1 Kings 4–6

All right. 1 Kings chapter 4. It begins by saying,

And you might read that first sentence there, that first verse, and go, well, duh, isn't that... Why would they even mention that?" Well, because not all the kings were king over all Israel. Some of the kings were only a king over part. Because after Solomon, is going to come his son Rehoboam and the nation is going to split in two. They're going to have, literally, a civil split. A national split in their nation where they're going to separate into: the lower area of Judah, and the southern, yeah, the southern area of Judah; and the northern area it's going to be called Israel. And the sons of David are only going to reign over Judah after Rehoboam. And other kings will be raised up to rule and reign over the northern tribes that are made up then of Israel. It can be confusing. Because we talk about Israel today as just a single nation. But back at this time, it was on the precipice of always splitting up. David ruled over a united nation. Solomon ruled over a united Israel. But again, right after Solomon is going to come Rehoboam. And it will be divided from that point on. This is not one of those statements that is just taken for granted. Verse 2 says,

Now, David had men. Solomon has men who they have considered as officers. Consider this almost like the cabinet in more modern sort of political language. But Solomon's group of people, if you will, is going to be greatly increased. Because Solomon ruled over more territory than did his father, David. Mostly though, because of David. It was David who left that to Solomon. And that blessing of peace. ---

But Solomon is going to bring a great deal of organization to the kingdom. Remember something about Solomon. There was no one wiser on the face of the earth up to the point of Solomon, or after for that matter. And Solomon is an organizer. Now, I don't know how many of you are organizers. Some of you are, some of you are like, forget it. And you can always tell by probably the condition of your bedroom when you were a teenager, I would expect. But organization is one of those things that doesn't come naturally to a great many of us. But it is a sign of wisdom. It's a sign of wisdom. Remember Solomon was very wise. And because he was wise, he was organized. He put things into organizational structures that worked. And I don't know if that's an encouragement to you or if it's one of those things where you just throw up your hands and just... We all need people in our lives who help us to get organized. I don't... I mean, there's some areas of my life where I'm organized. And there's other areas where I seem to let things go. And you're probably the same I would imagine. Some of you might just be disorganized from the word go. But we need organization. Or we need at least people to help us. And the Lord... Because here's the thing about organization. And you probably didn't expect me to talk about this tonight. But organization breeds order. And order breeds peace. Okay. You might remember in 1 Corinthians, it says about God, for our God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. Okay. In other words, what it's saying to you is that, because He is a God of order, He is also a God of peace. Everything about God is perfectly orderly and perfectly at peace. I have found in my own life that when my surroundings, when my environment is in order, there's a peace. Have you ever noticed that? Sometimes it's as simple as getting up in the morning and just making the bed. I mean, just make... How long does it take you to make the bed? Not that long. But there's something about it. You just feel like your world is in a little bit better order. And it's like, ah. And when we're... When things are in order we're at peace. And we can settle a little bit and just, ah. Sometimes you might be... Again, this is not a discussion on how to run your home. Sometimes I think we wonder why we feel sometimes as believers so disconnected from God. And I believe that there's something to the fact that we live, some of us have just learned to live in disorder and chaos. And that's our lives. And we've noticed that with some people. People who have grown up with drama, and I mean like serious drama, they tend to be attracted to drama. They come from a home that was just... (Pastor Paul makes a sound like total chaos.) There's people throwing things and slamming doors and yelling all the time. And they tend to perpetuate that because it's what they know. And the same thing can be true about order versus disorder. But God speaks to His children very rarely in the midst of chaos. And I have found in my life that when my heart is chaotic, okay, because of disorder, I find that I am much more challenged in hearing God's voice. It's when I get quiet and I allow His peace to fill my life. And I allow Him, and I begin to invite Him into the areas of my life to bring His order, His order into my life, that things begin to turn around. I really believe that as Christians, one of the things that God wants to do in your life and in mine as we give Him permission. And He's waiting for that permission, by the way. But He wants to come into our lives and bring order into the chaos. Because you see, sin has taken the order of God's original creation and just sent it into a tizzy. I mean, it's in a tailspin. That's everything, including our physical bodies. Our physical bodies are out of order. That's why we get sick. And that's why things deteriorate. And life: our marriages, our homes, our relationships, our finances, our thought processes, they can all so easily spin out of order. Because they're just a byproduct of the world around us. And how sin has made its way into the world and just thrown up everything. Just thrown it up in the air and it's all scattered and chaotic. And we live in that. We're like this... I talked about those people who grow up in drama filled homes. And they tend to stay in drama filled homes. Well, we've all grown up in a disorderly, chaotic world. And we tend to stay in a disorderly, chaotic sort of an existence. But then we come face to face with the Savior who says, My peace, I give you. Not as the world gives you. But I give you a special peace. Now that peace is the byproduct of order. Because He comes into our life through the Holy Spirit. And He begins to order our lives.

