1 Samuel 16

Chapter 16. God’s TemplesDon’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple. (1 Kings 8:8-11)In 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. (1 Kings 6:7)The first great work of Solomon after the establishment of his throne was to carry out the great commission that had been entrusted to him by David—the erection of the temple. He entered upon this work in the third year of his reign and completed it in the 11th, so that it occupied between seven and eight years up to the day of its dedication, which was delayed a few months in order to make it coincide with the Feast of Tabernacles. It was the most stupendous work of his reign and his grandest monument. As a work of unequalled magnificence it might well challenge the wonder of the world, and as an object lesson of spiritual truth it is full of instruction for the Christian’s heart. Let us look at it briefly in the first aspect and then more fully in the second. Materials and Workmen Some idea of its vast expense and elaborate workmanship may be formed from the fact that it cost in silver and gold alone $4 billion, while the other materials—brass, wood, iron and labor—would aggregate at least half as much more. If we were to combine all the ecclesiastical buildings in this country in one huge cathedral pile they would not cost nearly as much as the single Temple of Solomon. Eighty thousand workmen were employed in the mountains as hewers of wood, 70,000 more as carriers, while 3,300 were overseers, and, in addition to this, we read of another levy of 30,000 men who went by monthly courses. This vast army of nearly 200,000 men were employed for years in this stupendous undertaking. The stone for its foundation was quarried from beneath the hills on which Jerusalem is built. It was cut in vast masses of rock, some of them nearly 40 feet in length and as much as three to four, and even six feet in breadth, so that it is difficult to understand how these ponderous stones could have been removed and placed in the foundation walls. They were cut so exactly and fitted so perfectly that no mortar or cement was used in the masonry, but they absolutely supported their own weight and the immense structure above them. The wood employed in the building was cut in the forests of Lebanon. It was cedar, fir, olive and other costly woods, and in some cases sandal wood was imported from India for portions of the building. The decorations were simple but most costly, and consisted of rich embroideries, figure work in silver and in gold, and gold lining for all the woodwork and all the chambers in the sanctuary. The artistic work was under the direction of Hiram of Tyre, namesake of the illustrious king of Tyre, who entered into a treaty with Solomon and gave him such invaluable aid with so free a heart and hand. The Site The temple was erected on Mount Moriah, the sacred spot where Abraham offered up Isaac, and where Araunah so generously offered his threshing floor, his oxen and his implements, to sacrifice to the Lord. As a place of loving sacrifice it was especially dear to Jehovah and became the monument of His presence and glory. The naked rock of the summit was selected as the spot for the Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant to rest. The slope below was leveled for the site of the Holy Place and the declivity of the hill was leveled up by costly masonry along the east and south side of the mountain, rising in sheer walls several hundred feet high. And the space enclosed in the foundation walls filled up with innumerable arches of stone and interlacing walls to support the superstructure. In addition, vast reservoirs were built here and connected by aqueducts with springs in Bethlehem, by which enormous supplies of water were brought to the city for the temple service and the use of the king and his household. A large surrounding space of about 500 by 550 feet was enclosed with a wall of stone and planted with trees as the temple area, and within this on a higher plane the temple itself rose in costly splendor, a shining mass of marble and gold. Form and Furniture The structure built on this costly site and at such vast expense would not have compared for a moment in imposing proportions with the splendid and colossal temples of Egypt or Babylon. It was not even as large as an ordinary church in one of our modern cities. Its extreme length was 90 feet—less than a city lot—and its breadth was only 30 feet, also about the size of a single town lot or ordinary dwelling. Its height was 45 feet. The interior was divided into two chambers, one 60 by 30 feet and the other 30 feet square; the first, the Holy Place, and the second, the Holy of Holies. The building was approached by a magnificent porch, 30 by 15 feet, and said by Josephus to have been very high, much higher than the temple. Two splendid pillars, called Jachin and Boaz, 18 feet in circumference and 30 feet in height, and molded in the form of a lily, supported the porch. The temple itself was furnished somewhat as the tabernacle. In the innermost shrine, the ark stood alone in the Holy of Holies under the outstretched wings of cherubim, which were vast symbolic figures of pure gold 15 feet high, and their wings spanned seven and a half feet horizontally. The Holy Place had the golden table for the bread of