The Purpose

--- Welcome to our Women's Bible Study called Solomon and the House of the Lord. Today we're going to cover 1 Kings chapters 4 through 5, plus a side trip to the Wilderness Tabernacle, which was the predecessor of this temple that we are going to be studying. In the first two weeks of this study, we talked about the plan that God had, the person that he chose, and today's message is called the purpose. Do you love this? There are three more Ps coming, so we're going to move through chapter 4 fairly quickly, and then in the middle of chapter 5, that's where we're going to stop and take a look back to the Wilderness Tabernacle, because we're going to review God's purpose for his first dwelling place. So after all the drama that we had in chapters 1 through 3, now we start with chapter 4. It's pretty matter-of-fact, pretty records. In fact, the first opening words are, King Solomon was king over all Israel, and then it gives an account of his staff, his secretaries, recorders, commanders, and it moves there to talk about the organization of the kingdom. Verse 7, Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel who provided food for the king in his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year, and the next verses tell us their names and some of their locations, but what we are to understand is this was a highly organized kingdom, and God's people benefited from this, and that's where we drop down to verse 20 now, and we'll read the benefits. Verse 20, Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the seashore, and they ate and drank, and they were happy. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life, and by way of example, Verse 22, Solomon's provision for one day was 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal, 10 fat oxen, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, beside deer, gazelle, roebucks, and fattened fowl, high-protein diet. They ate very well. Verse 24, for he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates, and he had peace on all sides around him. And Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. By way of example, Verse 32, he spoke 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. He spoke of trees from the cedar that's in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. And he also spoke of beasts, birds, reptiles, and fish. And 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. Chapter 5. Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father. For Hiram always loved David. And Solomon sent word to Hiram, 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. But now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side. So we push the pause button right there. Okay, because this is what Chapter 4 was all about. It was about happy, peace, safety. There's neither adversary nor misfortune. One more verse, 5. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord said to my father, David, your son, whom I set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name. Now we're really going to pause. Okay. And we want to take time to consider what a house for the Lord should entail. What should this look like? Because you can't just throw up a building, whether it's well-planned or whether you throw it up for people to come and worship. Okay. The house for the Lord needed to tell a story, just like the wilderness tabernacle told a story. So that's why we're going to pause here now to walk back in history and for us to identify what kind of a story did the wilderness tabernacle tell. So we're going back to the time when God divinely rescued his people, the sons of Abraham, out of Egypt, miraculously delivered them, brought them over the Red Sea. Miraculously, he did for them something they never could have done and brought them to the base of Mount Sinai. And that is where God revealed his character to them. That is where God revealed his instructions for how now a free people can live in harmony with one another. And this is where God revealed an idea that I don't think had ever crossed their minds. He wanted to live with them. Look at this in Exodus 25, 8 and 9.

