2 Chronicles 4: 1 – 22
Infiltrated
4 Moreover he made a bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height. 2 Then he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 3 And under it was the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, when it was cast. 4 It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward. 5 It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained three thousand baths. 6 He also made ten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in. 7 And he made ten lampstands of gold according to their design, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. 8 He also made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred bowls of gold. 9 Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court and doors for the court; and he overlaid these doors with bronze. 10 He set the Sea on the right side, toward the southeast. 11 Then Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God: 12 the two pillars and the bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; 13 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the pillars); 14 he also made carts and the lavers on the carts; 15 one Sea and twelve oxen under it; 16 also the pots, the shovels, the forks—and all their articles Huram his master craftsman made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the LORD. 17 In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and Zeredah. 18 And Solomon had all these articles made in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined. 19 Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which was the showbread; 20 the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary, 21 with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; 22 the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were gold.
I am thankful to our Holy Creator for you. By reading this and other sermons you want to know more about our Great God. I am sure that you are being guided by our Precious Holy Spirit as you stay grounded in His Word. In other words, you pay attention to what he says. Sadly, most people in our world are in the dark. They are dead spiritually and cannot see the signs of the times our Lord is showing us.
Today we are going to look at some of the fixtures made for the Temple. One significant item that I hope will catch your attention is ‘The Sea’ which had 4 sets of bulls holding up a brash water basin. Does this instill in you some confusion? How about I run this scripture by you as the book of Genesis talks about in Exodus chapter 30. In this chapter we learn about the The Bronze Laver that our Holy Adoni Yahweh God instructed Moses to build for the Tabernacle.
17 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 18 “You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall put water in it, 19 for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it. 20 When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, lest they die. 21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. And it shall be a statute forever to them—to him and his descendants throughout their generations.”
If this be so then what is this weird item called ‘The Sea’ which molten bulls holding it up? So why are there 4 sets of three bull which total 12 molten bulls?
Take a look at what our Holy God thought about making molded images in Exodus 32, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us [a]gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
Also, look at this scripture from the book of Exodus chapter 20 that gives us our Holy Master’s 10 Commandments. Another abomination which the enemy has infiltrated into the articles made for the Temple are golden angels.
“4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me”
I know that you are certain that our Holy, Merciful, and Gracious God was not too pleased with this stuff happening.
So, what is exactly happening here? Since you are faithful disciples of our Master and King Jesus Christ you will know the answer. Once you find out the truthful answer I just hope you will teach others.
If you have been with us so far in studying the book of Chronicles which many teachers and Christians avoid studying, you are aware that our Holy God did not want a Temple. However, He Is such a loving God and cared for David so much He consented to the Temple being built for His Name. Solomon David’s son allowed his pride to be influenced in building the Temple.
Try this on for shock therapy - The 3 molten bulls x4=12 represents the signs of the Zodiac. The pagan king of Tyre sends his best pagan architect who is experienced in building a splendid pagan temple in Tyre to build the Temple for our Holy Lord God.
The 12 signs of the zodiac symbolically represent energy models: the element Air, Fire, Earth and Water to which each one belongs indicates thee type of energy, whereas the position it occupies within the zodiac describes the mode of expression of that energy. The Zodiac signs are a representation of solar time, the seasons and the life cycles of nature, eath month thus coincides with a zodiac sign to which psychological meanings have been attributed that are in harmony with the natural cycle occurring in that period. The zodiac profiles contain these psychological meanings attributed to the 12 zodiac signs.
The cardinal zodiac signs are: Aires, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The cardinal zodiac signs correspond to the start of the four seasons. The fixed zodiac signs are: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. The fixed zodiac signs correspond to the culminating period of the seasons. The mobile zodiac signs are; Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. The mobile zodiac signs correspond to the end of the seasons.
If the enemy of our souls cannot create enough harm to stop the kingdom of our Great God here on earth, then he will try to infiltrate it to cause corruption from within. So, right from the start the Temple is wrong.
