God responded to Solomon's dedication of himself and his nation as He had responded to David (2 Sam. 7) and to Solomon earlier (ch. 3). He offered Solomon continued blessing for continued dedication.
First, God promised He would do what Solomon had petitioned in his dedicatory prayer (8:22-53; 9:3). Second, He said He would provide a continuous line of descendants from Solomon to sit on Israel's throne if Solomon would continue to follow God faithfully. The alternative would have been cutting off Solomon's descendants and replacing them with descendants from another branch of David's family (cf. the fate of Eli's house). God maintained Solomon's line because over all Solomon remained faithful to the Lord. Third, if Solomon, the subsequent kings, or the people abandoned the Lord's covenant, He would do three things. He would remove the people from their land, abandon the temple, and make Israel a byword instead of a blessing. This, too, God did for Israel because over all Israel did not remain faithful.
"The rest of Kings will be preoccupied with the blessing which follows obedience and the curses enacted after any failure to obey. The reference point will be to God's revealed word and the language is that of Deuteronomy."96