the Presence, the altar of incense, and, instead of the seven golden lampstands, 10 lamps of splendid workmanship. The court in front had an altar as in the tabernacle, and a laver of brass; on the altar was an immense erection 15 feet high and 30 feet square, where the sacrifices were constantly ascending before the Lord, and the laver was a great brazen sea, no less than 15 feet in diameter and shining like a polished mirror externally, while the crystal water filled its basin and flowed from the faucets at its foot. The chambers of the priests were built around the outer walls, but slightly detached from them. All the contents of the temple were similar to the tabernacle, and the order of worship the same, it all being designed to typify Christ and the great principles of redemption. Erection of the Temple The materials were all prepared completely before they were brought to the site. Every stone was squared and beveled and fitted for its place. Every piece of timber was hewed, polished and, doubtless, marked and numbered for its precise position in the framework. The timber was floated down the mountain streams to the Mediterranean and then floated in rafts to Joppa and forwarded to Jerusalem. The stones in like manner were quarried in the excavations under the hill and brought to their place ready for erection. The brass work was cast in the Jordan valley north of Jerusalem. Finally, when the building was ready for erection, it was simply put together according to the plan already prepared and the materials fitted to hand, as we see in the beautiful striking description in 1 Kings 6:7, “In 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.” Silently as a great tree would grow in a forest this mighty edifice arose as if by invisible hands, without the din and roar of the hammer and the workman’s tool, and all was simply and silently beautiful as God’s great handiwork of creation, as the winter bursts into the summer and the vegetation rises from the ground. The beautiful spiritual teaching of this we shall afterwards see, but the very conception is thrilling, and is finely described in Bishop Heber’s familiar lines, No sound was heard, no ponderous axe was swung. Like some tall palm the stately fabric sprung. The DedicationFinally the house was ready and the work was done. There was no undue haste in its dedication, but they calmly waited until the proper season, the Feast of Tabernacles. Then all Israel gathered—from the regions of the tribes, from the vast new empire, from the maritime colonies, from land and sea. They gathered at Jerusalem for the most magnificent event in their national history. When the appointed day had come Solomon himself, clothed in robes of spotless white and assuming for the time the office of the priest as well as the king, took charge of the inauguration ceremonies accompanied by a great company of priests and vast choirs of singers. With the princes and the people of Israel on every side he stood upon the platform. The opening chorus of praise was about to begin the service, when suddenly it was perceived that God Himself had already descended and taken possession of the building, for all the house was filled with a cloud of deepest darkness, and with a thrill of awe and unutterable joy all recognized the awful but glorious symbol of Jehovah’s immediate presence. God had come to dedicate His own temple. As soon as Solomon recovered from the deep prostration of this glorious manifestation he proceeded to utter the wonderful prayer of dedication, which seemed inspired of the Holy Spirit and which covered all the future of his people. This was followed by the sacrifice on an enormous scale of no less than 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, until the altar became too small and the whole court was transformed into a place of sacrifice. Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house, and as the people witnessed the manifest presence and power of God they fell upon their faces and worshiped the Lord, saying, “For he is good, his love endures forever” (2 Chronicles 7:3). The solemn service closed with a personal revelation of God to Solomon, as He had appeared before to him at Gibeon, in which God was pleased to accept his prayer and the house that he had built and to renew His covenant with him and the promise of His blessing so long as he should walk in heavenly obedience. Henceforth, this building became the center of Israel’s national life and worship, and we find the Psalms breathing the most ardent devotion and longing for the house of God in such expressions as this, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalms 27:4). To them it was the center of their religious affections, associations and hopes. We are permitted to know God more directly; but that was the steppingstone by which they reached His throne and the mirror through which they saw the reflection of His glory, although, alas, at length they lost the thought of Him in the outward form, and even the very temple had to perish because it stood between them and the Lord Himself. Spiritual Significance and Practical Lessons

1. It expressed the presence of God with Israel as their covenant God.
2. It was intended to foreshadow the Church, the spiritual house of the future, in which God now dwells through the Holy Spirit.
