Today is the 11th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you.

Today as we do what we do, gather around the global campfire and move forward together.

And so here we are friends, another brand new shiny sparkly week, another reset, another chance to regroup.

And retell the story of God's goodness in our lives. And the chance to keep moving forward together.

And we do that every day. We take another step forward together. This week we will read from the Christian Standard Bible as we take our steps.

And our next step leads us back into the life and times and reign of King Solomon, King David's son. And we pick up the story with first kings, chapter 8.

At that time Solomon assembled the elders of Israel. All the tribal heads and all the ancestral leaders of the Israelites before him had Jerusalem in order to bring the Ark of the Lord's Covenant from the city of David. That is Zion.

So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the month of Athenaeum, which is the seventh month at the festival.

All the elders of Israel came and the priests picked up the Ark. The priests and the Levites brought the Ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting and the holy utensils that were in the tent.

King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the Ark were sacrificing sheep, goats and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

The priests brought the Ark of the Lord's Covenant to its place into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim.

For the cherubim were spreading their wings over the place of the Ark so that the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above.

The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside the sanctuary. They are still there today.

Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horab, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord's temple. And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

In Solomon's head, the Lord said that he would dwell in total darkness.

I have indeed built an exalted temple for you, a place for your dwelling forever.

The King turned around and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing. He said,

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He spoke directly to my father, David, and he has fulfilled the promise by his power.

He said,

Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel so that my name would be there.

But I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.

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