2 Chronicles 5: 1 – 14
Solomon’s Temple
5 So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house of God. 2 Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the City of David, which is Zion. 3 Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. 4 So all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5 Then they brought up the ark, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. 6 Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. 7 Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. 8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. 9 The poles extended so that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. 10 Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they had come out of Egypt. 11 And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions), 12 and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets— 13 indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
The First Temple of Israel is known as Solomon’s Temple which is a correct title. It was supposed to be The House of the Lord. However, with all the wrong things that went into this building I think it is appropriate to call it after Solomon and not add our Lord involvement in its design and construction. Remember He was never asked His opinion on any of this. All in all, it in my opinion the whole building and its items demeaned our Holy God.
The Bible tells us that Solomon employed 30,000 people to build the temple in 3 shifts of 10,000 at a time. There were a staggering 80,000 people quarrying stone to build the temple. Yet another 70,000 people were employed just to transport the stone from the quarry to the building site. Solomon employed another 3,300 supervisors to oversee the work. That's a total of 183,300 people working for 7 years - yes 7 years to build the magnificent temple of Solomon.
So, it took 183,000 men 7 years to build a temple. Now I know that there were not any of the heavy construction equipment available in this time in history. But exactly what were 80,000 people doing in the quarry for 7 years? Perhaps they had really bad union problems. Perhaps Solomon’s project managers and the supervisors (all 3,300 of them) were just utterly incompetent or desiring job security. I live just outside Philadelphia and our main access highway I-95 the Pennsylvania Highway Department has been fixing this road every year since I was a kid. It is amazing that they put in nice smooth black top and after the first small salting for icy roads the highway reverts to pot hole alley.
Now to go on to the shift workers cutting wood in Lebanon: -10,000 men working for 313 days a year (Sabbath off). Let’s suppose one man cuts down and prepares only one tree a day. that's 3,130,000 trees a year for 7 years.
It gets more amazing. If you get four 6x6 beams 20 feet long from a single cedar tree. The total number of beams laid end to end would stretch for 333 thousand miles. that's 14 times around the earth.
If you used only the Cedar beams to build the temple as per the stated dimensions it would be 700 miles high.
So, in just a few verses this chapter speaks about the Temple of Solomon finally being completed. Let’s see what our Precious Holy Spirit wants to tell us.
5 So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
TAhis verse finalizes the description of the completion of the House of YHWH, at which point Solomon brought within it all the things which his father had dedicated, the silver and the gold and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God. These would be placed in the chambers built on to the main Sanctuary. The Temple was now complete.
We then learned how Solomon flirted with Egypt contrary to God’s command in Deuteronomy 17.16, and how he built the Temple using pagan expertise and labor. It was the beginning of a life of compromise. But at this stage his heart was fixed on God, and these errors merely brought out his weakness, and to some extent his spiritual lack of the Word. He could still pray to God with genuine humility. As He does with us God accepted him in his imperfections, recognizing at this stage his underlying desire to be pleasing to Him.
As with Rehoboam and Abijah who follow, his gross sin of idolatry (1 Kings 11.1-8), and of allowing idolatry (14.3; 1 Kings 11.8a), are unmentioned, while his failures in other ways are made clear. It is significant that these sins are left out until chapter 14.3 to bring out the idolatry that in each case underlay their rule. Our Great Merciful and Gracious God wanted the initial impression concerning the house of David to be that it was free of such things. Even though outwardly Solomon’s start was promising, none of them lived up to expectation.
This second section deals with the height of Solomon’s true greatness in the commencement of true spiritual worship in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant which was accompanied by the presence of His NAME. It was a height which he was never able to achieve again.
We now come to the moment for which Solomon and the people had waited. With the Temple completed the Ark of YHWH was brought up from its Tent in Jerusalem into the Holiest Place to the Temple. The holiest objects of Israel’s faith, which indicated the presence of God’s NAME with His people, were as one again. The amazing result was that the Glory of YHWH filled the Temple. Please take note the clear connection between the bringing in of the Ark and the descent of the glory of YHWH (emphasized twice). It is not so much the Temple that is being approved of but that we have here an indication of God’s close connection with the Ark. Here was the sign of His invisible Presence which now reposed in the new Temple and was sealed by the glory of God in the cloud. This was why the Temple and its worship, with all its imperfection, was therefore accepted.
Once the Temple had been completed the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH was installed in the Temple and YHWH God graciously accepted the Temple on the basis of it, in response to His people’s worship. He accepted it despite its noticeable errors and descended on it in a cloud. While He would not have been pleased at idolatrous hands being involved in its construction, and at the pagan items which had been introduced into the Temple, (for He knew the dangers that this could bring and that it depreciated His holiness in men’s eyes), He recognized the genuineness of what Solomon had sought to do, and recognized that he was still a young man who had much to learn. He also recognized the heartfelt worship of the people. Thus, He met them there.
It is a reminder to us that God does not wait for us to get everything right before He is willing to bless us (if He did few of us would ever be blessed). He blesses us in Loving Mercy and Grace when our hearts are right towards Him and we approach Him in the right way in spite of our faults.
