Building The Temple (2 Chronicles 3)

Did the temple picture God’s plan of salvation and the temple in heaven? How can we now serve the living God? Let’s begin in 2 Chronicles 3.

What did the exterior of the temple look like on Mount Moriah?

Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the place David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began building in the second month of the fourth year of his rule. Solomon laid the foundations for these structures in order to build the temple of God. The length according to the old standard of measurement was ninety feet and the width thirty feet. Across the front of the temple was a porch as long as the temple was and thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered the inside walls with pure gold. (2 Chr 3:1-4 CEB)

What did the interior of the temple look like on Mount Moriah?

Solomon had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs that looked like chains. He used precious stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported from Parvaim to decorate the ceiling beams, the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also told the workers to carve designs of winged creatures into the walls. The most holy place was nine meters square, and its walls were covered with over 20 tons of fine gold. Five hundred and seventy grams of gold was used to cover the heads of the nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also covered with gold. (2 Chr 3:5-9 CEV)

What did the innermost place, the Holy of Holies, look like?

In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold. The wings of the cherubim together extended twenty 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 twenty cubits. The 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. (2 Chr 10-14 ESV)

What did the two pillars look like and what did Solomon call them?

In front of the temple he made two pillars, each 27 feet high. The capital on top of each was 7½ feet high. He had made chainwork in the inner sanctuary and also put it on top of the pillars. He made 100 pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork. Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the right and one on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin [he establishes] and the one on the left Boaz [Ruth’s kinsman redeemer]. (2 Chr 3:15-17 HCSB)

How does the Holy of Holies picture Jesus’ sacrifice to cleanse us?

But when the Messiah came as a high priest of the good things that have come, he went through the greater and more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not a part of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he went into the Most Holy Place once for all and secured our eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are unclean purifies them physically, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:11-14 ISV)

Did the temple picture God’s plan of salvation and the temple in heaven? How can we now serve the living God? You decide!