And it might start... Maybe you remember when you first got saved. What's the first thing God began to order in your life? Or put into order? Some of you had some nasty habits. And some of you... And some of us, we could smell them on you. And then there's other habits that you can't smell on somebody. But you had them anyway. But God maybe spoke to you, or dealt with you, and started to talk to you about those areas of your life. Some of you it was with your private time, your recreation time. What you did. The movies you watched. Yeah. Anybody remember at some point after you got saved, going through your movies and just going, oh dear, we got to get rid of... I'll never forget when Sue and I, first got married, we weren't walking with the Lord at all. Didn't go to church, weren't walking with Jesus. And then we got saved. And we started thinking... And our kids started growing up a little bit and we thought... We started talking to them about some of the movies we used to watch when we were, before we started having kids. We said, oh, you kids, you got to see this movie. It's the funniest... We put it on and we shut it off in the first five minutes. Because like I didn't remember the language that was in that movie or those particular scenes or something like that. Because back then my life, our lives, were in this, just caught up in just the disorder and the chaos of the world. And we didn't even notice. And then we got saved. And we started having kids. And we're like, hey kids, you got to see this movie. And we put it on its like, (Pastor Paul waves arms and in a voice of regret) says, oh, take it out, throw it away. And then you start going through your... Anybody ever go through like your record collection? Some of you might even know what records are. But your CDs, or whatever. And you just started thinking, some of these got to go. Magazines, comic books, things that we recognized we just needed to get rid of. Why? Because the Holy Spirit stepped into our life and said, I want to bring order into the chaos. And then it's our thoughts. Sometimes it's our thoughts. What do you think about when you have nothing else to think about? And your mind is free to think what it will. And you read passages like where David said, Lord, may even my thoughts be pleasing in your sight. The meditation of my heart may it be pleasing in your sight. And it's like you read that and you go, oh wow! I think He wants to put order there, too! Order is a byproduct of wisdom. And the byproduct of order is peace. Some of the, I'm not a doctor but, you hear a lot today about panic attacks. People having panic attacks. Pretty nasty stuff. I really believe that it's a byproduct. That is a byproduct of disorder that's just reverberating through our lives. It's just we live in the midst of a world of just such disorder. And it touches us. It touches us profoundly, intimately. And we need God's order. As you're praying, as you're praying in your own personal prayer time be conscious of the fact that God wants to order your lives, your marriage, your home, your finances, your thoughts. Bring His order. And just recognize. Just swallow your pride and just recognize that pretty much everything about your life that hasn't been touched by God is out of order. And just invite Him, Lord, come in and set my house straight. Isn't that fun when somebody comes in and just cleans up. Anyway, Solomon was a king of order. I mean, it says here in verse 7, "

" Now it wasn't just one man. He was over an area in Israel. And because Solomon's household and his table was so huge, he literally gave the job of providing food to the king's table - and that could be to a lot of people - to 12 different groups around Israel. And one officer was in charge of that group. And once a year they had to put together all the food and food stuffs that were necessary to feed. And you might think, well, that's not so bad. They only had to do it once a year. Well just wait. Now it's going to name them and there's just a lot of names here. It starts in verse eight and it goes through and it names them. Starting with Ben-Hur all the way down and down and down and down. And it goes through verse 19. Skip down through verse 19. It just mentions all the names and basically the areas they were over. And it will talk more about this in just a moment. But here's what it says now. Verse 20. "

" And that's, God's way of saying there was peace, there was joy, there was no war. And it says, "

" By the way, this is the, as I said, the largest geographic region that any king of Israel ever ruled over. It occurred during the reign of Solomon. All right.