3. It represented the individual believer as the temple of the Holy Spirit, the house which God values most and in which He loves to dwell, for “don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
4. It was intended to represent the glorified Church. The tabernacle represented the earthly Church amid the trials and vicissitudes of this wilderness life. The temple represented the triumphant Church, the new Jerusalem above, when the trial and change shall all be passed and Christ in more than Solomon’s glory shall come to share with His people the sovereignty of a regenerated world. For us as individuals, however, the chief lesson is the third. And we may, through the indwelling of Christ in our hearts, anticipate the fourth, and enter even here into something of the fullness of the heavenly state, for we are recognized in the Scriptures as having passed within the veil and are dwelling even now in the heavenlies seated with our risen Lord upon the throne. There are several touching lessons for us as individuals in the inspired reference to Solomon’s temple. (a) There is much suggestive teaching in the beautiful fact that the temple was built without the noise of materials already brought to hand. This is a perfect type of the processes of grace by which we are built up in Christ to be habitations of God through the Spirit. We do not have to frame and forge our spiritual graces by the blacksmith’s hammer and carpenter’s tool of struggling effort. All these things are ready-made for us in Christ and brought to us by the Holy Spirit for us to put on moment by moment and day by day as we take Him in all His fullness and make real in our experience such precious verses as these: Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Romans 13:14) Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. (John 1:16) His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3) For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge,… [etc.] (2 Peter 1:5-7) The teaching of all these passages and many more is most clear and simple, namely, that Christ Himself has provided and laid up for us the grace, the wisdom, the faith, the love, the strength and the courage that we need in each new situation of life, and we have simply to take and use that which is ours by faith for taking, and thus put together the stones which He has made and grow up into the immeasurable stature of the fullness of Christ. (b) Again, there is much beautiful teaching in the fact that when the ark was moved into its resting place in the temple, the staves by which it was carried through the wilderness were taken out and were no longer visible to the eyes of the worshipers. The ark had ceased its journeyings and was forever at rest. And so the psalm triumphantly exclaims, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned” (Psalms 132:14). Oh, reader, it tells you that you may reach that place where Christ shall fix His dwelling in your heart to leave no more, where the staves of your wandering life shall be withdrawn and He in you and you in Him shall be at home forever. (c) There was nothing in the ark but the tables of the covenant. Even the pot of manna that had been there before, as a memorial of the wilderness life, was gone. Even the budding rod of Aaron, which was the reminder of their temptations in the wilderness and, perhaps, also, which was suggestive of the stage of budding and blossoming faith, but not a complete fulfillment, was gone, too. There was nothing there but the white tablets with God’s will inscribed upon them, which only spoke of one thing, a heart wholly consecrated and having only one desire, and that to glorify God and do His will. Is not this the place to which at least we want to come: where we are not seeking any blessing, where even the pot of manna and the thought of our wilderness needs shall be forgotten, and even Aaron’s rod of prayer shall be changed to praise and rest, and our one object shall be, as our Master’s only and ever was, to do the Father’s will? We cannot even imagine Christ having any anxious care about Himself in any regard. He had but one business and that was to bless God and bless others. Oh, when we get there we shall be saved from all our sorrows, from all our cares, from all our conflicts, and the one deep consciousness of our whole being shall be, “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalms 40:8). (d) We read once more that when the glory of the Lord filled the house the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud of the “glory of the Lord filled his temple” (1 Kings 8:11). This is the secret of getting rid of self. Get filled with God and then there will be no room for you. Do not try to turn yourself out but take Him in, and sin and self will go in the blessedness and glory of a divine preoccupation.