2 Chronicles 3: 1 – 17
Naming Rights
3 Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. 3 This is the foundation which Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits. 4 And the vestibule that was in front of the sanctuary was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was one hundred and twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5 The larger room he paneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chain work on it. 6 And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. 7 He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls. 8 And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper area with gold. 10 In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; 12 one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward. 14 And he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it. 15 Also he made in front of the temple two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. 16 He made wreaths of chain work, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of chain work. 17 Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
A Jay-Z concert marked the long-awaited, much-ballyhooed opening of Barclays Center, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets. The basketball arena is named for the London-based international financial services company.
How does a company get naming rights to various stadiums?
Companies approach the team that plays there. Professional sports stadiums are usually owned by the municipalities in which they’re built, and one or more teams supposedly rent the stadium. The city (or county) and the team work out a contract to determine who gets what revenue from the stadium. The millionaires who own the sports team in most cases threaten that they will take their team and move to another city who offers a sweeter deal unless their current government leaders agree to let them get a new stadium with sweet additions. In these agreements, it’s almost always the case that the team gets all the revenue from stadium naming rights.
The amount a company pays for naming rights depends on the team owner and the city, the terms of the agreement, and the length of the agreement. Barclays agreed to pay $400 million for naming rights of the Nets arena lasting 20 years (a per-year record for most expensive stadium naming deal, tied with the New York Mets’ Citi Field). Generally, naming rights to new stadiums are worth more than naming rights to old stadiums, because fans are apt to continue calling re-named stadiums by their old names. (Candlestick Park, the home of the San Francisco 49ers, reverted to its original name after naming rights deals with first 3Com and then Monster expired.)
A few American sports stadiums bore corporate names in the early- to mid-20th century, including Chicago’s Wrigley Field and St. Louis’ Busch Stadium. But they were really named for team owners who also happened to own the companies (a chewing-gum company and a brewery, respectively). The corporate naming trend didn’t get going in earnest until the early 1990s, when teams realized that stadium names were an asset they could sell.
The rise of corporate naming rights coincided with a dramatic shift in the proportion of revenues taken in by teams compared to cities. Before the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, cities would get not only rent money but also a decent share of a stadium’s other revenue streams: concessions, ads, parking, and the like. (Teams usually got to keep ticket revenue.) Today, some teams pay only a nominal amount of rent for the use of stadiums, and they typically keep all the revenue that a stadium net. Cities are left with tax revenue from these accessory revenue streams (but sometimes even tax money goes to the team). Hypothetically, cities still benefit from the prestige of owning a major-league stadium and from the increase in tourism that stadiums ostensibly bring. The real truth however is that stadiums usually cost more than originally planned, and their supposed economic benefits rarely materialize.
Today we are going to look at the work on the ‘house of the Lord’ – The Temple. A question for all of us to consider is if this is supposed to be dedicated to our Holy Adoni Yahweh God then why would part of the building be dedicated to two men? We shall see
The whole of the description of the work on the Temple and its furniture is discussed in this chapter. It talks the building, and the fashioning of the Temple and its furniture. They are necessarily in somewhat limited form, indeed even more limited than 1 Kings. The aim of this chapter is not to present us with the full details of the Temple which would enable us to build up a specification, but to demonstrate its glory on the one hand, and its pagan content on the other. It is seen as magnificent but flawed. Please take note that this chapter concentrates so much on the furniture and vessels rather than on the Sanctuary itself. For it is noteworthy that detail deals with the Temple furniture. The aim may well have been to bring out its pagan connections and its divergence from the Tabernacle which our Holy God planned and instructed Moses to build. We therefore need to recognize the pagan influence.
Our Magnificent and Holy Ruler God had not called on His people to ensure that His Sanctuaries were built by those with ‘clean’ hands, those who were true worshippers of YHWH, for nothing. It was precisely to maintain a true pattern and in order to keep out pagan elements.
Take note that two examples of these pagan elements in Solomon’s Temple are the Cherubim in the Holiest Place, and the bulls that bore up the brazen sea in the inner court. The former at least would not be seen, but the latter would be seen by all who entered the inner court, and they could hardly remind many of them of anything else other than Baal who was represented by a bull. It was not a far cry from this to mixing up YHWH with Baal resulting in the blended god worship which YHWH strove to prevent.
3 Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Work commenced at the site which had been purchased by David for the purpose and was connected with the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. The site itself, which included the threshing floor, would have been larger than the threshing floor and David had paid a generous price for it. It was situated on Mount Moriah. When Abraham had prepared to offer his son Isaac as a child sacrifice to God and was relieved at the last moment and consequently offered a ram in Isaac’s place, it had been on the mountains ‘in the land of Moriah’ (Genesis 22.2). There is something very significant about the fact that Jerusalem had been delivered from plague, resulting in the offering of sacrifices, on a mountain with the same name as the area in which Abraham was when he was delivered from having to offer up his son and offered up a sacrifice instead.