--- Now here's where we get into the specifics of how much these people had to provide. Check this out. Verse 22. "Solomon's provision for one day (You with me?) was thirty cors of fine flour..." Now let me, just... You got to have an idea of a cor. A cor is about 220 liters. Okay. 220 liters. This is a day. Every day somebody had to provide 30 cors of, by the way, that's 600 or 6,600 liters in case anybody just was doing the math in your head - 6,600 liters of fine flour. "...sixty cors of meal (And meal is just flour that hasn't been made fine yet. It's just the ground-up, but not yet fine. That's 13,200 liters of meal.) ten fat oxen, (Guys, this is a day - ten fat oxen) and twenty pasture-fed cattle,” 20 a day. Now, if you had to provide for 30 days, you do the math of how many cattle you have to provide for the king. This is like taxation, if you will. But I mean, some of you I know, you'll have like a cow or something that you'll have slaughtered. And divided between like you and three other families. You'll each take a quarter of the beef or something like that. And you'll live on it for how long? A year? 6 months? A year depending on how much red meat you eat, I suppose. Can you imagine 20 a day? It even gets weirder. "a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, (didn't even tell us how many of these deer, gazelles) roebucks, (which is a male deer) and fattened fowl." This is Solomon's daily allotment. You can see that providing for the king for 30 days, it was no small thing at all. And it says here, verse 24, here's why. "For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him." There was peace. What that translates to, I guess, is a lot of people coming for dinner. Because you're at peace, I suppose, with them. Right? I guess that's one of the things about being at war with your neighbors. They don't come for dinner or something. But if you're at peace, they knock on the door and go, hey, what's for dinner? And it's like, okay. "And (it says in verse 25 that) Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon." ---

Now we're going to be told a little bit more about Solomon. It says, "26 Solomon also had (and I'm reading from the ESV) 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen." Now if you have a different translation on your lap, you might have a different number for that 40,000. Because it is disputed. Especially since there's a companion passage to this in 2 Chronicles chapter 9 that says, "he had 4,000 stalls for horses." And that's probably more the number. But either way this was one of the things that God told Solomon, or any of the kings, not to multiply. And he had a lot of horses, and a lot of chariots, and a lot of horsemen. In fact, there were three things. Do you remember? God told the kings not to multiply? Horses, gold, and women - wives. And Solomon did all three. And because each one of those things represents something in our lives that will draw us away from God. When you amass gold, you're basically tempted to stop trusting in the Lord's provision. There's one thing to be said about being poor. You pray a lot. Right? You spend more time trusting the Lord, because you don't have reserves. You don't know where everything's coming from. And you're like, God... In fact, there's, remember that prayer in the Scripture in the Old Testament says, Lord don't give me too much, lest I forget you. But don't give me too little lest I turn to stealing and dishonor you. There's this point about just having that sort of a thing where, Lord, I just want to trust You for what I need..., and so forth. And then horses back in those days, we've talked before. Horses to a king of Israel during that time were like bombs to a nation today. Atomic bombs or whatever you want to call it - nuclear bombs. It creates power. And so amassing a lot of horses back in those days would make a king feel unbeatable. And he would again, stop trusting in the Lord as his strength. And of course, having a... Multiplying wives, we don't have to guess what that's all about. It happened to Solomon with a thousand women. A thousand woman. We know that later on in this book, we will find that those women drew his heart away from the Lord. Verse 27 goes on and says, "And those officers… We're dealing now with all the provision that his house needed. All, “...those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking. 28 Barley also and (oh there's more) straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty." They had to bring also straw, and horses, and so forth. "And (it says in verse 29, that) God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite," You might say, who is that? We wouldn't know otherwise. But he actually did write a psalm. One of the Psalms is credited as being written by him. It's Psalm 89. And (it says that Solomon was also wiser than "...Heman, (who wrote Psalm 88, by the way. The rest of these guys we don't know.) Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, (We don't know them. And it says that) Solomon's fame was in all the surrounding nations. (Furthermore,) 32 He ... spoke 3,000 proverbs, (Which we have, by the way.) and his songs (the songs that he wrote) were 1,005. (That's a lot of songs to write. It says,) "33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And (all) people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom." It's interesting, isn't it? We don't often think of Solomon's wisdom applying to just things like plants, and trees, and animals. We think of his wisdom as applying to wise judgments. But he had knowledge that went along with wisdom. And he knew about things. And he spoke about things. And people were blown away by the things that he said. Now, I want to just bring up one more point here at the end of this chapter. Because I think it is very interesting. We've seen already signs that Solomon was beginning to disobey the Lord. We saw last week when we dealt with chapter 3. It began in chapter three by saying that Solomon took an Egyptian princess as a wife. He didn't have to. He just did. And that's going to be one of many, many, many wives, unfortunately that he took. Even though the Lord told him not to do so. We're going to see that he did.