A good question for you to consider then is this, ‘Why then did our Great and Holy Yahweh God’ stamp His approval after its dedication. I believe for two principal reasons. First if you have studied the scripture so far from the time of Abraham you can say Amen with me that the Israelites over and over forsook the Lord for other Gods. Then starting from Samuel there was an indication of a call to return wholehearted to following Yahweh. David unified the nation and his love and devotion for Adoni Yahweh caused the people to again clean house and look to the God of Israel again. Now that His servant king’s son was obeying his dad in building a house for Him I believe that our Merciful and Loving God did not want to put a halt to the people’s desire to worship Him by stopping the construction due to incorrect objects being incorporated into the design and ultimate fixtures of the Temple. If our Holy Master spoke up against the items as you will see He would have had a whole list of items that were against His Will. He did not want to discourage Solomon and the Israelites who were trying to do what was right.
The second reason I believe is due to the promise our Great Ruler God made to David. He promised gave David the promise the He would establish a dynasty of David’s descendants ruling over Israel for the Greater David to come forth Whose Name Is Jesus Christ.
Now back to my comment regarding the molten bulls. The bull is the zodiac symbol for Taurus (Latin: Bull) which is the second astrological sign in the present zodiac. This sign belongs to the Earth triplicity. It has a fixed modality with a feminine polarity It is ruled by Venus and it is the sign where the Moon is exalted. The Sun transits in the sign of Taurus from approximately April 21 until May 21 in western astrology.
Taurus was the first sign of the zodiac established among the ancient Mesopotamians, who called it as the Bull of Heaven, because it was the constellation through which the sun rose on the vernal equinox at that time. Due to the precession of the equinox, it has since passed through the constellation Aries and into the constellation Pisces. Cults centered around Sacred bulls began to form in Assyria, Egypt, and Crete.
In Egypt, the bull was worshiped as Apis, the embodiment of Ptah and later of Osiris. A long series of ritually perfect bulls were identified by the god's priests, housed in the temple for their lifetime, then embalmed and encased in a giant sarcophagus. The bull was also worshipped as Mnevis, the embodiment of Atum-Ra, in Heliopolis. Ka in Egyptian is both a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull.
David made numerous mistakes in not checking in with our Holy Father God and then his son Solomon followed him in the same errors. So, without any accountability Huram made things without any Israelite priest overseeing the proper religious items. Wow!
4 Moreover he made a bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height.
I Kings makes no mention of the making of the bronze altar, although it is assumed in the later narrative. That may indicate disapproval of an altar not made in accordance with Exodus where it was intended to be five cubits by five cubits, and three cubits high (Exodus 27.1). In Exodus it was also clearly stated that an altar which required the use of steps, as this one would, should not be used (Exodus 20.26).
The altar described here was four times as large as the original bronze altar and almost certainly required steps to be used to sacrifice on it, contrary to Exodus 20.26. It would appear to have been built on a Phoenician pattern. The original bronze altar, made by Bezalel the son of Uri, on which Solomon caused a thousand sacrifices to be offered, and which the Chronicler had so emphasized in chapter 1.6-7, was seemingly discarded along with other Tabernacle furniture (5.5). We are left to surmise whether the Chronicler and the returnees from Exile would frown on this new-altered altar, but the emphasis on the old altar in 1.6-7 may indicate that they did.
The molten sea was a hugely enlarged version of the laver in the Tabernacle described in Exodus 30.18-21. 1 Kings tells us that it was made of bronze, but the Chronicler does not mention bronze apart from in connection with the bronze altar. The sea was for the priests to wash in (they had to wash their hands and their feet each time they entered the Holy Place). It is true that the number of priests had multiplied so that the original laver might well have been insufficient, but the description of this ‘molten sea’ very much suggests Phoenician influence, and the fact that it was set on a base of oxen confirms this. Such graven images were forbidden by God but were a regular feature of Baalism.
2 Then he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.
The diameter of the sea was ten cubits (roughly fifteen foot), and its circumference was 45 feet. But the aim was to give an idea of size, not to be mathematically precise. It was five cubits high (roughly eight foot high), thus considerably taller than a man. Using it would involve mounting steps, which was forbidden in a holy place because it revealed man’s nakedness (Exodus 20.26). The main concept was pagan.
3 And under it was the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
Under the rim were two rows of knops in the likeness of oxen. The knops of 1 Kings 7.24 are here described as ‘the likeness of oxen’. You can see how this architect is hard on wanting bulls part of the Temple’s fixtures.
4 It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward.
That these were graven images cannot be doubted. Whatever explanation was given they were contrary to God’s Law and introduced the symbol of Baal into the Temple courts. They were a sign of Solomon’s compromise as a consequence of using a un-believer architect.
