Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 2:1-5

Be seated.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this evening that You have given us to look at Your Word to pray. I pray that You would encourage us in the task of prayer and that You would give us great confidence that our prayers are heard, in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, we are in 2 Chronicles 2, 1 through 5 today. All right, I think I'm going to go ahead and read all of 2 Chronicles 2, though, for context.

Here.

Now, Solomon proposed to build a temple for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for.

Himself.

Solomon assigned 70 ,000 men to bear burdens, and 80 ,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3 ,600 to oversee them. Solomon sent word to Hiram, the king of Tyre, as you dealt with David my father, and sent him Cedar to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me.

Behold, I'm about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, and dedicate it to Him for the burning of incense, of sweet spices before Him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and the new moons, and the appointed feasts of the Lord God, as ordained forever for Israel.

The house that I am to build will be great, for God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build Him a house, since heaven, even the highest heaven, cannot contain.

Him?

Who am I to build a house for Him, except as a place to make offerings before Him? So now send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.

Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am to build will be great and wonderful.

I will give for your servants the woodsmen who cut timber, 20 ,000 cores of crushed wheat, 20 ,000 cores of barley, 20 ,000 baths of wine, 20 ,000 baths of oil. Then hear Him, the King of Tyre, answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, because the Lord loves His people, He has made you king over them.

Hear Him also said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for Himself.

Now I have sent a skilled man who has understanding, her Alma Be, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics, and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned to him, with your craftsman, the craftsman of my Lord, David your father.

Now, therefore, the wheat and barley, oil and wine of which my Lord has spoken, let him send to his servants, and we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem.'.

Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153 ,600. Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80 ,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3 ,600 as overseers to make the people work.".

All right, amen. Well, as we open up these first five verses here, I want to make a few observations for you to start off just about the text itself before we get into the contents of the text. First thing is that we've talked a little lately about some of the differences in the Hebrew Bibles are formatted, the order of the books.

Also, the chapters and verses are different too. Verse 1 here is actually, in a Hebrew Bible, is verse 18 of the previous chapter, and then everything is offset by 1 from there for the rest of this chapter.

So, that's one interesting detail that if you were to go look at a Hebrew Bible, we would be looking at 2 Chronicles 1, 18 through 2, 4. But in an English Bible, this is 2 Chronicles 2, 1 through 4, 1 through 5, excuse me.

The second thing, a couple of details about the ESV. So, in 1 Kings, you'll notice that this character Hiram is mentioned there as well. Here he is mentioned, and because he's mentioned in both of these places, the ESV keeps it consistent with the spelling of his name, and it calls him Hiram both times.

But once again, if you're reading Hebrew, it is, by the time we get to 2 Chronicles, people are spelling his name differently. They're spelling it Hiram. Okay, so the ASV, which is what this is based off of, what your booklet's based off of, says Hiram because that's how it's spelled by the time 2 Chronicles is written, spelled.

Hiram.

And you can see later on, even in the ESV, it talks about, in verse 13, now, I sent a skilled man who has understanding, Haramabi. Okay, so there we've got the same name spelled in the actual 2 Chronicles way because it's a different character, and it won't confuse you that this is a new person, right?

When they spell it differently, like when you see it different here and you look at 1 Kings, you say, is this the same guy? You know, and it is the same guy. So they go ahead and just make the spelling the same.

But since we have a new character later on, they're going to go ahead and spell it the 2 Chronicles way. Who knows what abi means in Hebrew? I'm sure somebody knows. I'm sure Josh knows.

What's that?

Abi, Haramabi, right? Yeah, my father. Yeah, so Haramabi is Haram, my father, right? And so like, for example, Abimelech, right? Abi means my father. Melech, the king, right? You see abi in other names in the Bible that means my father and then the name of the father or the title of the father.

Okay, and then the other thing I wanted to point out about the ESV, which is just kind of a fascination of mine that I found this morning. I don't have any real meaning to it. But if you notice, verse 2, the numbers are repeated in verse 18.

But for some reason, they spell out the word 70 ,000 in verse 18 and do not in verse 2. So they say 70 ,000, 80 ,000, 3 ,600, all was spelled out with numerals, right, numerics. But then in verse 18, they say 70 ,000, 80 ,000, 3 ,600, same numbers, but 70 they spell.

I think typically their pattern is if it is in a list, if it's not in a list, a simple number like 70, they would just spell out with letters. But in the list, they spell it out with numbers. Or yeah, but then I don't know.

I think this was an accident. I think this second one was supposed to be 70 with numerals. But anyway, that's just a...

What's that?

Oh, that's a good... That's what's happening. That's what's happening.

You're right.

It's because it begins the sentence in verse 18 that it says 70 ,000.

Wow.

All right.

It's a good thing it was a more complicated number. 100 ,000, 572, yeah. All right, now getting into the passage itself. All right, what does Solomon want to do? Who wants to summarize what Solomon's trying to accomplish here?

