WWUTT 439 Solomon's House?

The Temple Surpasses Human Glory Because Access to God Comes Through Jesus Christ

In the book of First Kings, we have a beautiful description of this gorgeous temple that has been built to God. But we have access to God through something even more beautiful than that. And that's Jesus Christ, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of First Kings, last week in Chapters 5 and 6, we saw Solomon building the House of God, the temple there in Jerusalem. This week, as we get into Chapter 7, Solomon is going to be building his own home.

Now, the description of the temple that we have in Chapter 6 is gorgeous. It is a beautiful building that is made of the finest cedars of Lebanon, the best cut stones, overlaid in gold with beautiful carvings and engravings throughout.

It is just a magnificent structure that Solomon has built, this temple to the Lord. It took him seven years to build the temple, but he spends even more time constructing his own home, taking up more space and more resources.

First Kings 7, beginning in verse 1, Solomon was building his own house 13 years, and he finished his entire house. Seven years building the temple, almost twice the amount of time constructing his own home.

Verse 2, he built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. That's kind of a pun, because it's the cedars of Lebanon that were invested in the armory. And there were so many cedars in the armory that it was literally called the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

And that structure by itself, that place that would become the armory, was larger than the temple. Its length was 100 cubits and its breadth 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits. And it was built on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars.

And it was covered with cedar above the chambers that were on the 45 pillars, 15 in each row. There were window frames in three rows and window opposite window in three tiers. All the doorways and windows had square frames and window was opposite window in three tiers.

And he made the Hall of Pillars. Its length was 50 cubits. The Hall of Pillars was then just to the east of the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its breadth was 30 cubits and there was a porch in front with pillars and a canopy in front of them.

And he made the Hall of the Throne, where he was to pronounce judgment, even the Hall of Judgment. It was finished with cedar from floor to rafters. His own house, where he was to dwell in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship.

Solomon also made a house like this for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken in marriage. So there's Solomon's house, there's a house of Pharaoh's daughter, which was about half the size of Solomon's house.

And already we're talking about a structure that is twice the size of the temple now, just in everything that we've described thus far. Verse 9. All of these were made of costly stones, cut according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front, even from the foundation to the coping and from the outside to the great court.

The foundation was of costly stones, huge stones, stones of eight and ten cubits. And above were costly stones, cut according to measurement and cedar. The great court had three courses of cut stone all around and a course of cedar beams.

So had the interior court of the house of the Lord and the vestibule of the house, which, by the way, when you went past the house of Solomon, then you got to the temple of God. So the first thing that you get to when you enter into this palace is the house of the forest of Lebanon and the hall of pillars and the hall of the throne.

And then further north of that, you have the court, Solomon's house and the house of Pharaoh's daughter. And then up the stairs beyond that past the court should be walking through the court up to what would essentially be the temple.

There was another access to the temple on the east side, but this was the way into the temple from the palace itself. And so you have Solomon's palace, which is twice the size of the temple in front of the temple or just to the south of the temple.

So it was an even more marvelous structure than the temple itself. And we are supposed to get from the from the narrator, from the writer of first kings, that Solomon was more invested in himself than he was in the house of God.

And when the queen of Sheba comes and visits Solomon in chapter 10, she marvels at the structure, how beautiful and gorgeous this palace was that Solomon built to himself and that it's right next to the temple that Solomon had built to the Lord.

Of course, thinking that Solomon would glean some blessing from himself himself. At least this is the way that it would look to other nations. It's been discovered that the palaces in northern Syria were very similar in structure to Solomon's palace.

So that just shows you the kind of influence that he had. Archaeological digs have discovered palaces of equal size and layout compared to what Solomon built. And so everyone marveled at how rich Solomon was, how he constructed this home to himself.

It was even more amazing than the temple. So Solomon is attracting all of this attention to himself instead of the attention that was supposed to be given to the Lord and his temple. And so when we get to verse 13 here, we go back to descriptions of the furnishings in the temple.

King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyree, and he was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali. And his father was a man of Tyree, a worker in bronze. And he was full of wisdom, understanding and skill for making any work in bronze.

He came to King Solomon and did all his work. He cast two pillars of bronze. Eight cubits was the height of one pillar and a line of 12 cubits measured its circumference. It was hollow and its thickness was four fingers.

