We have come to the actual building of the Temple of God in 1 Kings 6.
• This is a short write up of the building; we have greater details in the books of Chronicles. Let’s read a portion – 1 Kings 6:19-37.
TWO THINGS stand out in the building of the Temple – they dedicated the best to the building – the best logs, the best men, the best materials.
• And the SECOND thing that stands out is the strict adherence to certain dimensions and how the different parts of the Temple is to be built.
GIVING GOD THE VERY BEST
• We see that extensive efforts were put in to make sure that the Temple of God is magnificent and made according to God’s design.
• Even for the stones that were needed, they were not prepared on site, with all the noise and dust within the Temple site.
• 6:7 “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.”
And the preparations did not start with Solomon, it started with King David.
• 1 Chron 22 records David’s preparations for the Temple. Let’s look at 1 Chron 22.
• 22:1-5 “1Then David said, "The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel." 2So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. 3He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. 4He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.
5David said, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD should be of great magnificence and fame and splendour in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it." So David made extensive preparations before his death.
• 22:14-16 14"I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them. 15You have many workmen: stonecutters, masons and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work 16in gold and silver, bronze and iron-craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the LORD be with you."
Solomon continued where his father left off – putting in his best for the work.
• Some used this as an excuse to splurge on church buildings. We should not use excessive amount of money to build buildings; it can be put to better use.
• Solomon’s Temple is different. It is not an apple and apple comparison.
• The context is entirely unique. This is ONE Temple of God for the nation of Israel. It is the ONE and ONLY representation of God’s presence with Israel.
• David says, it should be of “great magnificence and fame and splendour in the sight of all the nations.” (1 Chron 22:5) It’s their ONLY testimony.
Look at the woman who came to Jesus and offered her most expensive jar of perfume (Matt 26:6-13). She broke it and poured it over Jesus.
• All those present were angry and said, “Why this waste?” (6:8)
• Jesus says, “10She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.”
• It has to do with the significance of the act in that particular moment. It is about PRIORITY and PURPOSE.
All the leaders of Israel played a part in providing the resources too. King David challenged them to do so in 1 Chron 29.
• 1 Chron 29:1-9 “1Then King David said to the whole assembly: "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the LORD God. 2With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God-gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble-all of these in large quantities.
3 Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple…
5b Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the LORD?"
6 Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. 7 They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. 8 Any who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the LORD in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. 9 The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD. David the king also rejoiced greatly.
David praised the Lord and then said - 1 Chron 29:14-19
14"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. 17I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. 18O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. 19And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided."
We give God our best. We want to KEEP this desire in our hearts.
The SECOND thing that stands out is the detailed dimensions and how the Temple is to be built.
FOLLOWING GOD’S DESIGN
There is the blueprint for the Temple of God that God has given to David.
• 1 Chron 28:11-12 “11Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. 12He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.” (The instruction goes on).
• 28:19 "All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan."
That’s some of the details we are seeing here in 1 Kings 6.
• Solomon did not get together with some architects and came up with his own plan. Neither did David. It came from God. God showed him.
• Similar to the building of the tabernacle. Moses was asked to make the tabernacle according to the pattern God gave him on the Mount.
It is like the pattern of the Temple of God in heaven.
• Heb 8:5 says the earth priests “serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."”
• God conveys spiritual truths through this earthly patterns. The people will understand how they ought to approach God and seek Him.
• Ultimately this Temple is the place where man seeks God.
Solomon knows God doesn’t “live” there. He cannot contain God.
• When he dedicated this Temple, he made this prayer in 1 Kings 8. 8:27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”
• 8:29 “May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place…”
• Not just my prayers, but the prayers of the people of Israel, and also the foreigners as well, who is willing to come and seek God.
And then HEAR FROM HEAVEN, YOUR DWELLING PLACE and act, Lord!
• Not from this Temple but from His true dwelling place in heaven.
• Hear the prayers of the people offered towards this place.
• “Hear from heaven” – verses 30, 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45. 7 times in this prayer.
God doesn’t live in a Temple made with hands, of course.
• If that’s the case, then God would be homeless at one point in Israel’s history, because the Temple was destroyed.
God’s ultimate plan is revealed to us in the NT – He wants to dwell in this “temple” – your heart and mine.
• 2 Cor 6:16 - We are the temple of the living God.
• 1 Cor 3:16 - Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
• 1 Cor 6:19 - Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
So where do we go to worship God?
• Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well. Not Samaria, not Jerusalem.
• John 4:23-24 “23… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Let me close with this - Eph 2:19-22. My theme is building the “Temple” of God.
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Are we building this “temple” according to God’s design, in the likeness of Christ?
• Let’s commit to build this “temple”, the body of Christ, the church of God.
• We give God our best and we follow His design – growing in the likeness of Christ.