5 It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained three thousand baths.
The bronze was a handbreadth thick and had a flared lily-like rim. The whole ideally contained 3,000 baths.
6 He also made ten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in.
The ten lavers are here dealt with in one verse, with no mention of their bases. 1 Kings 7.27-39 a great deal of detail is entered, mainly concerning their moveable bases which enabled them to be moved round to where they were needed. The purpose of the lavers was to provide water for any necessary washing of parts of the sacrificial victims (Leviticus 1.9). There were no parallel lavers in the Tabernacle that we know of. In the Tabernacle the one laver may have served both priests and sacrificial parts, or the sacrificial parts may have been washed in basins.
The ten lavers were made of bronze and placed in movable bases. They were placed five to the right hand and five to the left, probably of the bronze altar. They were used for washing the necessary parts of the burnt offerings.
The sea, on the other hand, was for the priests to wash in. In the Tabernacle there was only one laver, and this may have been available for both tasks, or more probably the sacrificial parts were washed in basins.
7 And he made ten lampstands of gold according to their design, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.
One lampstand of gold was not good enough for Solomon, he had to have ten. He seems to have paid no thought to its significance. Perhaps had he listened to the prophets rather than to Huram he might have done so. For the prophets, and probably most of Israel, continued to think of one lampstand, as did the later King Abijah (2 Chronicles 13.11). They, of course, never entered the Holy Place to know any differently. Solomon’s act did, of course, destroy the symbolism of the one lampstand which either spoke of the one God as the light of the world, or of Israel as one before God and living before Him like a burning light as His light to the world. This is why our Lord and Savior Jesus could both claims to be the light of the world, and at the same time offer that light to men (John 8.12).
In Zechariah the lampstand (chapter 4) signified the all-knowingness of God (Zechariah 4.10) and the presence of the living God feeding life to His anointed ones. Just as a man’s life was often called his ‘lamp’ (Job 21.17; Proverbs 20.20; 24.20), and the lampstand, once removed, signified the death of the church (Revelation 2.5), so the lampstand represented spiritual life from God. Thus, the lampstand represented the living God, ‘the Lord of the whole earth’, fully present and fully aware behind the veil, in His giving of that life to His people. This ties in with its multiplied seven oldness, multiplied perfection.
These lampstands were placed in two sets of five on each side of the Holy Place. The lampstand was no longer ‘before the veil’. They were an unconscious prophecy of the dividing up of Israel. It may be that these ten lampstands and the ten golden tables were appropriated by Shishak when he later invaded Israel, being replaced by the originals which had been kept in storage in the storage room above the Holiest Place (13.11).
8 He also made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred bowls of gold.
In the Tabernacle there was one table before the veil on which would be placed the twelve loaves of showbread which continually represented the twelve tribes of Israel before God (Exodus 25.23-30; Leviticus 24.5-9). Solomon replaced it by ten tables. Do you also see anything wrong here?
The ten tables were set in the Holy Place with five on one side and five on the other, possibly interspersed with the lampstands (or the lampstands may have been on them). We are not told the purpose of these tables although possibly showbread was set on each (4.19).
Around the Sanctuary he built the court of the priests, or the ‘inner court’ (1 Kings 6.36), separated from ‘the great court’ (or the outer court by) a wall consisting of three rows of large hewn stones and a row of cedar beams (1 Kings 6.36; 7.12).
9 Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court and doors for the court; and he overlaid these doors with bronze.
Thus, he made the two courts, the court of the priests and the great court, and separating them from each other by the wall described above, provided for them doors overlaid with bronze.
10 He set the Sea on the right side, toward the southeast.
Pointed out here is that the sea was on the right side of the court (or of the house) eastwards, towards the south. This abomination is on the forefront of concern.
Up to this point we were told that ‘Solomon’ did this or that, although they were things that no king would or could do. No one would doubt that it indicated that he worked through agents. Now we are told who his chief agent was in the matter. They were all wrought by Huram-abi, the expert in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and timber who was a Phoenician pagan. For the returning exiles and for all of us who desire to know the truth of what was going on, we would be concerned or even shocked as to the use of such a man for building the sacred Sanctuary of our Holy God YHWH.
11 Then Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God:
Huram the pagan from Tyre made the pots, the shovels and the basins (1 Kings 7.40). These were wrought of bronze and were for the use of the altar. They were all necessary for the intimate service of the Temple inner court and bore what was holy and yet they were made with unclean hands.