Well, we've already seen he amassed many horses. He'll get many more. He will amass so much gold that it will be just crazy how much this man... I mean, his worth is like beyond our imagining. Those things were all done out of disobedience to the Lord. And yet, during this season of time in his life where he's beginning to walk in disobedience, we see here that he continued to operate in this wonderful gift that God gave him of wisdom. In other words, the point that I'm making here is that, God didn't just simply say to Solomon, listen, I promised to give you wisdom. But because you're going off a little half-cocked around here and you're doing... You're started to do some things that I told you not to do. I'm going to pull back a little bit. And this wisdom that I've given you, that is like the sand on the seashore, I'm going to bring this in a little bit. Just so that you get the message Solomon, that things aren't as they should be. And I'm going to warn you here. Now, the reason that's interesting and the reason I bring that up, is because God didn't do that. And in fact, God doesn't do that. But there's this temptation on our part that when we see the giftings of the Lord, working through an individual, even ourselves, we can tend to... We can be tempted to satisfy ourselves that everything in my life is okay. Because the giftings are flowing. Right? Sometimes, it's been a while since we've seen a real major public evangelical figure fall. And when I mean major, I mean, there's been some people that have fallen unfortunately. But in years past, we've watched as some pastors, and evangelists, and stuff like that, have just fallen hard. And it's been on the news, and everybody knows about it, and stuff like that. And people are always amazed. And they'll hear about it. And they'll talk about how, I just, I have such a hard time believing he could be involved in that kind of behavior. Because I watched his ministry regularly. And he was so anointed. And I saw such a powerful work of God, through him to touch many people's lives. It just seems so incongruous to us to think that, somebody that's evoking such powerful reaction in people because of the gifting that's going on through their life could fall into that kind of sin. Or have been involved... We come to find out, well, this person has been hiring a prostitute for the last five years, or something like that, while his ministry was going on. And we're like, you're kidding! The last five years? It was just like a year ago I was listening to him and I heard the one of the most anointed messages I’ve ever heard. How is that possible that he could be involved in such sin, and yet be so anointed?" There's not a problem at all.

And I'm not saying that God winks at it and doesn't mind. I'm saying that the Bible tells us something about the gifts of God. It says, "the gifts ...of God are without repentance." Or they, as the NIV says, "they are irrevocable." God gives His gifts and He doesn't withdraw them. And that means that you and I, can walk in the gifting of the Holy Spirit and be living a sinful life. And when I mean sinful, I'm not saying that some of us don't sin. Because we all sin. When I say sinful, I mean a rebellious sort of a life. There's something going on in our life for which there is no repentance. And its ongoing. And it's just a matter of time before it comes out. See it's possible. It's very possible. Here's Solomon - people are flocking to Solomon to hear his wisdom from God. And yet he's already down the road in his disobedience toward God. Here's the point of this whole little thing. You and I, got to be very careful. We can't look at outside circumstances and say, well, because God's using me... Maybe you even share with somebody about the Lord. And you get to pray with them. And they come to Jesus. And you think, wow! What a blessing that was. I got to pray with somebody to receive Christ. Or, I got to minister to somebody at work. Or, I shared something from the Bible. And it really challenged, and changed somebody's heart, and outlook. And, oh, everything must be good. Everything must be good inside my heart. And cause God just used me so powerfully! Not necessarily. God is so gracious, He will continue to use us. But that doesn't mean that He doesn't want you and I, to look at what's going on in our hearts and say, like David said, search me and know me, O God; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. That's a prayer that I think that you and I, need to remember. Even when external circumstances might be suggesting to you and I, we don't need to pray it. Right? I think it's still something important. Chapter 5 begins by saying,