So God was telling them he wants to come and dwell with them. He wants to be with them, but they can't dwell exactly together because sin had ruined that in the Garden of Eden. And so through these instructions that God was giving for a tabernacle, he was going to be saying, I want to dwell with you. I want to draw you near, but not too near because see, sin is still a problem. And so they were intended to understand two things about God's character, his love and his holiness. God's love is what drew them near. His love and desire for relationship wants to draw them near. And then his holiness requires them to stay at a distance. Now, when we studied the Wilderness Way, which was our study in the book of Numbers, I'm going to put a map up here for you of the arrangement of the camp of Israel. This is how God told them that they should arrange themselves right there at the base of Mount Sinai. And every time they moved, they arranged themselves this way. You may remember this because in that study, you wrote every one of those tribes names on that little illustration. But this is a reminder again that God was right dwelling in the midst of them. The tribes were surrounding the tabernacle. And then next we have this buffer zone, which is the Levites and Moses and Aaron themselves. And then we have the tabernacle itself. And within the tabernacle, there was a progression of nearness to God. First of all, from the place that the offering was made in the courtyard all the way in to the innermost part where the high priest could enter. And that the progression was because of sin, because sin had separated mankind from God. So we're going to ask ourselves a few questions about this. How did the tabernacle work? How was it set up? What was the story to be told? And this is what you studied this week in your study guide. There were three elements to the tabernacle. There was the courtyard itself. There was the holy place. And then there was the most holy place. So let's talk about those things. First of all, the courtyard. And on page 25 in your study guide, there's an illustration of the courtyard. It's about a quarter of a size of a football field, an American football field. And on the previous page, on page 24, you see a drawing of the one place that you were able to enter. Because see, the courtyard was barriered all about with these curtains. It was kind of like an open market maybe today. There was boundaries. And once you entered in, there was no ceiling. It was open air. But yet there was only one place that you could enter into it. And when you did enter in, there's two elements that you're going to find. The first thing that you're going to find is an altar followed by a wash basin. So let's talk about these. The altar was the first thing made of acacia wood and covered in bronze. And the priests were to keep this fire burning continually all the time. Served a very practical purpose of actually roasting or burning the offerings that the people brought. Because God had told them in the book of Leviticus what they were to bring, what their offerings were. And they were to bring these sacrifices. And some of them were burned completely on this altar. Some of them were roasted on the altar like we grill meat in our backyards. And then they were eaten there, kind of like sharing a meal with God. So that was the point. That was the purpose of the altar. Then the next item that we have in the courtyard is the bronze basin. Which also served a very practical purpose. Because look, when you're doing animal... sacrifices and all this, it's messy. There's a lot of mess and you need an opportunity to wash, especially the priests need an opportunity to wash because they're gonna enter into the tent and there was requirements of how they needed to be clean. So in the courtyard we have the altar and then we have the wash basin. Then the next part that we have of the whole tabernacle complex is the holy place which is made up of the tent itself, the first part of the tent. And once a Levite would go into this tent, it was a completely different world. It sounded different because it was much quieter, it was much calmer, there was a different aroma in there, there was different kind of lighting than what they had out in the desert. And the tent itself was made of four layers. The outer three layers were all progressions of animal skin. The outermost layer was even waterproof. But the interior layer of the tent was made of a finely twisted linen which was bright white. Now the tent itself has a ceiling, okay? There's walls and there's ceiling to it. So in the holy place, it's white, it's bright in there. And then there's a separation, there's a curtain or a veil that separates the first part of the tabernacle, first part of the tent, from the second part. The first part is the holy place, the second part is the most holy place or as Andrew Murray has it, the holiest of all. But we're talking about this first part right here. And so there's three elements in the first part of the tent. We have the table of showbread, we have the golden lamp stand, and we have the altar of incense. So we wanna talk about those things because it was the Levitical priests who would maintain all of these three elements. So we're walking inside now the holy place. We have this table on our right, the table of showbread. It's formed from acacia wood, but now, unlike those elements outside that were covered in bronze, this is covered in gold. Everything in the tent is covered in gold, inside and out. And the Levites would bring 12 loaves every Sabbath, place them on the table, remove last Sabbath's bread and consume it there. It was the priest's portion. And then on the left of that, we have this golden lamp stand, okay, which burned continually and it provided light in the tabernacle. Again, it was the priest's job to make sure that the oil was filled morning and night and that the light stayed lit. Now, in your study guide, I asked my artist, Miriam, if she would please sketch this the way she did. We think a lot in terms of a menorah, which is kind of a flat sort of thing, but there's two reasons I wanted your sketch to look more like a tree. The first reason is we don't really find that menorah look until much later in antiquity. Secondly, if you did go back and read in Exodus 25 about the instructions for this golden lamp stand, all of the instructions were botanical. There was things like God told Moses to make it with branches and calyxes and blossoms and flowers. And so I wanted this kind of a look to it because I wonder if it was not intended to be a reminder of the Garden of Eden, of the place where God had originally dwelt with them. I wonder also, as it kind of looks more like a bush or a shrub that's burning continually, if it wasn't to resemble the burning bush that God first gave Moses this inspiration from. But in the days to come, as they would take this tabernacle and head out into the wilderness journey, these things would also remind them of God's provision because all the way, which turned into 40 years through the wilderness, God provided bread for them at every turn. And God provided the pillar of fire at night. And he also provided the cloud during the day, which is what we see right in front of us now, this third element inside the holy place is the altar of incense. And it's right there in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the most holy place. And it's also covered with gold. And it was the high priest's job morning and evening to keep these coals burning. And so the smoke from this would create a little bit of an ethereal barrier, a second barrier in addition to the curtain itself as a reminder. But let's talk about this curtain now that's separating these two rooms, curtain or a veil. It was also bright white linen, but there was cherubim embroidered on it in blue, okay? And what does that remind us of? Even in our study, we talked about the fact that when Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden, who did God post there so that they would not be able to enter back in? There was cherubim at the garden as a barrier because of sin. And what do we see here on this curtain? Cherubim as a barrier because of sin. So I think that that's really interesting. One person was allowed into that inner space, and that was the high priest, which we'll talk about in just a minute. So let's move into that interior space of the tabernacle. We've gone from courtyard, open courtyard, where everyone brings their offerings to the Lord. We've gone through the holy place where the Levitical priests minister to the Lord through these elements. And now we're in the last place, the Holy of Holies, okay? There's only one item in the Holy of Holies, and that is the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is also made of acacia wood, covered in gold on the outside and on the inside. It's about the size of a coffee table, I guess. And it has on the top of it two gold cherubim, formed cherubim, who are facing each other and looking down on the top that is called the mercy seat. And only one person would see this, and that was the high priest. And only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, when he would take the blood of the sacrifice and bring it to atone for his sins and the sins of Israel, and he would smear it on the mercy seat. Okay, so that's the story. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but how is it to be understood? How are we to understand the story? Well, that's why I sent you in the study guide to Hebrews chapter nine, because Hebrews chapter nine is the very best answer key in the New Covenant to this story that we see, the symbols in the Old Covenant. So we're going, I'm gonna put these up on the screen so you can follow along, but we're gonna look at the answer key. What does this mean? What does this story mean? We'll start with Hebrews nine, verse two.

