Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 3:8-14

Let's go ahead and take a moment to pray to the Lord. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the guidance he gives. We thank you for the opportunity to pray to you and that you instruct us in how to pray to you and that you give us your priorities in your word.

We ask that today as we read of Solomon's temple that we would discern your will for us so that we would pray and write in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well let me go ahead and start off as usual with a reading of the chapter that we're in.

We are in 2 Chronicles 3. If you wanna go ahead and turn there. 2 Chronicles 3, then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to David his father at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. These are Solomon's measurements for building the house of God. The length in cubits of the old standard was 60 cubits and the breadth, 20 cubits.

The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits long, equal to the width of the house. And its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it.

He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of parvium. So he lined the house with gold, its beams, its thresholds, its walls and its doors. And he carved cherubim on the walls and he made the most holy place.

Its length, according to the breadth of the house was 20 cubits and its breadth was 20 cubits. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold. The weight of gold for the nails was 50 shekels. He overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

In the most holy place, he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold. The wings of the cherubim together extended 20 cubits. One wing of the one of five cubits touched the wall of the house.

And its other wing of five cubits touched the wing of the other cherub. And of this cherub, one wing of five cubits touched the wall of the house. And the other wing, also of five cubits, was joined to the wing of the first cherub.

The wings of these cherubim extended 20 cubits. Cherubim stood on their feet facing the nave. And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen and he worked cherubim on it. In front of the house, he made two pillars, 35 cubits high with a capital of five cubits on the top of each.

He made chains like a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars. And he made 100 pomegranates and put them on the chains. He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south and the other on the north.

That on the south he called jakin and that on the north, boaz. He made an altar of bronze, 20 cubits long and 20 cubits wide and 10 cubits high.

Amen.

All right, so we have Solomon moving on from some of the outer areas to the most inner area, the most holy place. All right, so what is the most holy place? Who wants to try to define what that is? What makes it most holy?

Go for it.

Right, yeah, it has the Ark of the Covenant in there and the Lord dwells over the Ark and that is in this most holy place. And it's got dimensions that are 20 by 20 by 20. What do you think of that? Why would it be so specific like that?

Why would it be cubic? Because of Trinity? Well, yeah, we do live in three-dimensional space. Yeah, so boxes are three dimensions. Yeah, that would be a bad analogy, yes. Yeah, there are people who get kind of excited about things coming in threes, but it really is overstating things.

There's even this philosophy or theology known as perspectivalism. And as many times as I've tried to read the works on it, it does not make any sense to me. And no, it really is kind of something that's been isolated to two theologians, like no one else has kind of picked it up because it just doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

Reminds me of this, I think it was a Gary Larson comic, you know, The Far Side, where there's this scientist and he's got this like long equation on the board and his final answer is two. And he's explaining to this other scientist, I call it Johnson's constant.

It was just the number two. Yeah, the number two is common, yes. Three is also common. So it doesn't really mean a whole lot. But the fact that it is cubic means a lot, right? It is perfect on every side, right?

It is, yeah, it's perfect, perfect dimensions, cube. I mean, that's even what you call it in, you know, geometry is a perfect cube. Okay, so yeah, continuing on here. What about, what do you make of all the shekels of gold that are mentioned?

Anybody have any thoughts on the quantity of gold? What does that demonstrate about the temple? It is quite a lot of gold. Yeah, that's right. There is something interesting here. This is one of the details that the chronicler includes.

He includes a lot of things about the quantity of gold. He doesn't bother repeating a lot of the details that 1 Kings has, but he includes a lot of extra details, especially about the material and the gold.

Now, this one in particular is very interesting for a couple of reasons. Notice back in verse one, it said, then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David, his father, at the place that David had appointed.

On the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Okay, so the chronicler included this reminder for us of where this is being built. It's on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. This is not a verse that is in 1 Kings.

On top of that, he has specified that it's on Mount Moriah. So he's connecting it back to the sacrifice of Isaac. We talked about that last week. So there's a couple of things that the chronicler is really trying to point out here.

Now, back in 1 Chronicles 21 -25, we had some extra, we had some more interesting information that the chronicler had uniquely chosen to present, which is in 21 -25, he says, so David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.

Now, that's interesting because Samuel describes him, describes it being some shekels of silver. Now, the typical resolution to this is that the chronicler is including the price for the whole site, and 2 Samuel is just including the place for the threshing floor.

So, but putting that aside, the chronicler has decided that the more interesting value to present back there is the gold for the whole thing. And then later, when he gets to describing the temple, and he just wants to add extra information about how much gold is involved, once again, it is 600 shekels of gold.

