When Solomon built the temple it had taken seven years, there was spent a vast fortune, and it expended unbelievable labor to build the temple. It took 150,000 aliens with 360 overseers serving at their posts many months out of the year to build the temple. The workmanship was fabulous. While the temple was being erected, the stones were cut out of distant quarries to the exact size needed so that there was no sound of the hammer while the temple was going up. The stones were fitted right into place and then the workmen overlaid everything within the temple with gold. This was a great miracle.
The craftsmanship would rival anything we could produce in the world today, and they were working with inferior tools. They had to produce the molds in which they formed the solid gold vessels. The temple was a wonder of wonders. The service, the work, and the sacrifice were unbelievable, yet when they had finally completed their labors, the glory of God came and caused them to fall on their faces. They couldn’t move, they couldn’t minister- they were rendered helpless. As the glory (fire) came down from heaven they couldn’t enter the sanctuary.
There is nothing we can do to impress God. If Solomon thought he was going to impress God with that sacrifice of sheep and oxen without number, if he thought he was going to impress God with anything, he was mistaken. God moved on the scene and everyone was rendered helpless.
We must remember this today. We have nothing in ourselves which can prevail; we have nothing in ourselves which can really succeed. We have no ability that is great enough by itself. The only thing that counts is that we be a humble people standing in the presence of the Lord so that the Lord can restore His glory to the house. We cannot sacrifice enough to impress Him; all of our service will still fall short.
When God begins to move, we sense our helplessness. Only then are we ready to start on the path which He has prepared for us. The moment we sense our helplessness is the moment God calls us to unbelievable dedication and sacrifice.
This picture of Solomon building the temple lays before us a picture of what God is demanding of us right now: that total enlistment or enrollment of everyone. (In fact, building the temple was so laborious that after Solomon died, the people came to his son Rehoboam and said, “Lower the taxes on us.” Rehoboam should have granted their request because the temple had already been built, but he refused because he was a smart aleck and had taken the wrong counsel. So, according to divine purpose, most of the tribes split off into the northern division of Israel.)
During this period the taxation and the demands of labor were very high because it was the time of the return of the glory of the Lord to the house of God. It was a time of a great deal of sacrifice and service, but it was also a time of dedication. The people had entered in to service and sacrifice for such a long time; finally they had come to dedicate it to the Lord. It is at this point that we need to understand the conjunction of God and man in a situation.
We could give everything we have and it wouldn’t be enough. We could dedicate all of our buildings, we could dedicate our lives to the Lord and that would not be enough. There is a step that is beyond dedication. When God is working in a situation we are carried beyond dedication; we come into a place we would call consecration. And beyond consecration is the revelation of our own inability.
There is nothing we can do which would impress God. God’s moving in a situation is the only thing that will make it succeed.
There is no one who can say, “I have given all. I have done so much and now look how God has blessed me because of it.” When we have prepared our heart and God moves on the scene, we find ourselves lying on the floor, unable to minister. We don’t have anything we can present to the Lord. And it is at this particular point that something comes into our spirit which is above dedication. When we have given everything to God, and when God has moved upon our sacrifice and sanctified it with His fire and His glory, when we find ourselves helpless before Him, this is the moment that He begins to give us something which is beyond dedication.
You ask, “What can be beyond dedication?” Motivation.
There can be an inspiration which causes two people to love each other. The romance begins and we see how they are drawn together. Then comes that devastating thing which love brings: dedication. As the boy finds himself dedicated, he throws away his little black book; and as the girl dedicates herself, she tears up all the addresses of her former boyfriends. It is just the two of them now as their dedication to each other begins. This will not be enough, however. As the years go by there must be something that is even greater. Love must give way to more than dedication; it must give way to a motivation.
We can be dedicated, but we must go beyond the call of duty. There must be a driving force within us to do the will of God. God is calling us to a new level of discipleship.
The step beyond our dedication and sacrifice is the step which comes of enablement and motivation. Submission is just a beginning. When we finally become dedicated then comes the motivation, motivation beyond what anyone would say or demand.
Motivation throws us right into the performance of our dedication. God is bringing this to us now. He is bringing His glory back, and He may bring great dedication and sacrifice and service. But this is not the issue. we are becoming motivated