You can see here that even though David has already passed from the scene, physically, that Solomon is still benefiting from the godly influence of his father. This relationship between him and this king Hiram of Tyre, is because of David. David cultivated this thing and Solomon is able to enjoy the benefits. And so is all Israel.

--- "2 And Solomon sent word to Hiram, 3 "You know that David my father, could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the LORD my God, has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. 5 And so I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD said to David my father, 'Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.' 6 Now therefore command the cedars of Lebanon (to) be cut for me. And my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians." 7 And as soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, "Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people." 8 And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, "I have heard the message that you have sent to me. (And) I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. 9 My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct. And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household. 10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, 11 while Solomon gave Hiram (200, or excuse me) 20,000 cors of wheat (that's a lot) as food for his household, and 20,000 cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. 12 And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty." And then we're going to go on and we're going to find out now Solomon's getting ready to build the temple. And we're going to talk more about the temple in weeks to come. But you can imagine that building something like a temple is a huge undertaking. And it says in verse 13 that, "King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men." We know in this country about a military draft. And that's basically a draft whereby when you're drafted, you have to go to the military. But this is a labor draft. Meaning that Solomon needs help getting this timber. And getting it to Israel so they can build the temple. And he literally drafts 30,000 men. "And (it says in verse 14 that,) he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. (And) They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft." By the way, I think this is a very wise way to do things. I mean, having a draft is really a form of taxation. Because you're telling someone you need to work for the government during this time to help build the temple. And there's probably a lot of people that were glad to do it. But it's still time away from home. And time away from providing for your family. But Solomon wisely took 30,000 men, divided them into three groups of 10,000 and said, you will work for a month and then you'll take two months off. And then work for a month and take two months off. And then again, work for a month and take two months off. I think there's wisdom in that. And gives people lots of rest. And time to do the stuff that they're to do for their family. Verse 15 says that, "Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, (And these were probably made up of Canaanites left in the land who they still put into forced labor.) 16 besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work." I don't know if you can imagine 3,300 overseers. That's a lot of people telling you what to do. "17 At the king's command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. 18 So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house." There's chapter 5. Let me go through chapter 6 here a bit. "In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is in the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD." That's a long time for the nation of Israel to be without a temple. But remember, the tabernacle was in existence at that time. And had been ever since they'd been in the land. And even before they got in the land. They actually built it in the wilderness. But the time has finally come for Solomon to begin the building. And it says, "2 The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long," Now a cubit is about 18 inches; or a foot and a half. Everything you hear here, you can say it's equal to a foot and then half as much. If it was 60 cubits long, then that would be 90 feet. Okay, because it's half again, more. It was "twenty cubits wide, (that would be 30 feet) and thirty cubits high." Which again, half again would be 15 (45 feet high.) And you can see that the temple was not an enormous structure. It wasn't meant to be big. It was, however, meant to be magnificent. And you're going to see that too. ---

--- "3 The vestibule" (Your Bible may say porch, or portico, or maybe even entryway.) in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits (or 30 feet) long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4 And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. (And it refers to it as a house, but it's the temple.) 5 He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around." Now, just so you get clear on the names of these things. The nave is the Holy Place. And the inner sanctuary is the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. All right. And it tells us that, "6 The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house." And what he's talking about here are rooms that are built around the perimeter. Let me put a picture on the screen for you. Very, very simple outline. Very simple - of what we're talking about. The light yellow area is what we call the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. The Bible refers to it here as the inner sanctuary. That's where the Ark of the Covenant was. And where the priest would go into once a year with blood for sacrifice. ---