And so, remember, the chronicler wants to frequently show the degree to which Solomon is walking in the footsteps of his father, right? He wants to highlight as many similarities between David and Solomon as he can.

And so he's highlighting the similarity between David and Solomon. They're both investing 600 shekels of gold into this temple. And then on top of that, the connection back to Abraham with having mentioned Mount Moriah earlier.

But 600 shekels, him including this detail is connecting to this extra detail he had included before, about 600 shekels of gold. So he's showing you the similarities between Solomon and David. That's part of what's going on here.

All right.

Now, when we go down to verse nine, and it talks about the nails. Yeah, what do you make of nails, nails of gold? What, yeah, what are these? What do you, how do you think these might have been used?

What's that?

Oh, is that, sorry. Oh, yes, Tasha. Right, so it might be like the cover for the heads of the nails. Like, you know, if you make a table or something, you've got, you know, you put screws in or whatever, and then you have like these little wood bits that you glue in and put in there.

So yeah, if you imagine, that's what a lot of people think this is too. It's just like this gold covers for the heads of the nails. Is that a, no, okay. Yeah, and so that's the fastened overlay. We're just looking at verse nine right now.

And so he also talks about the upper chambers. Did you have a sense of where the upper chambers would be or what that's talking about? This is something, again, you can't tell just from 1 Chronicles that well, but you can by putting them together a little more, yes.

Yeah, I think it's just above the whole holy place. Yeah, so interestingly, you have, it's, once again, like I said, it's kind of hard to tell what's going on if you read each of them, because 1 Kings describes the height of, specifies the height of the temple as being 30 cubits tall.

And it's not clear why that would be 30 cubits when you only need 20 cubits for the holy of holies, right? And everything's kind of going along at the same height mostly. But then here in 2 Chronicles, we're learning that, okay, there's this upper chamber.

Where's the upper chamber? Oh, it's the 10 extra cubits that are above the holy place. So yeah, it's not entirely clear what all these things would be used for, especially in Ezekiel. Now, in Ezekiel, it's describing a vision of a temple, not an actual temple.

But there's just a lot of descriptions of rooms and things like that, and even multiple levels of rooms. Whenever I see them, I always think, man, wouldn't that be nice to have a church building with that many rooms to use?

But yeah, was that a, yes?

And then the Nehemiah, that's the second temple?

Yeah, so there's the tabernacle for Moses. Solomon builds a temple. Yeah, and then Nebuchadnezzar comes, messes things up. You know, yeah, takes stuff out, et cetera, right? And then, yeah, Nehemiah and Ezra, right?

And Zedekiah, they're all working on the later temple. Haggai and Zechariah prophesying about it. Okay, and then after that, there is Antiochus Epiphanes desecrates the altar, and then it needs to be rededicated during the time of the Maccabees.

So then there's like kind of another stage to the temple after that, too.

Yes, right.

Yeah, so we talked about that a little last time, that there are some versions of the Bible find that some people are so suspicious about that they just change it to 20. There is some textual reasons why you might think that it would be 20, but I do think the ESV is right in just leaving it at 120, like most Hebrew manuscripts say.

But so yeah, this is talking about the vestibule, right? So this is like the, this is what we would typically call like the foyer. You can imagine it's just like a very, very high archway. Yeah, it is surprising just how much taller that would be than the holy place.

Yeah, 120 cubits.

All right.

Yeah, continuing on here. Yeah, what do you think about the cherubim? What might the significance of the cherubim be?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, so he sits, he rides on them like, yeah, in Ezekiel one, the chariot made of, made of angelic beings. They also tend to, you have something to say there?

Yeah, right.

Guardian function, you said? Yeah, so protection, right? Yeah, you have an Eden, yeah, the angel guarding the, yeah, guarding Eden. And remember, there's a lot about the temple that represents Eden. Like, why does it always have to face east?

Even in the tabernacle, when they're moving it around, it always has to face east, right? Because it is, that is the direction that the entrance to Eden faces as well. Scripture never explicitly says that, but all the imagery points you to the similarities of Eden, the way it, you know, it's decorated with all kinds of fruit and things like that, right?

This is a, this is a place where God dwells and Eden is restored, that kind of thing. I think there might be a couple of Psalms. Yeah, the one I'm thinking of is not 99, it's something different.

All right, something that's interesting here too,.

Which if you, there were a few things that the Chronicler does that the ESV ends up kind of just translating over to make it clear to read. One of the things that happens here, like one of those is that instead of calling them, saying it's, saying it's made of wood, it says that it's sculpted.

That's one that's interesting. But another one is that in this verse here, verse 10, says in the most holy house, he made two sculpted cherubim and they overlaid them with gold. This is something where in Kings, it's, he is overlaying it with gold, but here in First Chronicles, it talks about all the people participating in it, right?

