplifies here the communication of that vision, and it impelled Israel to greatness. Your vision for how things must be improved for those you lead must be clear but it should also include knowing and following the Lord. Where your leadership is exercised may not allow you to openly declare the Lord, but it can and must be part of your understanding of what you hope to achieve. This is in line with the commission, the Great Commission, that Jesus gave us (Matthew 28:18-20).