“But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!”
My Notes
What Does 2 Chronicles 6:18 Mean?
Solomon asks the most honest question in his dedication prayer: "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" The builder of God's temple questions whether the God he built it for can actually fit inside. The answer is implicit and humbling: heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God. How much less this house Solomon built.
The rhetorical question expects the answer no — God cannot be contained by any structure. The heaven of heavens (shamei ha-shamayim — the heavens of the heavens, the highest conceivable space) cannot hold God. A building in Jerusalem certainly can't. Solomon acknowledges the absurdity of the project he just completed: I built a house for someone who doesn't fit in the universe.
The question doesn't invalidate the temple — it contextualizes it. The temple isn't God's container; it's the place where God chooses to make his name dwell (verse 20). The distinction between God dwelling somewhere and God's name dwelling somewhere preserves divine transcendence while enabling human encounter.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does Solomon's question ('will God actually dwell here?') prevent the temple from becoming an idol?
- 2.What's the difference between God dwelling in a building and God's name dwelling in a building?
- 3.How does the incarnation (God in flesh) answer Solomon's question more fully than the temple could?
- 4.Where might you be treating a sacred space as God's container rather than God's meeting point?
Devotional
Will God actually live here? With us? On this earth? In this building? Solomon stands before the temple he spent seven years building and asks the question that should have occurred to him on day one: is this even possible?
The honesty is breathtaking. The builder questions the building. The king who constructed the most expensive, most elaborate worship structure in Israel's history looks at it and says: heaven can't hold you. The heaven of heavens can't hold you. What makes me think this house can?
The question doesn't demolish the temple. It defines it. The temple isn't a box God lives in. It's a place God's name dwells — the location where encounter happens, where prayers are heard, where presence is experienced. But it's not God's address. God can't be addressed because God can't be contained. The universe is too small for him. The temple is a meeting point, not a residence.
This should reshape how you think about every church building, every worship space, every sacred site you've ever entered. The building doesn't hold God. It holds the encounter with God. The distinction is the difference between idolatry (the building is God's container) and worship (the building is God's meeting place). Solomon gets it right: the building is real, the worship is genuine, and God is bigger than all of it.
The question 'will God dwell with men on earth?' finds its ultimate answer in the incarnation: yes. God will dwell with men. Not in a building but in a body. The temple Solomon built pointed toward the temple Jesus would become (John 2:21). The question asked at the dedication is answered at the manger: God in very deed dwells with men. On the earth. In the flesh.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But will God in very deed dwell with men - "But who could have imagined, who could have thought it credible, that God…
Solomon had, in the foregoing verses, signed and sealed, as it were, the deed of dedication, by which the temple was…
dwell with men The Peshitta (a Jewish work) limits the sense and translates, cause his Shekinah to dwell with(al. rest…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture