(1 Kings) Building Temples — David Guzik

Solomon’s Temple as the Great Accomplishment of His Reign

Tonight, we're going to consider actually three chapters from the book of First Kings, and they're all around the theme of building the temple. This of course was the great accomplishment of Solomon's reign.

Solomon, as we discussed last time together, Solomon's reign was sort of a golden age for the kingdom of Israel, and the greatest accomplishment of this reign was the building of the temple. Before this time, for some 450 years of Israel's history in the promised land, they had no temple.

They had a tabernacle. A tabernacle is, if you will, sort of a portable temple. It functions as a temple functions as a place of sacrifice, a place of worship, a place of atonement, but it is not a permanent building, it's a tent, which was perfect for Israel in the wilderness because they traveled from place to place.

They couldn't have built a temple at Sinai because they moved from place to place, but yet it was more than 400 years after coming into the promised land that they finally got around to building a temple, and it seems that God just ordained both David, as it was in his heart before Solomon, to build the temple, and then his son Solomon to actually do it.

We remind ourselves that the vision to build the temple did not begin with Solomon. It began with his father David, and David, as we're told in both 2 Samuel and the book of 1 Chronicles, David had a passion, number one, to purchase, to find and to purchase, I should say, the place to have the temple, and that is on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and then secondly, David amassed most of the materials to build the temple.

David planned it all out, and he let his son do it. So anyway, before we jump into the text here of 1 Kings chapter 5, I do want to remind you of an important principle of considering the temple from a New Testament perspective, and that's simply it.

The Temple as a Picture of the Christian and the Church

The Bible relates the temple, the physical temple, both in the days of Solomon and then what we call the second temple, the temple that would have been existing in the days of Jesus. The Bible relates the idea of the temple both to the individual Christian and to the body of Christ as a whole.

In other words, the Bible says to the individual Christian, you are like the temple. Maybe we should just take a look at a passage like that. You can keep your finger here in 1 Kings 5, because of course that's what we're going to come back to.

But turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and again, we're doing this because I think as we look at this, we're not looking at it tonight just as sort of some interesting facts about the construction of an ancient building.

But God has something to teach us about our individual lives and about the body of Christ through the way that Solomon built the temple. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning now at verse 16, he says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

And if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. And he's speaking to Christians individually there. You are like a temple. And of course, the analogy makes some sense there.

You've been created by God. You're holy unto God. The spirit of God dwells in you. So these things remind us of the principles of the temple. Now, let's take a look at just one other quick New Testament passage relevant to this.

And that would be Ephesians chapter two, beginning at verse 19. Now, I'm just picking out two passages. There are actually several passages throughout the New Testament that speak of this likeness between the temple and the body of Christ or the individual Christian life.

Ephesians chapter two, verse 19. He says, now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.

So you get this idea, don't you, that not only is the individual Christian life as a temple, but also the body of Christ collectively. That's the idea there in Ephesians chapter two, that we together as individual pieces are being built as a holy temple unto the Lord.

So again, as we consider this building of the temple tonight, as Solomon did in his day, we want to think about this. What does this show us about the way that God wants to build in my individual life?

But then also, how does God want to build us collectively as the body of Christ? All right, back to first Kings chapter five, verse one. Now, Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David.

Solomon’s Alliance with Hiram and David’s Vision

Isn't that remarkable? This was a pagan king, Hiram of Tyre. Tyre, of course, would have been the area today that we would call Lebanon. Just north of Israel, this man, Hiram, was a pagan king, yet him and David had a good relationship.

It should remind us, David was a mighty warrior against the enemies of Israel, but he did not regard every neighbor nation as an enemy. He didn't automatically say, you're a pagan nation, you're my neighbor, you're my enemy.

No, he was willing to be at peace with them and he was willing to be friends with them if they were willing also. And so David wisely built alliances and friendships with neighbor nations, and this also benefited his son, Solomon.

So we learn about this love that Hiram had for David in verse one. Now, in verse two, then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, You know how my father, David, could not build a house for the name of the Lord is God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side until the Lord put his foes under the soles of his feet.

But now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord spoke to my father, David, saying, Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build a house, the house for my name.

Now, therefore, command that they cut down cedars for me from Lebanon and my servants will be with your servants and I will pay you wages for your servants, according to whatever you say. For, you know that there is none among us who is skilled to cut timber like the Sidonians.

So Solomon prepared a letter and sent it to this King Hiram of Lebanon, a tire to the north of Israel. Interesting. Have you heard of this ancient Jewish historian Josephus? Josephus says that copies of this letter, copies of this correspondence between Solomon and Tyre, that it was preserved and that it existed in archives even unto his day.

We don't have independent copies of this correspondence, but Josephus says that it existed even in his day. And so Solomon relates in this letter how David, his father, could not build a house for the name of the Lord of his God.

Now, interesting about this, first of all, just the principle. If you remember the story from Second Samuel, David wanted to build God a temple. It's really a beautiful story from the pages of Second Samuel.

David built himself a wonderful palace and he's enjoying his palace one day walking around, you know, enjoying the beautiful building. And then he looks over and he thinks about where the Ark of the Covenant is.

And he thinks, I live in a great palace, but God lives in a tent. And he goes, it's not right. I need to build a tent. Excuse me, I need to build a temple. God already had a tent. He said, I need to build a temple for the Lord, a magnificent building that would be befitting the God of Israel.

And so David talks to his friend Nathan and he says, Nathan, I want to do this. I want to build a temple for the Lord. And Nathan says, that's a great idea. Why don't you go do it? But then Nathan has to come back to David and say, wait a minute, I spoke too soon.

God told me that you're not the one to build him a house. Instead, your son will build him a house. And then God made David one of the most beautiful promises in the Old Testament. He said, David, I'm not going to let you build me a house, but I am going to build you a house.

And right there, God promised David that the Messiah would come through his line, that he would be an ancestor of the Messiah. And you have to regard this as one of the most remarkable promises that was ever made a particular individual in the scriptures because of all the messianic titles that the Messiah has.

You know, Jesus was the ancestor of Noah, but he's not called the son of Noah. He was the excuse me, the ancestor, the descendant of Noah. Jesus was the descendant of Abraham, but he's not called the son of Abraham.

Jesus is called the son of David. And that was part of this special promise that God made to David. Well, nevertheless, we're reminded of this whole incident when David wanted to build a temple. But God said, no, David, you're a man of war.

You're a warrior. I want a man of peace to build the temple unto me. And that would be his son, Solomon. Now, we understand the story back from 2 Samuel. But what's also remarkable here is in verse 3, Solomon says, you know how my father, David, in other words, Solomon knows that Hiram knows the story from the mouth of David.

David was free and open in sharing this story with the pagan king. Isn't that wonderful? David didn't just talk about spiritual things with other Israelites. He talked about spiritual things with unbelievers.

And this is an example of how he spoke with this pagan king, Hiram, who was his friend. And so he says, no, God gave this work to David to do. But it would not be, excuse me, this work for David, put it on David's heart.

But David would not perform the work that would be done in the day of one of his sons. I also find it interesting here how in verse 5 here, Solomon says, and behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God.

Isn't that interesting how he doesn't directly say, I want to build a house for the Lord. But he says, I want to build a house for the name of the Lord. This is a traditional Hebrew way of speaking that demonstrates reverence to God.

In the Hebrew mind, you demonstrate reverence to God by not referring to him directly, but indirectly. It's as if God is so holy that you don't want to refer to him directly. Have you ever seen it in an orthodox Jewish publication today, how they don't spell out the word God?

They will put G dash D and they'll leave out the O. Now, why do they do that? Because they want to avoid a direct reference to God because in their mind it shows reverence. You see the very beginning of this idea way back in the days of Solomon.

Solomon says, I'm going to build a house for the name of the Lord. But here I want you to send something else. It was not only out of reverence, but it was also because Solomon had a sophisticated spiritual understanding of what that temple would be about.

