1 Kings 8:27

“ But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built.”

But Solomon was very much aware of the greatness and the glory of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and recognised that such a God could not be limited to earth, even though He might have dealings with man on earth. He was after all the ‘Creator of Heaven and earth' (Genesis 1:1), ‘the Judge of all the earth' (Genesis 18:25), the One Who had a stairway between earth and Heaven and ministered on earth through His angels (Genesis 28:12), the One Who ‘will be what He will be' (Exodus 3:14), the deliverer from and devastater of mighty Egypt (Exodus 20:2), the God of Sinai Who could come and go as He would (Exodus 19:16; Exodus 24:16), God Almighty (Genesis 17:1). How then could such a God be confined to a building on earth?

Indeed he recognised that God was so great that Heaven itself, and even the extremest Heaven, could not contain Him. He could break out in power wherever He would. How then could He be contained in a man built house? Such a concept was only unique, firstly in its concept of the overall greatness of the One God, and secondly in that it had as its background the Scriptures, for no nations of that day in fact believed that they could confine their gods to their temples. The difference lay rather in the fact that they thought that through their temples and their priests they could manipulate their gods, while Solomon was well aware that God could not be manipulated, and instead worked His own will. ‘I will be what I will be' (Exodus 3:14). He was bound only because of His covenant promises, and even they were largely (although not wholly) dependent on the obedience of His servants. He was the One Who acted as He would, where He would.