1 Kings 5
McGeeCHAPTERS 5 AND 6THEME: Preparation and construction of the templeIn chapter 5 Solomon works out a business deal with King Hiram of Tyre for cedar and workmen. Also out of Israel he raises a levy of thirty thousand workmen. Chapter 6 details the construction of this costly and ornate temple which took seven years to complete.
1 Kings 5:1
Whatever King Hiram of Tyre is going to do will not be because of Solomon but because of his love, esteem, and respect for King David.
1 Kings 5:2
Friend, only God can give peace, whether it is world peace or peace in the human heart. God alone can give the rest today that the human heart needs. That is why our Lord, when they rejected Him as king, could send out His personal, private, individual invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden"that is, burdened with sin"and I will give you rest” (Mat_11:28). Only Christ can give that kind of rest. Now God had given Solomon rest from warfare. There was peace on every side.
1 Kings 5:5
Although the building of the temple all stems from David, he was not permitted to build it because he was a man of war. Perhaps we should consider some of the background relative to the building of the temple. Man has been a builder from the beginning. In Gen_4:17 we are told that Cain “…builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.” The face of the earth is scarred by great mounds that hide the ruins of great cities and splendid buildings of the past. The spade of the archaeologist has penetrated into the depths, and you can judge each civilization by the height of the buildings. There are those who say that the cave men of the Stone Age (if they ever existed) were barbarians and uncivilized. They were not builders but sought refuge in caves.
The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans are all counted as civilized, and it is evidenced in their architecture. Modern man claims a high degree of culture because he has built subdivisions, shopping centers, apartment buildings, and tall office buildings. Today man is building his own cave in which to live and worklike a gopher. The rest of the time he crawls on the freeway like a worm. As long as he can push a button and turn a switch, he says he is living. That is modern man. The first buildings of impressive design were the temples. All pagan peoples had temples. Some temples were crude; others, such as the Parthenon in Greece, were the highest expression of beauty. All of this building stems from the Tower of Babel, which was a monument to man’s gargantuan resistance to God. Pagan temples have always been the highest architectural expression, but the pagans who have attended, both civilized and uncivilized, have been on the lowest spiritual level. These temples have been elaborate, large, ornate, rich, and impressive.
The temples of the kings on the River Nile, Asshur of Nineveh, Marduk of Babylon, the ziggurats in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, Baal of the Phonenicians, Athena of the Greeks and in Athens the Parthenon, Jupiter of the Romans, the Aztec temples of Mexicoall of them are manifestations of rebellion against God. “…When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations….” What did they do? They built temples, changing “…the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Rom_1:21, Rom_1:23). Each made a house for his god to live in. They put their gods in a box like a jack-in-the-box. The temple Solomon built, however, was never considered in Scripture as a house in which God would live. In the Book of 2 Chronicles at the dedication of the temple, Solomon made it quite clear that God did not dwell in that place. “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!” (2Ch_6:18). If you think that the temple was built as a house in which God would dwell, you have missed the entire point. It was an approach for man to God and an access to God through sacrifices. Notice now the conception of the temple, then its construction and character. It is rather important. The building of the temple was first in David’s mind, although God would not let him build it. 1Ch_28:1-3 tells us part of the story: “And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building: But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.” The temple was not a dwelling place for God; it was to be His footstool. It was in David’s heart to build the temple. The pattern for the building was given to David, not Solomon. 1Ch_28:19 tells us, “All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.” In other words, David was given the blueprint of the temple even though God did not permit him to build it. David gave this pattern or blueprint to Solomon. “Take heed now; for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it. Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things” (1Ch_28:10-12). David also gathered the material: “Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance” (1Ch_29:2). The conception of the temple, you see, was in the heart of David. Solomon merely executed the construction of it. Now with all David’s accumulation of material at hand, Solomon contracts with Hiram king of Tyre for cedar and fir timber for the actual construction of the edifice.
1 Kings 5:8
In addition to the workmen from Tyre, Solomon employed a large work force of Israelites.
1 Kings 5:13
This was a tremendous enterprise. After Solomon had built the temple, he went on to build other things. He had a building project that was too big, and he overtaxed his people. Chapter 6 brings us to the actual construction of the temple. You will notice that the temple is twice as large as the tabernacle was. It is more ornate, elaborate, and costly. The simplicity of the tabernacle was lost, and there appears to be a spiritual deterioration, as we shall see.