2 Chronicles 2 Devotional

Humble Hands for a Great House

“But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?”2 Chronicles 2:6 (BSB)

Solomon's letter to Hiram of Tyre is full of large plans. The house he means to build will be great, he says, because his God is above every other god (2:5). He orders cedar and cypress from Lebanon, asks for a master craftsman, and conscripts tens of thousands of workers (2:2, 2:7-10, 2:17-18).

Then, in the middle of the plans, he stops to ask a humbling question. If even the highest heavens cannot contain God, who is Solomon to build him a house (2:6)? His answer is modest. It will be a place to burn offerings before him, a place for the worship God himself had ordained (2:4). The temple will not hold God or do him a favor. Great work done for God begins with knowing how small the worker is. Whatever you build or tend this week can be received the same way, as the kindness of a God who lets us serve him at all.

To think about: What task are you carrying today as if God depended on it, and how would it change to see it as his kindness to let you serve?