Like the assumption is that multiple people are participating in this. And so, yeah, it shows that the whole people are working on this. All right, did you notice anything about the dimensions of the angels?

There were any observations about the dimensions of the angels? Fives, okay, yeah. I don't think the point is necessarily the number itself, just like 20 wasn't really necessarily important. But what's interesting is as they line up, you end up spanning the width of the holy place, right?

So yeah, if they are all, yeah. So they end up spanning the width of the holy place. So let me go ahead and I'll read my description because it's kind of hard to, yeah, reimagine it all on the spot. But the wings all touch each other, right?

They're perfect.

They have like, you can imagine if the, there's nothing unbroken in the length of the wings as they touch each other. So this passage reverses the distinctive collective consideration of the cherubim that was found in First Kings.

For example, instead of totaling the length of each cherub's wings to 10 cubits, the chronicler combines the two into 20 cubits. But afterwards, instead of speaking of the wings that touch the walls and the wings that touch each other, the chronicler considers the wing of one cherub touching the wall and reaching to the middle before considering the wings of the other cherub touching the wall and reaching to the middle.

We've already noticed that the chronicler omits the height of the cherubim. However, the inclusion of such a full description demonstrates the continued importance of the cherubim. Okay, so yeah, you have the wings extending from end to end so they touch each other and they end up covering the whole thing.

So you got five, five, five, five, and then you get to 20, yes. That's how I see it, especially when you, because I've spent a lot of time in the temple imagery of Ezekiel, you see that a lot there, where in Ezekiel, there's just a lot of focus on layers to things.

So, you know, this is, you know, the holy place is surrounded by the next room, which is surrounded by the next room, which is surrounded by the next room. And they, you know, talks about the courtyard, et cetera, just to really emphasize the number of layers to actually get to God, you know, rationing up the holiness for each one.

And that, so having seen that so frequently in the various barriers that exist, whether it be a door or the hallway or whatever, that does incline me to think that the notion of a wall-to-wall barrier of these two angels touching each other perfectly, et cetera, is, oh, I didn't print it right, great.

Well, hopefully y 'all has good eyes.

Okay.

Man, I printed the first one right. Don't know. Well, I've got a nice one. All right, then in verse 13, this repeated mention of 20 cubits kind of closes off this section, since that's what we started with, talking about 20 cubits.

All right, and which direction are the cherubim facing?

Yes.

You'll get it eventually. What, yeah, what direction are the cherubim facing?

Yes, right.

Yeah, so more, yeah, more protection in that direction. Also, I think the mention of standing on their feet may suggest that they go from, you know, they're also from floor to mid-height, right, that they're upright, given the details we have in 1 Kings also.

Yes, yeah, which way they're looking, yeah. Oh, I think these are different. I believe these are different cherubim. These are not the cherubim on the ark. These are cherubim set up in the, yeah, right just outside the place.

Yeah, they face the greater house. That was from V4, so in verse four. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits, equal to the width of the house, right? So they're facing outward, right?

So just like you would imagine a guardian facing, right? You know, outward. All right, what about the purpose of the veil? As you looked at Matthew and Exodus, what was the purpose of the veil? Or did you have a question?

They're facing toward the greater house. So they're facing away from the ark, back to the place that we had read about before, right? Like in protecting it, yeah.

Yes.

They're looking away from the ark toward the greater house, right? The greater house is not the most holy place. The greater house is larger. Greater by greater mean larger.

Yes.

Do you think there's a valid connection with it? I guess there's a chair of them touching each other, touching their wings. Does that show like unity among godly people?

I think it primarily just shows the seal of protection, right, like it's a sealed barrier, right? From wall to wall, no gaps.

Would that necessitate unity?

I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't read into that too much. I mean, you could say that the angels are unified. I wouldn't argue with that, but yeah, it's not even, right, but it's not even, it's not even the same kind of unity they would experience because we have unity in Christ, right?

The elect angels are elected through him, not really in him as such. There's a, yeah, I wouldn't try to build a theology of the unity of angels that would detract away from the unity that we experience in him as humans.

All right, so yeah, as you read Matthew and Exodus, what is the significance of the veil? What does the veil do? Yes, maybe. Cover God's face. Something else, something else for these passages.

Yes, Charles.

Right, yeah, yeah, Tim had mentioned that a minute ago that it's just like the angel guarding Eden, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Yes.

I would think you stand, because you're standing for someone greater than you. You stand up.

So dimension, keep in mind, this is happening right after it says they spread themselves forth 20 cubits and they stood on their feet and their faces are toward the house. This is primarily focused on dimensions, right, and like communicating things about length and height and stuff like that, right?