So most importance we note was that the Temple was being built on a site where a great deliverance from our Holy God promising to provide a sacrifice for Isaac and ultimately for us sinners while also stopping a plague after repentance and prayer. Indeed, repentance and prayer would later be the theme of Solomon’s prayer to God at the dedication of the Temple (6.19 ff.). Thus the mountain was the mountain of repentance and prevailing prayer, and would be so in the continuing future whenever men were willing to repent.
2 And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
The date of the actual commencement of the work of building the Temple, as opposed to the preparation work, was considered to be so important (in spite of the Temple’s inadequacies) that it was specifically recorded. It commenced on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. The recording of the date demonstrated that, despite his justified strictures, our Holy Master saw it as having great significance for Israel because it would be the center of ‘Israel’s’ worship for the next few hundred years. Its adulterated beginning did not cancel out the benefit that it would be to Israel, once God had accepted Solomon’s pleading before Him. But it did help to explain why God allowed it to be destroyed, something which later puzzled post-exilic Israel.
The four years between the commencement of his reign and the commencement of the building of the Temple would have given Solomon plenty of time to think over the magnificent project that his father had charged him with and therefore to plan things which were even more magnificent. But if his concentration had been on ruling his kingdom wisely and not on planning magnificent building projects he might have turned out differently, and the future of Israel might have been different. He had, however, had a charge from his now deceased father and it overruled his thinking. David, in his enthusiasm, had not considered what his charge might do to his son.
We will, of course, never know what would have happened to Israel’s history if the Tabernacle had been retained as the place of worship, united with the Ark, and Solomon had not embarked on his grandiose building schemes but had remained humble. He would have had a different perspective. He would have ruled more wisely. Thus the building schemes were an essential part of his downfall. They turned his eyes in the wrong direction. In my years of ministry I have witnessed many a Christian has lost his spiritual experience and ruined his spiritual work because he has embarked on grandiose schemes.
3 This is the foundation which Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits.
The total dimensions of the Sanctuary were to be sixty cubits by twenty cubits. Depending on whether this was the long cubit (51.1 centimetres or 20.4 inches) or the short cubit (44.45 centimetres or 17.5 inches) it would be approximately 30 metres (105 feet) by 10 metres (35 feet) or 27 metres (90 feet) by 9 metres (30 feet). We do not know which was ‘the original standard’.
These were probably the combined measurements of the two inner chambers, the Holy Place and the Holiest Place, excluding the porch (which was ‘before the house’), so as to maintain precise measurements for the two. The Holiest Place was 20 cubits by 20 cubits (verse 8), and the Holy Place was 40 cubits by 20 cubits. The height of the building was 30 cubits (1 Kings 6.2).
4 And the vestibule that was in front of the sanctuary was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was one hundred and twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
In front of the Sanctuary was a porch which extended the whole 20 cubits of the width of the building (and was 10 cubits broad). This was 120 cubits high, something only mentioned by the book of Chronicles. Like a steeple it might have been intended to point toward Heaven, as it towered above the Temple (four times the height of the Sanctuary proper). Possibly it was indicating that it opened the way into the presence of God. The insides of this porch were overlaid with pure gold. (Note the grades of gold, ‘pure gold’ for the porch, ‘fine gold’, which was superior, for the Sanctuary). The whole thing was unquestionably magnificent.
Many commentators dispute the 120 cubits high by suggesting that ’mwth (cubits) should be read instead of m’wth (hundred). This would give a reading of twenty cubits. But it cannot be done without changing the Hebrew text, and such a large pinnacle is not impossible.
5 The larger room he paneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chain work on it.
The ‘greater house’ (largest chamber) was probably the Holy Place in contrast with the Holiest Place. The stones of which it was built were covered with fir-wood, which in turn was overlaid with fine gold. On these were engraved palm trees and decorative chains, the palm trees indicating creation, the decorative festal chains indicating joy. No stonework was to be seen inside the Temple.
6 And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim.
The walls and ceiling were then imbedded with precious stones, representative of beauty. And the gold that was used came from Parvaim. Parvaim was probably the name of a place noted at the time for its fine gold. I guess if we knew for sure this place like the 49ers we would have gold hunters trying to locate and did up the area.
7 He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.
Every part of the interior was coated, or inlaid, with gold; beams, thresholds, walls and doors and pictures of cherubim were then engraved on the walls. The cherubim were from the beginning the protectors of, and proclaimers of, God’s holiness, and of all that was good and pure. They watched over the covenant in the Ark and were bearers of His invisible throne. They may well be the seraphim of Isaiah 6. In Exodus 25.18-20 they were winged, and their wings stretched out over the mercy seat. In the Tabernacle they were also pictured on the curtains of the Tabernacle so that the priests would know what they looked like. We, however, are provided with no certain knowledge of what they looked like.
