DAY THIRTY-EIGHT: 

Solomon' Temple 

1 Kings 6:1-8:21

The deepest desire of David's heart was to build a permanent house for God. Since the time in the wilderness God's house was a tent, the Tabernacle. In this study of essential Bible passages we skipped over all the details of the Tabernacle. It's a fascinating study, and I encourage you to look at it some time. Each object in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, has deep significance and points to Jesus.

God told David that his son would build the Temple. And build it he did! Solomon put a lot of time and money into building a magnificent house for God and His people. Let's look at the dimensions first. I was shocked when I realized how small the Temple was. A cubit, you'll remember, was about eighteen inches. That means the Temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide and forty-five feet high. Our church building is larger than the Temple. But remember, good things come in small packages! 

The layout was the same as the Tabernacle. There was an outer court, where the people met and the sacrifices were performed. This was out in the open. The doors opened into the Holy Place, where every day the priests would burn incense, keep the lamps lit and set out twelve fresh loaves of bread to represent the tribes of Israel. This is where the Angel Gabriel met John the Baptist's father. Then past that was the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies. This is where the Ark of the Covenant would rest. Above it were statues of two cherubim (a type of angel), facing one another with their wings touching. No one entered the Holy of Holies except the Chief Priest, and he on just one day, the Day of Atonement.

Let's look at the materials. The stones were quarried some distance away and were dressed at the site and then transported to the Temple. The large stones were ready to fit into the building, and there was no clanging sound of tools to be heard. The floors were of cypress wood, and cedar from the forests of Lebanon covered the walls. The panels were carved with figures of flowers and pomegranates. Then Solomon overlaid the walls with hammered gold. He made furnishings of gold, silver and bronze. He also made two huge pillars of bronze, 27 feet high with a circumference of 18 feet, to stand on each side of the door. One he named Jachin (He will establish) and the other Boaz (strength). Solomon made an enormous Sea of Bronze, resting on the backs of twelve bronze oxen. It was 15 feet across and four inches thick. 

The Temple was a magnificent building, to say the least! With all that gold, silver and bronze, along with the beautiful stones and wood, some estimate that it would cost in excess of $200 BILLION DOLLARS to build it today! But God had blessed Israel, and nothing was too good for God. 

It took seven years and over 100,000 workers to build the Temple, but finally it was finished. All of Israel came together for the dedication. When the priests carried the Ark into the Most Holy Place the presence of God settled upon the building in the form of a big, bright cloud. The priests couldn't continue their work. God was in the house!

Solomon uttered the longest prayer recorded in the Bible- 41 verses long! "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there,' that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place." (8:28-30)

Is it time for "and they lived happily ever after?" I'm afraid not. Even in this glorious moment the seeds of Israel's destruction were being sown by the very man who built the Temple. God gave Solomon wisdom, but in time he got bored with being wise. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:3, "I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life." Solomon lived it up! He loved the ladies, and had 700 wives (many of them he married to cement treaties with other kings) and 300 concubines (women on the side in his harem). In time they persuaded him to build altars and temples to their gods, and he joined them in worshipping them. God removed His protection and Solomon, the man of peace, now had to fight wars. His trade dried up and he had to lay heavy taxes upon the people. The stage is set for the Kingdom of Israel to split in two and for the wealth of Solomon's magnificent Temple to be carried away by foreign oppressors.  More about this tomorrow when we look at the Prophet Elijah facing down the priests of Baal.

What do we learn from the Temple? First, it's not wrong to make beautiful things for God. We are made in God's image and we are creative because He is creative. It's only natural that we should express our love of God in art, music and architecture. These things speak to us on a level that mere words can't reach. Those who saw the Temple in all its glory certainly were awed by it.

Second, we learn yet more about God's faithfulness to His people. He's fulfilled yet another promise. David's son Solomon built the Temple. This Temple is also the fulfillment of God's promises going back to Abraham. The people would worship there with grateful hearts. I hope there's videotape in Heaven of all the great events we've been talking about! I'd love to see the worship at the Temple, especially at the feasts when all of Israel was gathered. I think of a priest leading the whole nation in reciting or singing Psalm 136:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
     for his steadfast love endures forever;

And third, it's all to easy to drift from God. This is the high point in Israel's history. But a day would come when God's presence left the Temple (Ezekiel 10:18) and the Temple would be destroyed. We need to be careful in our lives as Christians and as the Church. The only safe place to be is in the arms of the Lord!

Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22-23, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." This isn't in the Bible, but it's a story the Jews tell and I think it's very possible it's true. When they were building the Temple, one of the first stones they received from the quarry was an odd-shaped stone that didn't fit anywhere. It just sat there, in the workmen's way, and each day they pushed it further and further. One day they finally pushed it over the hill and got rid of it. When they were almost finished they sent word to the quarry that they needed the cornerstone, the most important piece. The quarry replied that they had sent it at the beginning. They went down into the gully and retrieved the stone that they had rejected. It was a perfect fit! Jesus is that cornerstone that the builders (the Jewish leaders) had rejected. Jesus Himself is our Temple today. Hebrews 10:19-22 says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

I leave you with two things today. The first is a video that I saw this past week on TBN. It's a computer-generated view of the Temple, narrated by an aged Solomon. I can't embed it, but here is the link. It's about 25 minutes long and well worth your while:

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/I3MXd5MjpKr6FbpGvYydPDhqU3NwG_-8

And I'll leave you with a fun video from Noel Paul Stookey, the Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary. He's a Christian and has written a number of songs to the glory of God. This is one of my favorites. Once again I can't find the video I want with Blogspot's search engine, so I'll give you the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTr-PzfseeY