So I think that even though no number is given, the point here is not that kind of symbolism. It's letting you know that they are upright and they take up some height. All right, anything else about the veil?

Yes.

Okay, royalty. What about the function of the veil? Right, yeah, it separates. Once again, you know, more protection, more separation, more holiness.

All right, yeah, and then interestingly,.

First Kings speaks of olive wood doors and so there are some people who would pit these against each other and say, oh, well, actually, it doesn't have the veil. That doesn't come until later. But really, I mean, it just has both.

Because First Kings talked about one and not the other, the chronicler is telling us about the other that we didn't hear about in First Kings, which is the veil. So yeah, there are doors too and you read about this in First Kings and there are also veils.

So if you think about how many pieces of protection there are, like not even counting that these are in different rooms, you know, there's door, there's veil, there's angels. Right, there's a lot of things that symbolize God's holiness and guarding people from him.

Yes, it says olive wood. Yeah, and then eventually when Christ dies, the veil is torn, right? That has a lot of significance, of course. Shows we have access to God. All these layers of holiness, right?

All these layers that make God inaccessible intentionally to protect us from his holiness, in a sense. All of that is taken away when we, through Christ, have access to him, for we do not. And they have to go to the temple and they have to be very careful and they can't touch things, et cetera, right?

But we have access to God in a special way through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Since he is a much greater priest than these others that would have to go in for us, but then couldn't give us access.

Like, that's the best they could do. Yeah, through Christ, we can go to the throne of grace. That's how we're able to pray to God tonight with a special kind of assurance that he will hear us, even beyond the assurance that they might have had back then without pointing towards any certain direction, without, yeah, being at the temple.

Right, like back then, back then when you were at the temple, your prayers, you had more confidence that your prayers are heard. We don't have more confidence by going to some physical location. Yeah, we have God's presence here among us.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, we have access to the Father through him. Yes, that's good. Any other comments, questions, thoughts? Um, I mean, they would still pray, but you look at Daniel, and even though the temple is not operational, he still faces towards the temple when he prays three times a day.

So, yeah, and that's what Solomon prays to later. He's gonna pray, you know, whenever people look towards the temple and they bring their petitions to you and they repent. So, like, even the directions that your prayers were going were significant.

Yeah, and of course, God hears prayers. We have the benefits of Christ. They had the benefits of Christ even before he offered himself up in some way, right? But it was not all explained, and so because of that, God gives them this kind of access to him that is especially guarded and, yeah, real devotion required visiting the temple on a regular yearly basis, several times a year.

Certain of the several feasts that were given were feasts that you had to go to the temple for. They weren't feasts that you could do at home. Some of them you could do at home. Some you have to go to the temple for.

And you can imagine what that'd be like. It's not, I mean, it's not the biggest land in the world. Like, these aren't things that you can travel to as a, you know, moderately athletic or, you know, as long as you aren't, you know, too out of shape.

These are things you can travel to. But, yeah, it would be difficult, and it's a big deal to go to Jerusalem, and this is why the people would do it. But we don't have that restriction on us now. We do have, I guess the only kind of special guarantee we do have is that when we are gathered together, there is a special way that God is with us that is not the same when we are separate.

When we are separate, we still have the Holy Spirit in us so that we have Christ's presence. We are individually temples of God, but then gathered together, we are also a temple of God in another sense to give us an even greater assurance.

But that has nothing to do with geography. It just has to do with proximity to each other.

Yes?

Is that why Joseph, because then they would go to the Jericho road?

It depends on, I'm not sure which instance you're talking about. If that is, yeah, I'm not sure which one you're talking about.

Since where Jesus is still at the temple but then his parents travel, what, two or three days away from Jerusalem, and they realize, oh, no, we have to go back again. They're in a caravan. Do they do it in a caravan for safety?

I see.

I'm looking for this mention you said of Jericho. That doesn't seem to be related to the instance of Jesus when he was 12, so that's what you're talking about?

Or just travel in general. Is it, is travel in general dangerous?

I mean, it's work. Yeah, it's work. I don't think it was particularly dangerous in that era, but let's see.

What's that?

You gotta bring all your stuff.

Yeah, right. Right. Sorry, I was just trying to remember what the, oh, it was Passover. That's what it was. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went up according to the custom.

Yeah, okay, so that's why they're in Jerusalem for when he is 12, yes. Was there another question? Okay, well, let's go ahead and end there unless anybody else had something.

All right.

Dear Holy Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that tonight as we consider your holiness and your, as it was represented in the most holy place and even the images of angels and the veil and doors, we pray that we would regard you as a holy God and that we would lift you up.

In Jesus' name, amen.