It was not actually going to be the house where Yahweh lived. Right. It was not actually going to be, you know, his palace or whatever. Solomon understood that it was more a memorial unto God rather than his actual residence.

He understood, as it is said in other places in the scriptures, that God cannot dwell in a building made with hands, that he's too great for that. But that rather, again, this temple would be a memorial unto his name.

The Temple’s Materials and the Unity of Jew and Gentile

And so Solomon says to his friend Hiram, who lived in Lebanon or Tyre, cut down for me cedars from Lebanon. The cedar trees of Lebanon were legendary for their excellent timber. And this tells us that Solomon wanted the temple to be built out of the best materials possible.

Isn't that the way that God builds in our individual lives and when he builds his church as well? He wants to use the best materials possible. Solomon said, give me the finest wood made by the finest craftsman.

But notice this as well. He was willing to have Gentile wood made by Gentile craftsmen to be built in the temple. Doesn't that almost seem that it wouldn't be right for the temple? Right. It would almost seem like, oh, no, no, no.

This is the holy, holy temple. You can only use wood that grew in the promised land. You can only use timber that was fashioned by a holy craftsman. And Solomon said, no, no, no, this is God's house. It's going to have the finest timber.

And if it's Gentile timber, then we'll use it. If it's shaped by a Gentile craftsman, then that's what we're going to use. But God uses Gentile and Jew together in the making of this temple. We see here sort of a reference to long, long time before the church was ever made about the actual building of the church, which is, example, a temple made of both Jew and Gentile.

So in verse seven, we consider Hiram's reply to Solomon, where it says,. So it was when Hiram heard the words of Solomon that he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, for he's given David a wise son over his great people.

Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I've considered the message which you've sent me and I'll do all that you desire concerning the cedar and the cypress logs. My servant shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea.

I will float them in rafts by the sea to the place you indicate to me and I will have them broken apart there. Then you can take them away and you shall fulfill my desire by giving food for my household.

Then Solomon then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cores of wheat as food for his household and twenty cores of pressed oil.

Thus, Solomon gave to Hiram year by year. So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon. And the two of them made a treaty together. Now, we don't know if Hiram was a saved man.

That would be a good debate to consider for yourself. You should look him up when you get to heaven to see if Hiram made it to heaven. He does say, blessed be the Lord God this day. But he may have been speaking just out of respect for the Lord.

It may not be that he was a saved man. Nonetheless, he did respect God and he reverenced him. And he made this arrangement with Solomon. I'll provide you the wood. You provide food for my household. Hiram expected to be paid for his service, but it was a fair wage.

They were able to work it out as good, honest men between them. And as it says, there was peace between Hiram and Solomon. Well, you don't just need materials to build a temple, do you? You need workmen as well.

Adoniram, Delegated Authority, and the Labor Force

So we consider the workmen beginning here at verse 13. Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel. And the labor force was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts.

And they were one one one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. Now, this was the labor force of volunteers. In the following verses, we're going to have the labor force of the slaves.

But you have to admit that this was a huge labor force, 30 ,000 men, which shows it could only happen when the nation or the kingdom of Israel was at peace. You can't afford to set aside 30 ,000 men to build a temple when you're busy fighting wars.

This was one reason why God wanted a man of peace to build the temple, because it had to be done at a time when Israel enjoyed this peace around its neighbors. So that was one of the reasons why it was more fitting for Solomon to build it rather than David.

And then they made this man Adoniram in charge of the labor force. Again, I want you to see some of the wisdom of Solomon at work. He delegated responsibility to men like Adoniram, who was in charge of the labor force.

Solomon? No, Adoniram. He took authority and he delegated it. But it also shows wisdom in that he did not work these Israelites too hard. We have this indication for us here in verse 14 that they worked in shifts of 10 months instead of making the Israelites work constantly away from Israel and away from home.

