Today in God's Word—February 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
February 13, 2 Chronicles 3
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. - 2 Chronicles 3:1
Is any of our obedience ever perfect? Is any of our service to the Lord ever absolutely perfect, in our attitudes, motives and action? The temple Solomon built is a good example of how a well- intentioned act is often flawed.
In what sense did Solomon build the temple? Did he show up each day at the worksite, with his tool belt, work boots and hard hat? Surely no one would think that he, the king of Israel, actually and personally did the hands-on work. Solomon built the temple in the sense that it was done under his orders, as he carried out the orders of his father David. He had the design, based somewhat on the tabernacle. He gathered the materials and made them available to the workers. He arranged the forced labor details.
Solomon “built” the temple in the same sense that Moses built the tabernacle. Bezalel was the actual contractor who trained and guided the workers who fabricated the tabernacle, just as Huram-abi was the master artisan of the temple builders, who taught Solomon's people to do the work. When a leader gives an order, we say the thing done was done by them, understanding that others, maybe thousands of others, actually did the work.
The description of the location where the temple was built in Chapter 3 is priceless because of one theologically significant detail. As far as I know, this is the only place in the Old Testament where Mount Moriah is identified with Mount Zion in Jerusalem. What's the important theological detail about Mt. Moriah? It's the place where Abraham offered Isaac on the altar to the Lord, almost a thousand years before the Lord accepted David's offering there when the
plague was stopped, And that place, so rich with meaning about God's wrath, God's grace and God's mercy is the exact location where the temple was built.
Solomon and his workers used tremendous quantities of gold and precious stones in the temple. The most beautiful and expensive woods were used for the wood walls, and then overlaid with gold. The temple was a strange combination of some God-given design elements and proportions from the tabernacle and some innovations by Solomon that had nothing to do with the design.
The tabernacle was a tent, not a building on a permanent foundation. It was built to be moved. The temple was a building, and constructed to stand in place on its foundation. There would obviously be some differences in materials and constructions methods. The spatial proportions of the holy place and the Most Holy Place were from the tabernacle plans. But other details lost their theological significance in the temple version of the structure. Still other features were completely alien to the design, details copied from surrounding pagan temples.
The Chronicler mentions the veil here, but the author of 1 Kings did not include it in his description, substituting olive wood doors for the veil between the holy place and the Most Holy place. Did the temple have both? We don't know. We do know that Herod's temple, built much later and standing in the time of Jesus’ life on earth, did have the veil, the one that ripped apart when Jesus died on the cross.
The Chronicler included two glaring pagan-like additions to the temple here — the size, position and composition of the cherubim, and the two giant pillars at the front of the temple. Those pillars, named Jakin and Boaz were copies of such pillars at many pagan temples that have been excavated in the same region. Their given names could mean "he establishes" (Jakin) and "in him is strength" (Boaz). That's fine, but there
is nothing in God's design for the tabernacle that remotely resembled these towering pillars.
There were cherubim in the tabernacle's most holy place. They were made of gold, they stood on the ends of the mercy seat (the cover of the ark), faced one another and covered the ark with their wings. These latter-day cherubim in the temple were wooden figures, covered in gold. They stood on their feet and faced forward toward the front of the temple. Their wings were spread and spanned the 30 feet width of the Most Holy Place, from wall to wall, with their inner wing tips touching each other and their outer wing tips touching the walls. They were much more like imposing idol statues than the original cherubim with their theologically rich placement and posture.
The Chronicles account of the temple is shorter than the Kings account. Maybe his post-exile audience was familiar with more of the details. Maybe the description was abbreviated to not call too much attention to the original design and detail, because the second temple the exiles knew was inferior to the first.
Let's remember that our best intentions and greatest efforts to serve God may be tainted by our attitudes and actions. At our human best we still need God's grace. Let's be thankful and humble about our service and worship before the Lord. Let's do all we know to the best of our ability, but never trust our doing instead of God's grace for our acceptance.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comentarios