The Holy Place outside of that is where the priest would also minister regularly. And then that overhanging part on the right, that isn't marked as anything there, is that portico or that porch that extended out over the front. And then you can see where it says storerooms. There were storerooms built around it which was probably for storage; maybe even for the priests to stay. We're not even positive that these storerooms went around the back of the temple or not. We're not exactly sure. In fact, if you look up Solomon's temple online, you'll find a lot of artists renderings that vary quite a bit. I'll put one up on the screen for you so that you can see it. But like I said, they vary, very differently depending on who you happen to be looking at. Verse 7. This is interesting. It says,

All the stones were brought to the temple building area perfectly made so that they could just be slid into place. By the time they got to the temple, it just...They slid in and they would bring more from the quarry. All the work was done at the quarry. It's interesting. We don't know why. If you read commentaries, there's a lot of guesswork as to why they did that. A lot of speculation. But the bottom line is we really don't know. It could be that Solomon just got headaches easily and didn't want the sound of the hammers on the stones. I don't know! Oh, another interesting little note. Not that long ago, an underground quarry was discovered near Jerusalem, which it is believed, was the quarry where these stones were carved out and brought to the temple area to be built. It's the exact same stone. And that's pretty interesting. Verse 8 explains a little bit more about the temple.

That's an interesting Word, isn't it? Building projects can be very exciting when they're going on. And to see the progress of what's happening, it's a lot of fun and so forth. But isn't it interesting that in the midst of all that excitement, God speaks to Solomon. And He hones in on what Solomon needs to hear the most. "If you will walk in my ways, then I will establish my word, the promise that I made with your father and not forsake the people of Israel." Unfortunately, over a great length of time that's not going to be the case. But it says in verse 14,

But it's not going to be wood as far as you're going to see, as we'll see.

From the inside of the temple, you could not see the exterior stone walls. In fact, we're going to find out that you had to look up to even see the cedar later on.

Can you imagine going into a room that is all gold. But he's got so much gold by this time, he doesn't stop with the Holy of Holies. Verse 21 says,

I mean, can you imagine what this was like to walk into this thing? Pure gold on the inside and covered. They made these incredible carvings of flowers and other things on the walls. And then they overlaid it with gold. You have these beautiful designs that are golden as well. Part of the design in verse 23 we're told,

And that's 15 feet. Right? Now, just in case you're not aware, cherubim are attending angels, or so they're called. Because they attend the very throne of God. In fact, if you look at Ezekiel and other passages, the cherubim are the throne of God. I know, sounds weird, but they are. And the word cherubim is the Hebrew plural form of cherub. Interesting to note, that cherubim are mentioned 90 times in the Old Testament and only once in the New. And even the one time that they're mentioned in the New Testament is in the book of Hebrews, when they're describing the cherubim above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. But, you'll remember also that it was cherubim that God stationed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were cast out, so that they could not reenter. It said, ...He placed cherubim with a flaming sword there at the garden. Now, it's interesting Ezekiel probably gives us the most detailed description of the cherubim. Although it's very, highly symbolic, much like you would read in the Book of Revelation. If you look up "cherubim or cherub," here's what you're most likely to see. I don't know about you, but they wouldn't distract me from going into a garden. I don't care how big their swords are. This is the Victorian idea of a cherub. Interestingly enough, if you take the definition, the literal definition of what the cherubim looked like in Ezekiel, this is what you get.

