Chronicles: Solomon’s Temple
It’s Just A Building…
While looking at the life of Solomon in the Chronicles, one of the biggest accomplishments we see in his life is the building of the Lord’s temple. This idea to build a temple was born to David and fulfilled eventually through Solomon once he became king. In fact, God is the one who tells David not to build the temple because Solomon later would. David says in 1 Chronicles 28:5-7 “Of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons), He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. “He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courtyards; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a Father to him. ‘I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs My commandments and My ordinances, as is done now.’” This temple that Solomon built represents the final dwelling place of God. Whereas the Tabernacle was once the dwelling place of God as the Israelites were stranded in the desert, Solomon’s Temple is now the permanent dwelling place of God now that they are living in the land that He has given them. Gotquestions.org even states, “The crowning achievement of King Solomon’s reign was the erection of a magnificent temple in Jerusalem.” It is undeniable that this temple played such a huge role in Solomon’s life and was a massive accomplishment from his time as king. But how did this temple affect history as we know it? Let’s find out.
Lesser gods
For starters, let’s look at one of the biggest reasons this temple was built in the first place. When we look at the book of Kings as we’ve mentioned in other posts this month, what do we notice about their loyalty to God? Either they did what was right in the Lord’s sight or they didn’t. This is how these kings were defined. And if kings didn’t do what was right in the Lord’s sight, we can assume one of the biggest reasons for this was because they didn’t serve Him or they served someone else. This is where the beauty and greatness of Solomon’s Temple come into play. This temple proclaims the majesty of God and the greatness of God to all who come across it. Look at what Solomon says about this temple in 2 Chronicles 2:5-6 “The house which I am about to build will be great, for our God is greater than all the gods. “But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? And who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?” The sheer greatness of this temple showed every outsider and insider that Yahweh is the one true God and over every other god that has been worshiped and placed before Him in the land.
Glory & Worship
Not only did this temple shun idols, but it showed the grandeur of God Himself. Obviously, there is no earthly vessel that would ever be made that could contain our God, but that doesn’t mean that our Lord didn’t want one built to proclaim His greatness to the nations. This is why Solomon questions his own validity in building a house for the Lord. This questioning, however, doesn’t lead Solomon to abandon the idea of the temple altogether but rather leads him to make the most majestic temple that human hands could build for His glory. Speaking of the glory of God, this is another reason this temple was built. If God’s presence was going to dwell among His people, then just like the Tabernacle, it needed to be a holy place where God could remain. An all-holy God cannot dwell amongst unholy people without a mediator, otherwise, the people wouldn’t be unholy or God Himself wouldn’t be holy. This is what is so crucial about the end of 2 Chronicles 5. Verses 12-14 tell us, “...all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them 120 priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the LORD, and when they raised their voices accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, and when they praised the LORD saying, “He indeed is good for His kindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not rise to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”
This is also why this temple was so beautiful and perfect. It was used to worship the Lord as well. Sacrifices were made at this temple along with feasts of dedication in order to give this building as an act of worship to God. This temple for the Lord that Solomon built not only despised idols by showing the greatness of God, but it proved to be worthy of having the glory of God fill it and also proved to be a communing place for God and man as sacrifices and feasts took place at it as well. It may just seem like an old building that is mentioned in the Old Testament, but before Christ came, every meditation that was used in order to be close to God had to come through a different means. And this temple was the epitome of God being able to dwell amongst the Israelites. I hope and pray that as you read through Solomon’s life, you will not bypass the details of the temple simply because you don’t think it matters in this day and age. May the temple always be a reminder to us that God is holy and set apart from the fallen nature of this earth and that without the cross of Christ, we would be utterly helpless in our hopes to dwell with God one day.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] GotQuestions.org. (2023, September 7). GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/Solomon-first-temple.html
Comments