1 Kings 9:1–2 is one sentence. The first clause sets the time frame of what takes place in the second clause. We are told that it took place as soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build.
Since we do not know in what exact order Solomon’s building projects were done, we cannot be sure that this event took place immediately after the temple’s dedication.
1 Kings 9:2 tells us that, at whatever time this was, God appeared to Solomon in the same manner that he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The thoughtful reader might ask himself whether this statement omits the incident in 1 Kings 7:1–51 that shows God interrupting Solomon’s work on the temple to lay upon him a promise of his continued blessing on condition of obedience to all God’s commandments. Was that not the second time that the Lord appeared to Solomon? There is, however, nothing in the text of 1 Kings 7:1–51 that indicates that God actually appeared to Solomon to give that revelation. It could well have been words spoken through a prophet. That would still be God speaking to Solomon. What binds this occurrence to the occurrence at Gibeon is that God actually appeared to Solomon in visible form.
God’s appearance in visible form is a theophany. We know that God is invisible and infinite, and so the appearance of the Lord to human beings before the incarnation cannot be taken as the appearance of God as he truly is known to himself. Rather, it is an accommodation to the human creatures that do not share the Lord’s nature.
1 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build,