The Common Thread

1 Kings 8:44-50, ESV

“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause. If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them”

So reads Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple.

Often people believe that forgiveness... and the concept there of, is a New Testament idea. But you see here that King Solomon knew... he knew that there was more to come. Solomon was not alone either.

Today we celebrate the Resurrection.

Today I would remind you that Jesus Christ is not necessarily mentioned by name that much in the Old Testament... but He can be found all throughout.


Where is your victory boasting grave?

Where oh death now is thy sting?