12 the two pillars and the bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; 13 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the pillars);
Here it is made clear that they were made by Huram-abi and goes into greater detail about the decorations on the crown at the top. We have good cause to see that the pillars were of pagan origin, for they have been found on many pagan temples.
14 he also made carts and the lavers on the carts; 15 one Sea and twelve oxen under it;
The making of the bases for the lavers are now mentioned, something he has not done before. These were on wheels and they contained within them the lavers, and were decorated with lions, oxen and cherubim (1 Kings 7.29). He then describes again the making of the lavers, which would presumably lift out of the bases, and the making of the molten sea, and the twelve oxen which were underneath it. All these were made by Huram-abi. So far did he take Solomon away from the simplicity of the Tabernacle where the only decorations were of cherubim authorized by our Creator God.
16 also the pots, the shovels, the forks—and all their articles Huram his master craftsman made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the LORD.
These items were made by Huram-abi out of bronze. They would therefore be for use in the court of the priests and not in the Sanctuary, where all was silver and gold. The pots would, among other things, be used for catching the blood of sacrificed animals, and carrying the meal offerings. The shovels would be for shoveling the ashes and coals on the altar and disposing of them in pots, to be taken to a clean place. The flesh-hooks were for maneuvering the animal sacrifices.
17 In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and Zeredah.
All the bronze work was cast in the clay ground (from which would be made the moulds) which was in the Plain of Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah. 1 Kings 7.46 says ‘between Succoth and Zarethan’. Zeredah and Zarethan were probably two names for the same town.
Please take note the switch to ‘the king cast them’. He would not, of course, cast them himself, and we have already been told that Huram-abi was responsible for their casting, but the switch of names prepares for the verses which follow. The switch in names at this point parallels 1 Kings 7.46-51. The book of Kings never speaks of Huram as a worker in gold and silver.
18 And Solomon had all these articles made in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined
So many vessels were made for the Temple out of bronze that their weight could not be calculated. We are not told where the bronze and copper came from, but it may well have been imported. In Solomon’s day it would not have been seen as important. It was ‘cheap stuff’. Even silver was treated lightly (9.20).
This whole passage, which opened with the making of the Sanctuary (3.3), now closes with the making of the items for the Sanctuary. These include the golden altar of incense, the golden tables for the showbread, and the golden lampstands, together with all the golden instruments used in the Sanctuary. In accordance with 1 Kings 7.48-51 these are all described as the work of Solomon, in other words of his servants assigned to do.
19 Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which was the showbread; 20 the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary,
The golden altar, the tables and the lampstands, were all products of Solomon. Thus, the responsibility for all that is made falls upon him. Solomon had replaced what was most sacred with his own devices. In a nation so bound to the sacred as Israel, this would have appeared, had it been generally known, to be sacrilege. We already know that the sacred bronze altar (not this one) still existed as it is mentioned in chapter 1. So that that too must have been discarded (however reverently), to be replaced by Solomon’s grandiose altar. In other words, the sacred bronze altar, which had been present in the Tabernacle in chapter 1, was conveniently put aside and forgotten.
Ahimelech bears witness to the fact that there was a table for the showbread still in the Tabernacle in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 21.6). Thus, that too had been replaced. Whether the bronze altar and the table for the showbread were the original ones or not is hardly important, for whatever their origin they were by this time seen as sacred to Israel, and Israel no doubt saw them as the original ones. In the same way while we cannot be certain that a golden altar of incense and a golden lampstand were still present in the Tabernacle, it is probable that they were, and that they too were seen similarly. All were thus supplanted by Solomon, something that Israel may not have realized until 1 Kings was written. They probably thought that the originals were still present in the Temple. King Abijah later certainly mistakenly appears to have seen it in that way (13.11). (Alternately the ten lampstands may have been taken away by Shishak and have been replaced by the originals which had been kept in storage). Being in the Holy Place only the priests would ever see what was there.
21 with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; 22 the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were gold.
All that was used within the Sanctuary was replaced with items of pure gold. The lamps may have been additional lamps. The tongs would be used on the fire in the golden altar. The snuffers would quench the lamps.
Both the doors into the Holiest Place and the doors into the Holy Place were overlaid with gold. Everything within The Temple was golden.