Verse six,

Verse 11,

Verse 24,

So there is our answer key, okay? In the heavenly realm, God has a tabernacle, God has a plan, and it was a bit of a mystery to the people in the wilderness when God said make it this way. It was a little bit of a mystery to Israel, but it was going to require atonement of the blood of Christ, and it was going to be a work of grace that God was going to lavish on his people because God was gonna do all of it. He was gonna fulfill all of it, and this is what Paul told the Ephesians in the first chapter of his letter. Let me show you, verse seven. Paul says,

So as the tabernacle story goes, the fulfillment is Jesus, God's son, our Messiah, that answers into that first element, the altar, the bronze altar, and presents himself as a sacrifice, and then makes his way into the holy place. And Jesus, our bread of life, passes past the table of showbread, and Jesus, our light of the world, passes past the golden lampstand, and Jesus, our door, approaches that curtain, opens it, demolishes it, and then he comes in with his own blood and presents it on the mercy seat in atonement and sacrifice for the sins of anyone who will accept that. That's the answer key to what is going on. That is the story that is to be told. And it's a heavenly story, because this tabernacle is a heavenly tabernacle that still exists. I love how just Wednesday night, Paul was teaching in Revelation 15. Look at what verse five says.

The story is still unfolding. It is a story that is meant to be told. So back to our lesson, what was the problem in Solomon's day? Why wasn't this story working in Israel? Well, there was no united place of worship, okay? There was no place for them to, as all the people, to come and offer their sacrifices, draw near to God, and to worship God. And this is why some of them, most of them were worshiping on the high places. Nothing was united. Do you remember last week we read that it seemed like this wilderness tent and the altar was up in Gibeon. The Ark of the Covenant was in Jerusalem. David had brought it to Jerusalem. It was in a tent that he made in Jerusalem. They were separated. The story wasn't making sense. What was the high priest doing on the Day of Atonement? Was there a Day of Atonement? See, it was all sort of broken down. It needed to be put back together. God wanted, at this point, to put it back together, to give Israel the best chance of understanding his story of redemption. And that is what is so important about the house of the Lord, is putting these things back together again. So then we ask, well, what does it mean for us? And you're sitting here, trying your hardest to follow me, but you're saying, I don't even know what I'm gonna make for dinner tonight. I do not have the bandwidth for understanding all of this tabernacle stuff. But see, here's the beauty of it. God's got you. He does. He has the bandwidth. He has the plan. And all along, through the biblical narrative, he shows us things that help us to understand his plan. We don't get it all at once, but we make another pass. And we're like, oh, I think I just understood a little bit more. And then we make another pass. That's how God works with us. So wherever we're at today, we can kind of go, okay, it's like Candyland. Like, I'm on the first green square. Because God will reveal to us. God wants us to know. He wants you to know these two characteristics that he wanted Israel to know, his love and his holiness. God wants you to know that his love is ever drawing you near to him. And when you come near, then you all of a sudden realize his holiness. And you realize your sin that is a barrier to his holiness. And so in this answer key, then we begin to realize, oh, Jesus, that's my answer. That is how I'm able to draw near. That's the only way I am able to draw near. But he opened up the way for that. All right, now let's return back and finish 1 Kings chapter five. We're in verse six. Solomon is discussing plans with Hiram of Tyre. Now therefore, command that cedars of Lebanon 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. A little bit of flattery thrown out. As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son to be over his great people. A little bit of flattery going out. And then they talk about the acquisitions, ending in verse nine. And you shall, Hiram says, and you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household. We're reminded this is a business deal, okay? Hiram has the wood, Israel has the food. This is a business transaction that's going on. It ends with verse 11. Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cores of wheat and 20,000 cores of beaten oil year by year. 