2 Chronicles · chapter 5 of 36
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2 Chronicles 5 tells how, once the temple is finished, Solomon gathers Israel to bring the ark of the covenant from the city of David to the Most Holy Place. The priests set it beneath the wings of the cherubim while the Levites sing and play with trumpets. At that moment a cloud fills the house, and the priests cannot stand to minister because of the glory of the Lord.
With the temple and its furnishings finished, only the essential thing is missing: God's presence. This chapter is the high point of the first part of Solomon's reign. The chronicler wants his readers to understand that a building, however beautiful, is not enough; what makes the temple the house of the Lord is that he comes to dwell there.
Solomon completes the work of the house of the Lord and brings in the gifts his father David had dedicated: silver, gold and utensils, which he places in the treasuries. He then assembles in Jerusalem the elders and the heads of the tribes to bring the ark of the covenant up from Zion, the city of David. The feast takes place in the seventh month.
The Levites take up the ark, and together with the priests they also carry the tent of meeting and the holy vessels. The king and the whole congregation sacrifice sheep and oxen in such numbers that they cannot be counted. The priests bring the ark into the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. The poles used to carry it were so long that their ends could be seen from the holy place. Inside the ark there was nothing but the two tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with Israel when they came out of Egypt.
When the priests come out of the holy place, the Levitical singers, with Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun and their sons, dressed in fine linen and with cymbals, harps and lyres, stand east of the altar along with a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets. Trumpeters and singers praise the Lord with one voice, saying that he is good and that his steadfast love endures forever. Then a cloud fills the house, and the priests cannot continue their service because the glory of the Lord has filled the house of God.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
There was nothing in the ark but the two tablets Moses placed there at Horeb. It recalls that the center of Israel's faith was the covenant with God and his word, and that the temple existed to guard and honor that agreement.
Trumpeters and singers sound as one in praising and thanking the Lord, saying that he is good and that his steadfast love endures forever. Unity in praise prepares the place for God's presence.
The cloud fills the house and the priests cannot stand to minister, because the glory of the Lord fills it. God himself takes possession of his temple and shows that worship is not controlled by us: it is a response to his presence.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: What his father David had dedicated: silver, gold and utensils. — 2 Chronicles 5:1
Answer: In the seventh month, at the feast. — 2 Chronicles 5:3
Answer: The Levites, together with the priests, carried it. — 2 Chronicles 5:4-5
Answer: In the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. — 2 Chronicles 5:7
Answer: Only the two tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb. — 2 Chronicles 5:10
Answer: A cloud filled the house and the priests could not continue their service because of the glory of the Lord. — 2 Chronicles 5:13-14
This chapter reminds us that the most important thing in a gathering for worship is not the beauty of the place or the quality of the music but the presence of God. We can prepare the building, rehearse and organize, but the essential thing is that the Lord comes. Christians believe that God now dwells among his people by the Spirit, and that truth should shape how we gather.
There is also an invitation to unity. The musicians sound as one and then the cloud comes. In a Sunday school class or small group we can ask what keeps our gatherings from being of one voice, and what concrete step we can take to praise together with simplicity and gratitude.
2 Chronicles 5 ends with a house filled with the glory of the Lord. Solomon's response comes at once: in 2 Chronicles 6 he addresses the people, blesses the congregation and offers a long dedication prayer to the Lord.
It was a sacred chest that Moses built at God's command and that held the tablets of the covenant. Its lid, the mercy seat, was the place where the Lord made himself known and where atonement was made. It represented God's presence with Israel.
It is the visible sign of the glory of the Lord, like the cloud that covered the tabernacle when Moses finished it, according to Exodus 40. It shows that God accepted the house and took it as his own. The chronicler presents it as God's response to the work and the praise of his people.
Because the glory of the Lord filled the house and his presence was so evident that normal service could not go on. The text gives no further detail, but it shows that God's presence does not depend on the routines of worship and that he can interrupt them whenever he chooses.