I don't know how well you can see that image. But what that drawing doesn't include are the wheels. Yes, wheels on the side of the cherubim that... Yeah! You just read Ezekiel. It's craziness. But anyway, Yeah. Don't confuse, by the way, these 15 ft. tall cherubim in the Holy Place, with the cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Covenant. Those were just some small... When you would go into the Holy Place, not only is it all gold, but you got these two 15 ft tall, carved, covered in gold, cherubim with their wings meeting in the middle. And then going to the edge of the room. And you look at the Ark of the Covenant and on top of that, are these carved cherubim that are also in gold. It would be a pretty awe inspiring sight to say the least. Verse 24, "Five cubits was the length of one wing..." He begins to describe the sizes of these specific things. How different they were. "...five cubits was their one wing, five cubits the length of the other wing. Together, ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the other" or 15 feet. "25 The other cherub..." - same measurements. Verse 27 says, "He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house." or the Holy Place, or Most Holy Place, rather. And it says in the middle of verse 27, " And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, (and then we have)...the other cherub touched the other wall; (and) their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. 28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 29 Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim (On the walls, there's pictures of these angelic beings.) and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. 30 The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms. 31 For the entrance (of) the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorpost were five-sided. 32 He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. 33 (And) So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, 34 (the) two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. (And) 35 On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. 36 He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams. 37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month of Ziv. 38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, (which is in the) which is the eighth month the house was finished in all of its parts, and according to all its specifications. (And) He was seven years in building it.” The house of the Lord. It's interesting. We're given some specific aspects of the building of the temple, but not all. That's one of the reasons why when you look up Solomon's temple online, they didn't have cameras back then. Many of these renderings, these artist renderings, are simply the best they can come up with based on what we have here. But this isn't complete at all. There are details that are left out. There's little bits and pieces that we don't have. What we are getting, however, from this description is that it was magnificent. And there was nothing like it in the world at that time. Now, why is that important? Why is it important that Solomon would build it? I mean, why not just keep the tent? It's just a tent. Right? Why not just keep the tent? The tabernacle worked for a long time. Why build this glorious edifice? This beautiful, I mean, just lavishly, opulent building? You've got to remember something about the temple of the Lord. First of all, under the Old Covenant, God said, I will dwell in the midst of my people. And my presence will be in the Holy of Holies. And there I will reside. There I will be with my people. The temple remained this picture to Israel of the presence of God in their lives. In fact, later on by the time of Jeremiah, when the people had fallen into terrible apostasy and idolatry, they comforted themselves that Jerusalem would never fall. Why? The temple's here. Jeremiah had to tell them, don't comfort yourselves by saying, the temple is here. But still this was a powerful image of the presence of God in their lives. But that's under the Old Covenant. Under the New Covenant, which is what you and I are living under at this time, you are the temple. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You. That's what the Bible tells us in the New Testament. Paul says, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? God resides in you. When we come to Christ by faith, accepting Him, as our Lord, the Bible says, His Spirit takes up residence within us. And we become a temple of the Holy Spirit, glorious. Now, you may not look in the mirror and say, glorious! Neither do I. But there's something very, very special about the fact that God resides in your heart by faith. And you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And furthermore, the Book of Revelation tells us, that we are... We will come together collectively and be the temple of God. Peter tells us that, even now we're being built as living stones. And we are being formed. Just like those quarrymen so many years ago who were masterful in their craft. They went into the quarry and they made every stone perfect, so that when they brought it to the temple site, they slid it into place.

--- Do you understand that you and I are in the quarry? Do you understand that's what's going on? And do you feel sometimes the Quarryman's chisel on your life? Do you feel Him cutting off the rough edges of your life? Yeah, me too. And we pray for each other. And we encourage one another. And we are here to bless one another and say, hey, stand strong. God will see you through this time. But know this: You and I, are being fashioned; even right now we're being fashioned into the very House of God; the very Temple of God. Even during this time when He resides in you as a temple of the Holy Spirit, we are being made into a collective temple. And it's a glorious process. And one day we'll see it for the glorious finished product that it is. Right now, it's painful. And we hear the sound of the hammer, and the chisel, and the saw. And we don't like it. Well, I don't. Maybe you do, but you'd be weird then. Because it's not a fun process to have God chip off the rough edges. And shape you into the person that God has called you to be. But He is doing just that. But I want you to know that the work that He's doing is glorious! It's covered in gold. It's magnificent! And we need to praise the Lord, even for the hard times in our lives. Because as we surrender those to Him, and say, Jesus, I want to make You, Lord of everything in my life. Even this hard time. We surrender to the work of the Quarryman. He's known in the Scripture as many different sorts of professions: the Potter, the Shepherd, the Quarryman, the Vine. But He is the One who is shaping our lives and filling our lives with everything we need. ---