He rotated them through. Isn't it a very smart way to do the labor? And so Solomon demonstrates that he's using wisdom and skill and resourcefulness in the building of the temple. But they also used many slaves in the building of the temple.

Costly Stones and Hidden Foundations

Verse 15, Solomon had 70 ,000 who carried burdens and 80 ,000 who quarried stone in the mountains. Besides, 3 ,300 from the chiefs of Solomon's deputies who supervised the people who labored in the work and the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones and hewn stones to lay the foundation of the temple.

So Solomon's builders, Hiram's builders and the Gebelites queried them and they prepared the timber and the stones to build the temple. This seems to describe this great number, 70 ,000 who carried burdens and 80 ,000 who quarried the stone.

This seems to describe the number of Canaanite slave laborers that Solomon used. And so these were subjugated nations around Israel. This was a time of military strength and dominance. This was a forced labor team that was required to work as slave laborers in those days.

I think it's also interesting that what you would call in the business world, he had a middle management. You know, you have the workers themselves and then you have the upper layers of management. Then you have a middle layer of management.

It seems right here that it discusses that middle management group when it talks about Solomon's deputies who supervised the people who labored in the work. I find it very interesting here how in chapter five, verse 17, it talks about using costly stones.

Now, literally in the Hebrew, it's quality stones. The idea is very close. They're costly or quality. It shows that Solomon used high quality materials, even in the foundation where the stones could not be seen.

Now, if you go to Jerusalem today, which is a wonderful trip to take in the sea, Jerusalem, one of the places you really must see is you should go down the rabbi's tunnel and see some of the foundation stones to the retaining wall that they made for the second temple.

Now, again, the stones, the remains from Solomon's temple cannot be seen. But from the temple that came after Solomon's temple, Herod's temple, the temple that existed in the days of Jesus, you can see some of the foundation stones that they used for the retaining wall there.

And I tell you, they're absolutely unbelievable. You see stones, huge stones that are about as big as the wall behind you, about as big as the glass wall behind you in that dimension. And going back, oh, it must be five or six meters.

Unbelievably huge stones, precision cut, put into place. You have stones in there that are so big today that very few modern cranes can lift them and put them into place. And it's absolutely amazing to see.

And then when you look at these stones, and this was just for the retaining wall, this was not for the building itself. You see that a very nice carved border made around each stone. And you can tell that at one time it was polished and looked beautiful.

Now, again, that wasn't Solomon's temple, but Solomon followed the same philosophy. He used quality or costly stones, even in the foundation. I want you to think about something before we jump over to chapter six.

Doesn't that speak about the way that we should work for God? Even at the very foundations of our work, the things that cannot be seen, we should work with excellence unto the Lord. We don't work for the Lord for appearance only, but even in the deep and hidden things.

Isn't it a great temptation for our lives to worry only about what our Christian life looks like, not about what it actually is? To look at what the Christian life looks like on the outside. That would be like just worrying about what the outside of the temple looked like.

Solomon said, no, I want to build it with quality stones, even at the foundation. But it also speaks to the way that God works in us. God works in you and in me in the deep, hidden things. Other people may only be concerned with superficial appearances, but you know that's not the way God works in your life.

He brings you down to a deep death of self, doesn't he? You would prefer sometimes that he would only work on the superficial things, that God would just care about the surfacy things that other people can see.

But you know that's the way that you know that God does not work that way in your life. You know that he works in these deep, hidden things. But it also speaks to the way that God builds the church. God wants to build the church by doing a work of deep, strong, quality foundations.

Instead of having a work that's a mile wide and an inch deep, God wants it to be deep and filled with quality. And so I think even in these descriptions of the way that Solomon built the temple, we see how God works in our life and how he wants to work in the church.

The Dimensions and Pattern of the Temple

All right, now on to chapter six, where we continue along very much along the same theme. Here we read in the first six verses. And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.

Now, the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty and its height thirty cubits. The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house was twenty cubits long across the width of the house and the width of the vestibule extended ten cubits from the front of the house.

And he made for the house windows with beveled frames against the wall of the temple. He built chambers all around against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. Thus, he made side chambers all around it.

