November 29, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 1 Kings? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Kings 6 (NIV)
Solomon Builds the Temple
1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.
2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. .............Continue Reading
1 Kings 5&6
Just when I thought what a beautiful temple to be built out of cedar, I read that it was all covered in gold! It must have been fabulous!
I’d like to share an excerpt from my continuing and Luke.
“He is like a man who, in building his house, dug deep and laid the foundation on rock. The river flooded over and hit that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”
Luke 6:48 GNTD
https://bible.com/bible/69/luk.6.48.GNTD
My devotions have me in John chapter 4 Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus tells her everything she ever did. According to her own words verse 39. How much more does Jesus know us being children of the living God. I take tremendous courage in that!!!!
Wow a couple of things stood out for me.
7In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
To make a huge job even more elaborate you were cutting the stones off site and bringing them in to be assembled.
Second was the attention to detail and how ornate and beautiful it must have been. Seven years to complete!
Last was that God seemed happy that after 400 years a permanent structure was finally being built. God promised Solomon that he would reign and be blessed, fulfilling the promises He made to David and that His special presence would remain among Israel as a nation conditionally as long as they remained obedient to Him!
I envisioned myself sitting in the middle of this as it was being built. What a beautiful construction it must have been. But the temple wasn’t the most important thing….God tells Solomon, “if you walk in My statutes and commandments, I will live there.” I was thinking it was their heart toward God that matters, the building was/is just an expression of that…like the church today, and even now it is not the building, it is the people’s hearts.
“Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: 12 “Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
There is an interesting time designation at the beginning of this chapter..the temple was built 480 years after the Jews left Egypt. It is as if to say..it’s about time I got a permanent house to dwell in. And the footprint of the temple is fairly close to the footprint of LHCC, much smaller than what I had first imagined, but way more ornate. It was quite a structure taking 7 years to build, with great attention to detail and the focus being on the presence and worship of God. In reading the chapter, I was struck by the size of the Arc and the cherubim that were on top of it. They took up half the room and the wings went wall to wall. It was all intended to illicit awe and reference and the recognition of the unique nature of what this building was in comparison to any other. And to think we now are the temple of the Lord. And in the same way God calls Solomon and the people of Israel to obedience in light of His presence with them, may we walk in a way worthy of Him as well. I was also struck when God promises to be with them as long as they obey. Because we know they don’t, it can’t be said that God did not warn them…or in this case, set the standard right from the beginning.
1 Kings 5-6