8 And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold.
A brief description of the Holiest Place is now given, although it is not complete. He does not bring out that it was a perfect cube, being also twenty cubits in height. What he is more concerned to bring out is the huge amount of fine gold involved in decorating it. He describes this as six hundred talents worth of fine gold. The walls, floor and ceiling must have been overlaid with it very thickly. It is remarkable but not inconceivable. The gold amounts to twenty one metric tons of gold (23 tons).
The charge against Solomon was not that he stinted in his giving to YHWH, it was that he thoughtlessly and unspiritual allowed the Temple to be built by unholy hands, and in the main by hands of men who were brutally treated. He failed to ‘enquire of YHWH’.
9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper area with gold.
The golden sheets would need to be nailed on to the underlying wood, and this was done by using ‘golden nails’. In view of the softness of gold these may have been made of iron overlaid with gold. But the gold in each nail weighed fifty shekels. All that the onlooker would see was gold.
10 In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold.
These cherubim may have had the face of a man, the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle, with some part of them being oxen-like (in Ezekiel 1.7 they have the feet of calves), standing on four feet, with their wings outstretched, guarding the Ark. These were, of course additional to the cherubim on the Ark, and in this case each wing was five cubits long.
11 The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; 12 one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward.
In total their wings stretched from wall to wall, making twenty cubits. The cherubim stood side by side facing the Holy Place, their five-cubit wings touching, whilst their other five-cubit wings reached out to the two walls.
Their four outstretched wings thus covered twenty cubits from wall to wall, and they stood on their, probably four, feet. And their faces were ‘towards the house’. Instead of looking at each other like the cherubim on the Ark did, they looked towards the Holy Place. They stood with their outstretched wings over the Ark (5.8), each at one side of the Ark like two sentries. These were clearly additional to anything previously within the Tabernacle, and in that sense were therefore ‘foreign’. The description might be intended to bring out that they were of Phoenician origin, whilst justified in the Temple (by Solomon) based on the cherubim on the Ark. It is difficult to avoid the suggestion that they were ‘graven images’, although there is no suggestion that they were ever worshipped (for they were never seen). Whilst the small cherubim on the Ark faced each other with their wings stretched out over the Ark and were not to be seen as separate from the Ark, these two large cherubim were specifically separate from the Ark, and images in themselves. As far as we know they were never repeated, neither in the second Temple, nor in Herod’s Temple. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they would not be looked on favorably by the returnees from Exile.
The veil is not mentioned in 1 Kings where the Holiest Place is separated from the Holy Place by doors (1 Kings 6.31). But as the ends of the carrying poles for the Ark could be seen in the Holy Place (1 Kings 8.8) those doors were either open, or there was an open gap protected by the Veil, with the ends of the poles causing a bulge in the Veil. The Veil would therefore be necessary. It was certainly found in the Tabernacle, and later in Herod’s Temple (despite its similar doors), and we should therefore not be surprised to find one here. It was symbolic of non-access into the Holiest Place, and as a barrier between man and God.
14 And he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it.
The veil was made of fine linen dyed blue and purple and crimson (or scarlet.
The two pillars that stood in front of the Temple were also a new feature. There was nothing like them in the Tabernacle and they did not appear in Herod’s Temple, suggesting that they were not a feature of the second Temple either. The idea was borrowed from other Ancient Near Eastern Temples, where they were a common feature. Pillars of both kinds have been found related to other Temples.
15 Also he made in front of the temple two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.
In front of the house he made two pillars. Two is the number of witness, and the pillars may have been intended to witness to YHWH as the one Who ‘establishes’ (yachin) and ‘gives strength’ (boaz).
1 Kings 7.15 speaks of one of the pillars being eighteen cubits high, leaving the impression that the other was also. By listing the pillars as ‘thirty-five cubits long’ is combining the two heights.
16 He made wreaths of chain work, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of chain work.
The decorative chains and the pomegranates could indicate joyfulness and fruitfulness as a consequence of YHWH’s upholding. It represents a joyous witness to YHWH.
17 Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
The pillars were set up before the Sanctuary to either side of the door. They were named Yachin and Boaz. Yachin means ‘He establishes’ and Boaz means ‘with strength’. They were witnesses to the power and might of YHWH. The word ‘chun’ which is the root of Yachin is constantly used of the house of David in the prophecy of Nathan (2 Samuel 7.12, 13, 16). The name Yachin was thus an underlining of YHWH’s covenant with the Davidic house that He would ‘establish’ his house’.
Some see the words as the opening words in declarations about YHWH. E.g. ‘He will establish (yachin) the throne (of David) for ever’ (2 Samuel 7.13, 16), and ‘in the strength (be’oz) of YHWH will the king rejoice’ (Psalm 21.1, 13).
The casting of these huge pillars in bronze, hollow inside, was a massive job. Some historians have suggested that fires were kept alight in one or both heads, symbolizing YHWH’s presence with His people in the pillar of fire. Herodotus tells us that that one of the pillars before the Temple of Baal in Tyre held a fire which glowed at night. And Huram-abi was from Tyre. If so it would be another recognized pagan trait, even though given an orthodox meaning.