Yeah, go for it, James. Okay, yeah, collect materials and workers to build the temple. And yeah, so how does he go about doing that? What's the course of action here in this passage? Okay, yeah, so he goes and he appeals to Hiram or Hurom and yeah, and ask for those things.

All right, and what's his... Yeah, what reasoning does he provide here in this passage in verses 1 through 5? Go ahead. Yeah, David dealt well with him. Yeah, let's continue that relationship.

All right.

Okay, and let's go ahead and just look. I know this was already in your reading, but let's go ahead and look at that passage that was about Hiram earlier in verse 14, 1. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees, also masons and carpenters, to build a house for him.

And David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel. All right, so we just have one line in 1 Chronicles about this, that he has this relationship with Hiram, and Hiram is sending him things.

Okay, now let's go to what we typically go to, which is what differences did you notice? What differences did you notice here in this passage? You have a pen?

Thanks.

That works. Yeah, thank you. Anybody got one? Right, yeah. Yeah, it talks about the…yeah, 1 Kings does not mention the temple, but 2 Chronicles…or sorry, 1 Kings does not mention the palace, but 2 Chronicles does mention a palace.

So, there's a few reasons for this. One is that he ends up skipping over the description of the palace, because that's not really the focus here, right? The focus is on the temple, and so this is an abbreviated way of still including the notion of the palace without talking about all the details of the palace.

Yeah, it also…I mean, it also does emphasize his wealth and his status with people. Something else that's skipped earlier compared to 1 Kings is the mention of Pharaoh's daughter, right, because this is why he builds a house in part.

A lot of his buildings are for, you know, his wives, etc., and that was something that was mentioned in 1 Kings that he builds a palace for Pharaoh's daughter, and that is left off until once again, until later, when it's a more appropriate detail to add, given that he's just trying to focus on the temple right now.

Yes, go for it. The numbers are different? Sorry, let me just pull that up.

Ah, you're right.

I have notes on this, but I think it might have been in a different passage. I think it might be in verse 18 when we get to that one. So that, yeah, that's the thing is he…so he has duplicated this verse and moved it up, right, but he's going to say that again in verse 18.

We'll talk about the reasoning for the difference in the numbers when we get to 18. I just don't have my notes here to talk about it right now, but it does come from somewhere, and you can look at a text later on that explains why he's…yeah, it gives us evidence why he's doing that, why he cuts out…or adds, sorry, 300 to it.

Okay, yeah, something else that's interesting in thinking about the king and his palace and its role. If you read Ezekiel 45, where it's talking about the new temple and the new temple complex, it also talks about the palace of the prince and how basically the presence of the prince assists people in giving them access to God.

It does seem to be a significance there in mentioning it in conjunction with the temple the way that it is being mentioned, but it's probably, like I said, just a way of abbreviating it rather than speaking of it in detail as 1 Kings will later.

All right, other differences. Are you talking about the end of 1 Kings 5?

Right, right, okay.

Yeah, so I'm associating that with the later part of 2 Chronicles, right? So this verse is, yeah, it is duplicated. It's not just moved. So yeah, those are things we can address when we get down to those later verses.

Anything else? Yeah, so he talks about David's inability to build the temple during his time, talks about the promise that was made to David, or he omits that, the chronicler omits that, but he does include talking about Herm's relationship with David in a way that 1 Kings does not.

So it's interesting. You look at 1 Kings, and I'll just go ahead and read some of that here. And Solomon sent word to Hiram, you know, that David, my father, could not build a house for the name of the Lord, his God, because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

But now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side. There's neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God. As the Lord said to David, my father, your son, whom I will sit on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.

Okay, so I think that the distinction, and we've seen this a couple other times, we won't see it more, is where 1 Kings, and you see this especially when he's talking to God and receiving wisdom. So he's very, you know, he's very humble.

He's very, he acknowledges his weakness much more, with much more detail in 1 Kings, and speaks of his father as very great, you know, someone that he doesn't quite, you know, reach up to. But here, and so that's, we see more of that in 1 Kings 5, but here in 2 Chronicles, it's significantly different, right?

He is, you know, he does appeal to his father David, but he's not speaking as though the only reason he has any standing would be because of that, right? He talks about the purpose of the temple, the greatness of it, you know, which is, I guess, something that hasn't been mentioned.

Yes, yeah, I think they're both what happened. I mean, just, you know, you look at the gospel, it's like, oh, one says crimson, one says scarlet. It's like, I don't know what the, I don't know how to describe the differences between those.

Colors, but yes, yeah, right.

Yeah, so I mean, these are both, these are both true stories. One is just, yeah, emphasizing aspects that talk about the greatness of Solomon in building the temple as opposed to the condescension of God to raise his people up and then their subsequent rebellion against him, right, which is what 1 Kings is concerned about.

