“Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.”
When Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house — Divine fire descended (אֵשׁ בָּאָה מִן־הַשּׁמַיִם) consuming the sacrifices, a theophanic sign of divine acceptance. In 2 Samuel 24:25 and 1 Chronicles 21:26, divine fire similarly validated sacrifice. The consuming fire demonstrated that God received and accepted the offerings. Simultaneously, the 'glory of the LORD' (כְּבוֹד־יְהוָה) filled the house (מִלֵּא אֶת־הַבַּיִת)—the divine presence saturated the sanctuary. This is the fulfillment of the earlier cloud-filling (5:14); now fire and glory combine. The twin phenomena (fire and glory) affirm the temple's sanctity and God's presence. The Chronicler emphasizes sensory validation: participants witnessed fire and potentially perceived the visible glory-manifestation. This verse demonstrates that the temple did not merely house God theoretically; God actively, visibly inhabited it.
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