But to the returnees from Exile and for the bible student the connection of the building of the Temple with idolatrous hands and with idolatrous patterns was a partial explanation of why the Temple had failed and had had to be destroyed. It had not been built in accordance with His requirements.
2 Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the City of David, which is Zion. 3 Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month.
Solomon assembled all Israel together for the dedication of the new Temple. These included the leading elders, the heads of the tribes, and the heads of the clans and sub-clans, as well as all the men of Israel. His purpose was to bring the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH out of the city of David and into the Holiest Place in the new Temple. And he wanted all the men of Israel present to witness the event because they would never see the Ark again because it would be in the Holiest Place.
4 So all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5 Then they brought up the ark, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up.
So, all the elders of Israel gathered, and in accordance with the requirements of the Law, the Levites brought up the Ark into the Temple. They also brought up the Tent of Meeting. This term indicated the Tabernacle of Moses, which would be brought from Gibeon. And together with it the Levitical priests brought up the holy vessels which were in the Tent. These were presumably stored in the Sanctuary which only the priests could enter. There is no mention of what happened to the other Tabernacle furniture. All those ancient and revered articles had been replaced.
6 Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.
The king and the whole of Israel brought offerings and sacrifices which were so numerous that they could not be counted. They sacrificed them on the bronze altar which was ‘before the Ark’, that is in the courtyard in front of the doors of the Sanctuary. Their thoughts were towards the Ark where YHWH’s Name was.
7 Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim.
The final movement of the Ark into the Holiest Place was carried out by the priests. At this point it was just a building, so they could enter and put the ark in the Holiest of Holies. So, they brought the Ark in and set it down below the outstretched wings of the Cherubim. These priests could tell their descendants of what they saw.
8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles.
The Ark was settled in its place with the carrying poles still in its rings. And the Cherubim stretched forth their wings over it and covered it.
9 The poles extended so that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
At this point the priest assigned to this duty could look back at the Ark which they placed in the Holy of Holies and see the poles. that their impression could be seen in the Holy Place.
10 Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they had come out of Egypt.
The only things that were found in the Ark were the two tablets of stone which had been placed there by Moses when YHWH made His covenant with His People when they came out of Egypt (Exodus 25.16;40.20). On them was written the covenant including the ‘ten Commandments’.
You bible students know that besides the Ten Commandments there was a jar of Manna and the Rod of Aaron also put in the Ark. What happened to them? Well the bible is silent in talking about how these two items disappeared out of the Ark. What is significant is the fact that scripture stresses what was in the Ark. In other words, it is emphasizing that that covenant was central to all their worship, and to all that the Ark stood for. Nothing had been, or was to be, added. (In view of its reputation it must indeed be considered doubtful whether anyone would have checked what was in the Ark. Consider what happened to the men who previously looked in the Ark (1 Samuel 6.19). This is one reason treasure hunters want to find the Ark. They want to investigate it, which would be a no no.
These other two items would probably have disappeared when the Philistines captured the Ark and bore it in triumph though the Philistine crowds, or when they placed it in their temples as a trophy (1 Samuel 5).
Also, since Aaron descendants were rejected as being the high priest there was no reason to have his rod still as the Lord’s pick for High Priest.
The Manna was a sign of the Lord’s provision while the Israelites wandered. Now that our Holy Lord God had given His people rest from wandering there was no need to have evidence to remember His faithful care.
11 And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions), 12 and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets—
ALL the priests came to the Sanctuary, not just the course for the week. All wanted to participate in this wonderful occasion. Indeed, in view of the unusually huge number of offerings and sacrifices it was possibly a necessity.
And gathered in force were the singers under Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. They and their ‘sons and brothers’ (learner musicians and mature musicians in their clans) came together, clothed in fine linen (a symbol of righteousness), and with cymbals, harps and lyres, stood at the east end of the altar in the inner court. And with them were one hundred and twenty priests sounding their trumpets. It was a festive and joyous occasion.
13 indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud,
What they sang was, “For He Is good, for His covenant love endures forever”.’ It is a reminder that God rejoices when we sing His praises.
14 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
Then the whole House was filled with a cloud, (that is, the House of YHWH), as God manifested His glory within it, and the consequence was that the priests could not enter into the Sanctuary and minister in it because of the thickness of the cloud (in the same way as Moses had been unable to enter the Tabernacle at its dedication for a similar reason - Exodus 40.35). But the cloud was necessary, for it hid the manifestation of God in all His glory, and had it not been for the cloud all would have been struck dead. It was an important experience because it confirmed to all Israel that God was willing for them to worship Him in the Temple containing the Ark.
There is a parallel here in that when the Tabernacle was dedicated God similarly appeared in a cloud (Exodus 40.34-35), the difference lying in the fact that, in the case of the Exodus it was a continuing phenomenon. But what was very different was that when Moses went to meet God in the Tent of Meeting the cloud came down upon it. The same was not true for Solomon. He was not even allowed into the Sanctuary. He was not a new Moses.