Yeah, this is Chronicles looking back later at a time when people are, you know, they're rebuilding the temple at this point. They are eager to, yeah, giving them this biblical theology of what the temple is and how it relates to the Davidic king, et cetera, is, you know, designed to instill more hope and excitement, that kind of stuff, and so he's choosing to highlight those details.

Right, yeah, and so he talks about the purposes of the temple. He talks about the greatness of God, right. So why does he list all those ceremonies? Why do you think? Right, yeah, and that was emphasized in 1 Chronicles, and yeah, if we're going to be focusing on the temple, it makes sense to talk about all the things that are happening in the temple, and so, yeah, the motivation here to Hurom is the greatness of God and the greatness of the worship that Solomon is trying to establish, right, as opposed to, you know, pointing back to my father, et cetera.

Yes, yeah, I think so.

I think so.

There's one more pretty significant one I don't think I've heard yet.

What's that?

One more significant difference, yeah. Who initiates the conversation in 1 Kings versus 2 Chronicles? Yeah, Hurom initiates in 1 Kings, and then in 2 Chronicles, Solomon initiates. So in 1 Kings 5, it says, Now Hurom the king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father.

For Hurom always loved David, right, and so like the emphasis is Hurom, right. Hurom goes to Solomon because he loved David. But here in 2 Chronicles, yeah, it is Solomon proactively sending word to Hurom, right, and it's interesting because these are, I mean, that verse is still there in Solomon sent word to Hurom in 1 Kings 5, but in omitting Hurom sending things to him, it makes Solomon, it emphasizes proactivity, right, his activity.

And in bringing things, right, because if you think about it, what was the distinction between David and Solomon in building the temple, right? David is collecting material. Solomon is putting it together.

And so you have this significant distinction between the two kings that the chronicler is deemphasizing, right, rather than them being different kings where David has done all these things that Solomon is having no hand in.

You do see him having his hand in some of those. In fact, later on in 2 Chronicles, we're going to see him, you know, go to war and accomplish battles, right, which is…which if you read that distinction between David and Solomon too strongly, you would think, well, Solomon can't go to war.

He's supposed to be a king of peace. Well, no, he does have one or two battles that are significant. So, yeah, all those things put together to emphasize the temple, emphasize Solomon's greatness in building the temple, to encourage the people to recapture that with the temple and to look forward to the Messiah that will bring greatness to the temple.

One thing also this reminds me of is Isaiah 60, 10 through 11, "'Foreigners shall build up your walls, and the king shall minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.

Your gate shall be opened continually. Day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.'". This is a picture that gets repeated a few times at the end of Isaiah about the wealth of the nations being brought into the…being brought into Jerusalem because of the greatness of the Messiah, and this is what we see here with Solomon.

The wealth of the nations is being brought in because of his greatness. This is something that's captured a lot of people. Probably knew that there's a famous book on capitalism by Adam Smith called Wealth of the Nations, right?

This idea of the wealth of the nations as being like this utopia, this state of prosperity where the wealth of the nations is coming into the country because of the greatness of the king and his wisdom.

Yes, right, yeah.

Yeah, and the Chronicler de-emphasizes that distinction between them. And he even talks about some of the wars that Solomon engages in. All right, any thoughts on applications for us? Any thoughts on this passage in general or any questions about it?

The building of the palace? It's a good thing, yeah, especially, I mean, especially in the context of 2 Chronicles where, you know, he is, you know, he's displaying all his wealth, etc. And what you see later on is the…and this is stressed in a way in 2 Chronicles that it's not in 1 Kings, is the majesty of the palace is diminished through the people's.

Sins.

Solomon has these shields of gold. Like, if you imagine, you know, gold is heavy. You don't actually want a shield of gold. Like, that's not something…it's also very soft. It wouldn't make a good shield at all.

But you could imagine how expensive it would be to make a large shield of gold and then little bucklers of gold. And he lines these along the palace walls, right? And then later, I'm blanking on which king it is, but later one of the kings, because of his sin, those all get taken away.

And so, he replaces them with shields of bronze and then…but then every time he goes to the temple to worship, he has all his servants carry the shields of bronze to make sure they don't get raided when he's out of the palace.

So, yeah, it is interesting because it's really focusing on the greatness of Solomon and then, yeah, sin taking away those various parts of, yeah, majesty. All right, well, there are implications for our worship.

Of course, Jesus Christ is the great Messiah who is building a temple much better than the one that Solomon had built. The reason why the Chronicler is framing everything this way is to point us to this great Messiah who's going to build this great temple.

And, yeah, he's building it right now. Jesus Christ is laying one brick on the other and making it more and more spectacular and the worship better and better so that, yeah, until the day it is all complete and then He will return.

Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. I pray that it would direct us in our prayers this evening that we would be eager to pray for the good of Your…the building up of Your temple.

In Jesus' name, amen.