The second pillar was the same. He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits. The height of the other capital was five cubits.

There were lattices of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals on the tops of the pillars, a lattice for the one capital and a lattice for the other capital. Likewise, he made pomegranates in two rows.

He used the one lattice work to cover the capital that was on the top of the pillar, and he did the same with the other capital. Now the capitals were on the tops of the pillars in the vestibule. They were of lily work, four cubits.

The capitals were on the two pillars and also above the rounded projection, which was beside the lattice work. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows all around, and so with the other capital. He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple.

He set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jachin. And there he set the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz. And on the tops of the pillars was lily work. Thus, the work of the pillars was finished.

So these are two huge pillars that are right there at the front of the entrance of the temple, kind of supporting the overhang of the roof. Some have theorized that they could have just been freestanding pillars, but it seems more likely that there was a structure overhead that they were supporting.

And the man who constructed them, Hiram, is not the same Hiram that is mentioned in chapter five. It does say that he came from Tyree, but specifies that only his father was from that city and his mother was of the tribe of Naftali.

So this was not a man who was a Gentile. He was a Jew who was working on this construction there in the temple. And the construction work continues into verse 23. Then he made the sea of cast metal. This was a basin that held water.

It was around 10 cubits from brim to brim, five cubits high and a line of 30 cubits measured its circumference. Now, this particular verse has been of use to certain skeptics who like to say that we'll see the Bible is imprecise because it doesn't describe pi here, because otherwise the circumference wouldn't have been 30 cubits.

It would have been thirty one point four six cubits because pi is three point one four. And then you multiply that times ten. But that wasn't the attempt here is not to be precise with measurements. All throughout these descriptions, we've seen estimates of these measurements.

So there's simply nothing going on here. That's oh, look, the fallible word of God, because they got pi wrong. There was no attempt here to try to specify pi. So it's simply an estimate. Instead of saying it was thirty one point four six cubits, it's just 30.

It's fine. Verse 24 under its brim were gourds for ten cubits, encompassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows cast with it when it was cast. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east.

The sea was set on them and all their rear parts were inward. Its thickness was a hand breadth and its brim was made like the brim of a cup like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths. Just describing the amount of water that was placed inside of it.

The explanation of the figures that are around the sea of cast metal. These were the forces of chaos that were subdued and brought to order by the Lord, who is the creator of all things. So all of this, this carving, this engraving, engraving around the basin is to show that all things belong to God.

Ultimately, that's the description that we're supposed to take from that. So what was the purpose of the of the sea of cast metal? This great big giant pot that held twelve thousand gallons of water and was sitting on the backs of twelve carved oxen.

You had three oxen facing in either direction, north, south, east, west. And just this giant pot that's sitting on the backs of those oxen. What was the point? Well, that was where the priests would bathe themselves and and purify themselves before going into the temple.

Now, in addition to this giant pot, there were 10 other pots on stands with wheels all the way around in the in the little courtyard area. And these also filled with water would have been for the purpose of rinsing off the sacrifices before they were offered on the altar.

And so that's what we have described Hiram building next in verses 27 through 39. I'm going to skip that and go down to verse 40. Hiram also made the pots, the shovels and the basin. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord.

The two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars and the two lattice works to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars. And the 400 pomegranates for the two lattice works, two rows of pomegranates for each lattice work to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.

The 10 stands, the 10 basins on the stands and the one sea and the 12 oxen that are underneath the sea. Now the pots, the shovels and the basins, all the vessels in the house of the Lord, which Hiram made for the king of Solomon, were of burnished bronze in the plain of the Jordan.

The king cast them in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarathon and Solomon left all the vessels unweighed because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze was not ascertained. So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the Lord, the golden altar on the golden table for the for the bread of the presence.

The lampstands of pure gold, five on the south side and five on the north before the inner sanctuary. The flowers, the lamps and the tongs of gold, the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense and fire pans of pure gold and the sockets of gold for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the most holy place and for the doors of the nave of the temple.

Thus, all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David, his father, had dedicated the silver, the gold and the vessels and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

And so even though Solomon had commissioned Hiram to do this work, you notice that toward the completion of all of this work, it says that Solomon did these things. Thus, all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord.