The lowest chamber was five cubits wide. The middle was six cubits wide and the third was seven cubits wide, where he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple.

Well, the first thing we're given in this section is a time marker. We're told that it was four hundred and eighty years from the time that Israel came into the land to the time that somebody actually came and started the work of building the temple.

I have to say that I don't think this is a black mark against Israel. I don't think God was saying, when is somebody going to build me a temple? No, I think that it was just simply in the timing. It also shows that the building of the temple was not so much out of necessity, out of it was deep heart for God.

The tabernacle did, in fact, serve Israel's needs fine. But God put it on the heart of David and his son after him to build the house of the Lord. And so it was in these times, it says there in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, that he began to build the temple.

Now, what's interesting is that there is some evidence, both from tradition and some rabbinical commentaries, that this work with Hiram in assembling the wood to build the temple, that that began. And it took three years to bring that work until there was enough suitable wood to begin the construction, which would tell us that Solomon began the work of building the temple in the first year of his reign.

And after three years, he had enough materials assembled to begin the actual construction. And then it was in the fourth year that the actual construction began. Solomon had a sense of urgency about building the temple, and he got down to it right away.

If you want to find something very interesting here, keep your finger here in First Kings, Chapter six, turn over to First Chronicles, Chapter twenty eight, verse eleven. That tells us something about David's connection with all of this.

And I just want you to remember that even though the attention is all upon Solomon here, David sort of stands as the shadow over this. The deceased former King David is a shadow over all of this work.

First Chronicles, Chapter twenty eight, verses eleven and twelve tells us this. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its interchangers chambers and the place of the mercy seat and the plans for all that he had by the spirit of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers around the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries for the dedicated things.

Isn't that interesting? It tells us, first of all, that David gave Solomon the plan, but it also tells me that David came to the plans by the spirit of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit was guiding it.

Well, now that's good architecture and draftsmanship for you, isn't it? I mean, the Holy Spirit was guiding David in the direction of this, by the way, as it talks about the different components of the building chambers and vestibules and porches and this and that.

As you might imagine, many people have sought to sort of reconstruct this on paper or in some kind of actual model. It's not clear enough to be definitive exactly what it looked like. I've seen several different possible constructions of what exactly we know about what this looked like, but not exactly.

The basic temple itself was, well, the temple proper. In other words, the house which King Solomon built was divided into two rooms. There was the holy place and the most holy place. It was just modeled very much on the idea of the tabernacle, except made larger.

And then there was a vestibule or entrance hall on the east side of the temple. It was 30 feet or 10 meters wide and five meters deep. And it was the same height as the temple proper. And then there were chambers all around.

And then there was a courtyard surrounding the whole structure. It also gives us some indication of the dimensions in this of this building, which tells us that it was about 30 meters high. Excuse me, 30 meters long, 30 meters wide and about, no, excuse me, 30 meters long, 10 meters high and about 15 meters.

Can I begin one more time? It was about 30 meters long, about 10 meters wide and about 15 meters high. I think we have it there. Finally, 30 long, 10 wide, 15 high. Now, if you think about a building that size, the first thing that strikes you, that's not especially large, is it?

That's not larger than the sanctuary that I have right behind me right here. The glory of Solomon's temple was not in its size. The glory of Solomon's temple was in the quality and in the beauty of its construction and in the God who dwelt in it.

That's something to remember, because isn't it that way about God's work in us and in his church as a whole? The glory isn't that, you know, the great size of his church. Matter of fact, the Bible tells us that the many are called and few are chosen.

And it's more who go on to the road to destruction than the road to salvation. Now, the glory of Solomon's temple was not that it was the largest building in the world at that time or any such thing, but rather of its glory and its beauty in the quality and in the greatness of its construction.

So it also tells us by the basic dimensions that Solomon followed the basic pattern of the tabernacle. He made it larger, but it was the same basic idea. Solomon didn't say, hey, let's do something. Let's make it round.