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. Remember that word. Verse 13, King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel and the draft numbered 30,000 men. He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. And there were 70,000 burden bearers, 80,000 stone cutters in the hill country, besides 3,300 chief officers who had charge of the people who carried on the work. This was a massive project going on. And at the king's command, they quarried out great costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebel did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house. And at face value, everything in these two chapters sounds great. It sounds fantastic. In fact, as we're reading this, if we just read it straight through without that long break to talk about the tabernacle, we would probably get the idea like perfection itself. This is going so great. The author seems to be overdoing it a little bit on how great it is. So that makes us suspicious then. And so we need to build a list of questions that we have right up through this part of the scripture. Our first item on this list we put up last week, the question that we had, the alliance with Egypt, and then the wife that came from Egypt. See, we're having difficulty with that. That's number one. Number two problem. Now we got alliance with the king of Tyre. Now none of these people are of Israel. He was a wise builder. Look, this guy was a contractor. He was a contractor, he was a businessman, okay? And he seemed in this passage to really applaud the God of the Hebrews. Did you catch that? But have you guys ever gone car shopping? Fortunately in this moment we have two sturdy vehicles and we shouldn't have to go for a decade plus. But my husband has a way of wearing his Calvary Chapel sweatshirt like every place. So he's wearing his merch. And those salesmen, like they just have an eagle eye. Like what about you can I relate to? Do you know how many Christians there are that are car salesmen? Like they all have something. I can't help but read that with the king of Tyre. What's going on here and his flattery. History tells us that he was best known for building the temple to the demigod Hercules who was the patron god of Tyre. So he's a seasoned temple builder, just a different kind. So that's number two that we just gotta think about. Like what's going on? Number three, there was a verse that I skipped and maybe you noticed that I skipped it. Back in chapter four. Let's go back to chapter 426. It says Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses and he had 12,000 horses. And again, something doesn't feel quite right about that because we say to ourselves, wasn't there something in the Bible about you're not supposed to acquire a whole bunch of horses and chariots and that seems like a big number right there. So let's go see what 2 Chronicles says about that. I'll put it on the screen for you. Verse 14, it says Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen, he had 1,400 chariots, 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kiwi. And they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. Okay. So now we're getting more uncomfortable because not only do we have lots of horses and chariots, but they were all purchased from Egypt and from Kiwi, enemies of Israel, and then they're holding on to them and sorting them around and selling them to other enemies. Doesn't seem quite right. So that's number three. Number four problem we have is when we read that word forced labor. Forced labor. Now maybe in your reading in Exodus, you caught onto the fact that when God first told his people to build this tabernacle, he kept saying things like in Exodus 25, every man whose heart moves him, every woman whose heart moves her. They were, they plundered the Egyptians. They brought all this stuff with them because there's no Home Depot at Mount Sinai. So they had to have all this stuff. And God would say, whoever wants to donate their stuff, let him do it. Whoever wants to build, let him do it. There was no forced labor. And now this time we're reading about forced labor. Does that not sound really close, like first cousin to slavery to you? And does that not sound like the experience in Egypt, not the experience that they should have in the Promised Land? So we have to add that to our list. And I'm sorry to bring up these problems. It would be nice if we could just pretend they didn't exist, but you are all smarter than that. And you see them in scripture. And so we'll just build our list. And we'll see how God weaves it in to his unfolding story of redemption. Complicated lives and problems, though, bring us two benefits. And this is what I wanna end with. The two benefits we have from problems and complications. The first benefit is that we realize God's plan moves forward even when God's people aren't perfect. If we did not learn that from David, then you need to go back and do the lesson again. God's plan moves forward even when God's people are not perfect. And that is what we'll see in the second half of this Bible study. The second thing that we learn with complicated situations and problems is that God's plan moves forward through the one who is perfect. God's plan moves forward through his son, Jesus Christ, our high priest who has gone into the heavenly tabernacle and has opened up the way for us to dwell with God and for God to dwell with us in our hearts. Father, we just thank you for this lesson. Lord, we thank you for helping us to see, Lord, that even when things are not being done quite the way that you had said, Lord, you move forward because it's your plan that is moving forward. And Lord, I know even in my life there are things that aren't maybe as they should be or aren't the way I want them to be. And Lord, I have an assurance today knowing that your plan is moving forward. Lord, help us to have tender hearts, tender hearts to see your love and your desire for relationship with us, to see our sin, to understand the barrier, and to just relish in the fact that it is Jesus's sacrifice and blood that has opened up the way to make that possible for us to dwell with you and for you to dwell with us, Lord. Lord, I pray that you'd help my friends as they discuss the lesson and be with us as we go. In Jesus's name, amen. ---