And that's just to show that though Hiram was a very skilled craftsman, it was ultimately the wisdom of Solomon that brought all of these things to be. Now, as far as the narrative is concerned, the writer has invested more words into describing the house of the Lord than the house of Solomon, even though the house of Solomon was larger and more richly ornamented.

But but it's because the writer wants to maintain the awe and grandeur of the house of God rather than drawing attention to Solomon. But it's very clear by what we have written here that Solomon meant to draw more attention to himself, having invested more time and more resources into his own home.

It's kind of a parenthetical reference. It comes in between the description of the building of the house of God, starting in chapters five and six. And then we have sort of a breakaway into describing Solomon's home in chapter seven.

And then we go back to describing the temple furnishings. So it's it's the narrator still wanting to draw the reader's attention back to how beautiful the house of God is. And that's really where our emphasis should be there, not on the the gorgeousness of Solomon's home.

The Ark of the Covenant Enters the Temple and the Glory of the Lord Fills It

So let's continue on here to first Kings chapter eight. We'll see if we get all the way through this chapter. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers houses of the people of Israel before King Solomon in Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came and the priests took up the Ark and they brought up the Ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent.

The priests and the Levites brought them up and King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled before him were with him before the Ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

Then the priest brought forth the Ark of the Covenant, a covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house in the most holy place underneath the wings of the giant cherubim that we had described in chapter six.

For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the Ark so that the cherubim overshadowed the Ark and its poles. And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside.

And they are there to this day. There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And when the priest came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

Oftentimes, the presence of God throughout the Old Testament is being described as in a cloud. It mentions in verses three and four that the priests took up the Ark, so not even the elders of Israel were safe in the immediate proximity of the Ark.

It had to be handled by the priests, and only they could have taken it into the inner sanctuary. And they moved it along with the tent of meeting, which essentially was the tabernacle. So the tabernacle was still there.

That's where the Ark of the Covenant was located, and now it is being moved to the temple. So symbolically, this is supposed to represent that the name of God is in a more permanent dwelling, but still temporary and still something that is only representative of God, not an actual dwelling place of God.

So the Ark of the Covenant was never meant to be the place where God dwelled. It was simply a symbol to the people of Israel that God was in their midst and in their presence. And it says that inside the Ark, there was nothing except the two tablets of stone.

Now, that's different from a previous description that we had of the Ark that contained Aaron's rod that budded, and then there was also a jar of manna that was placed in there as well. But now those things are not in the Ark.

It's just the tablets of stone that God had given to Moses, which is still really cool. I mean, you think about this was over 400 years after the Exodus, according to 1 Kings 6, verse 1. It's 480 years.

And so yet you still have this same Ark that was constructed during the time of Moses, and it contains those same commandments that God had written for Moses and given to him carved out of stone. All that stuff is still there, still in the presence of Israel.

That's pretty amazing, especially if you'd be a history buff. They would still have possession of those things. I mean, goodness, we've got stuff that dates all the way back to the Civil War that you couldn't even hold in your hand anymore because it would just fall apart.

And yet here is this beautiful structure that has been built for Israel to remember the presence of God that is with them that is still in wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous condition. Of course, it's overlaid with gold and carried on these huge posts into the inner place.

And then once it is in the Holy of Holies, the presence of God comes down in the cloud and signifies that he is dwelling there with his people. And it's beautiful. It's celebratory because God has a permanent dwelling place with the people of God.

We'll talk a little bit more about that next week as we continue finishing up the things that are described here in First Kings chapter eight. In Acts chapter 17, the apostle Paul is addressing the Greeks at the Areopagus.

And he says, starting in verse 24, the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. So there was once a time when God dwelt in the temple and in order to have access to God, you had to talk to a priest who went into the Holy of Holies and would sacrifice on your behalf.

And now we don't have to do that. And now it's not on Yom Kippur, the day of atoning, one day of the year. But we have access to God anytime through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In first Corinthians, the apostle Paul said, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God.

And so God now dwells with us. He tabernacles with us through Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, where he is interceding for us.

And he is our advocate before God, the father. We have access to God anytime we want through Jesus Christ. Jesus is our fellowship with God. And let us not make the mistake that Solomon made by attracting attention to ourselves, but rather with our whole lives.

Let us point others to the King of kings and Lord of lords by whom we have been saved, rescued from darkness and transferred into his glorious kingdom. Amen.

This is the protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt .com.