You know, let's make a sphere or square. No, it's the same basic idea as the tabernacle just made in permanent stone and a bit larger. With verse seven, we come into some of the details of the construction.

Quiet Construction and God’s Work in Hidden Places

It says, and the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. The doorway for the middle story was on the right side of the temple.

They went up by the stairs to the middle story and from the middle to the third. So he built the temple and finished it. And he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. And he built side chambers against the entire temple.

Each five cubits high, they were attached to the temple with cedar beams. Isn't that interesting? No hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. In other words, the stones that were used to build the temple were all cut and prepared at another site.

They were transported then to the temple and then just put in place. Now, this shows you, first of all, that they had skilled engineers in the operation, right? Because they didn't have to touch up the stone once it got to the temple building site.

It said, OK, you know, this is stone 34 C. It goes in the slot for stone 34 C. You'd think they must have German craftsmen there doing that work, right? It was just done precisely. It was done just exactly the way that it should have been done.

Listen here. I think, though, this idea here that at the temple site, there wasn't the sound of the hammer or the chisel. Again, it speaks to us about the way that God wants his work done. The temple had to be built with human labor.

God wasn't going to send down a team of angels with laser beams and ray guns to do the work. No, Solomon, however, did not want the sound of man's work to dominate the site of the temple. This idea is, look, I know it's human labor building this.

But when you go to the temple building site, I don't want the impression to be, look at the great work of man. I want people to be thinking about God. And so you chisel the stone, you prepare the stone somewhere else and you bring them here and just put them into place.

It also speaks to us about the way God works in his people. Often, the greatest work in God's people happens quietly. This was a tremendous work of God that was done at the temple, but it was done quietly.

But it was only quiet at the temple because it was noisy in the quarry. Right. The hidden place, there was a lot of working being done, but there at the temple site, it all was assembled quietly. It speaks also to God's work in the church.

You see, God wants to shape us down here so that we'll fit in up there. Do you feel like God's chiseling away at your life that he's, you know, carving and shaping? And if that stone could cry out every time the chisel came down upon it, every time the hammer struck its blow, it would say, ouch, stop that.

But there is a great reason for that. It's to be quiet there so that when it's assembled in God's temple, it'll fit in perfectly. God's doing the same work in you right here, right here. Now, when you're assembled into your place, into the house of God in heaven, there's no chiseling up there, is there?

It's all quiet up there. You're just put into your place, beautifully shaped, properly shaped. But down here, here's the quarry up there. That's the temple that God assembles us into. And in regard, it wasn't just about stone at the temple, it also says that he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar, used the finest building materials available, and then he built side chambers around the temple.

Obedience as the Condition of God’s Presence

And so now, verse 13, God makes a great promise to Solomon. He says, Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying concerning this temple, which you are building, if you walk in my statutes, execute my judgments, keep all my commandments and walk in them.

Then I will perform my word to you, which I spoke to your father David, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel. Now, this was a conditional promise to Solomon and his descendants.

If you walk in my statutes, Solomon, if you obey me, if you follow me the way that I told you to, then you will enjoy this blessing. If not, then you will face judgment. And of course, as long as Solomon and his descendants did follow in this path, then they did enjoy the blessing of God.

But they did not always do this. God promised an obedient Solomon that he would reign and be blessed and that he would fulfill all the promises that God made to David. He also promised that his special presence would remain among Israel as a nation.

But God says, No, no, no, this is conditional upon your obedience. But of course, the greatest part of the promise is there in verse 13, where he says, And I will dwell among the children of Israel. God was careful to say that he would not live in the temple the way that pagans thought that their gods lived in the temple.

He would dwell where in the temple? No, he would dwell among the children of Israel. Listen, it's not so much that the temple was a special place for God. The temple was a special place for man. It was a special place for man to meet with God.

God didn't need the temple, but man needed the temple. And that's why God instructed David and Solomon to build it. Well, we have here in this section of verses 14 through 38, a very large section which basically just describes in great detail the building of the temple.