I KINGS
Listen to this study TH3127
Please turn in your Bibles this evening to I Kings chapter
5 as we continue our study through the Word of God. As you remember
from last time, Solomon has been firmly established as king in
Now, as we move into I Kings chapter 5 tonight we are going to see that Solomon is gathering the material to build the temple, to make a central place where the Lord can be worshiped, the place that He has chosen and not man, Jerusalem! With that said, let’s begin reading in I Kings chapter 5, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us this evening as we study through His Word.
Hiram was a friend of David’s, in fact, according
to II Samuel 5:11, we are told, “Then Hiram king of
And the people of
Solomon wanted the best for the house of God and he was willing to use Gentile help to assist him in this work. Today there are some that feel you should only do business with Christians but I don’t agree with that. You seek those who will do the best job, have the best skills for the work that is to be done. Sometimes it will be Christians and sometimes it will not. When we were working in this building we used Christians and non-Christians to do the work. Now, in regards to partnering for a cause, such as fighting against abortion, I don’t think we should partner with unsaved religious people because that makes them feel that they are saved and it looks like we are in agreement with them.
We see that Hiram is very enthusiastic about the work that
Solomon wanted him to do. Now that does not mean that Hiram was
saved but he did respect the God of Israel and the reason may
be the influence that David had on him. He understood who the
God of Israel was. And please understand that this was not an
easy task. They would cut these logs down in Tyre, and then these
logs would be floated down the Mediterranean Sea, from Tyre, some
50 miles to Joppa, the only port city in Israel. Then from Joppa
it would be transported another 40 miles to
One more point before we see what Solomon paid Hiram for
this work. What about all these trees that were there in Solomon’s
day, what happened to all these trees that were located in
In return for the skilled laborers and the trees from
20,000 KORS OF WHEAT = 130,000 BUSHELS PER YEAR
20 KORS OF PRESSED OIL = 1,200 TO 1,700 GALLONS OF OLIVE OIL EACH YEAR. (A LIQUID KOR IS ABOUT 60-85 GALLONS).
Now,
as you read II Chronicles 2:10 there seems to be some discrepancy
in what was given by Solomon. We are told, “And indeed
I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, twenty
thousand kors of ground wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley,
twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.” Why is this different?
Because what we have read in I Kings is what Solomon gave to Hiram,
the king of
Here we see Solomon gather together a workforce to go to
He also placed Adoniram in charge of his labor force and we saw that also in I Kings 4:6. Now Solomon realized he could not do it all and he was able to delegate the work out, which is a wise thing to do. It is the body of Christ working together as we will see in a minute here.
Now Solomon is gathering together a workforce in
This is Solomon’s labor force in
There were 70,000 laborers who carried burdens. How does this relate to us as Christians? You might call them the intercessors in the body of Christ. These are those who are prayer warriors. These are those who are leading others to Christ. These are those who are out there doing the work.
There were 80,000 who cut stone. How does this relate to
us as Christians? You might say that this speaks of those who
are teachers, shaping the living stones to fit into the
There were 3,300 foremen. How does this relate to us as Christians? Well, you might say that this speaks of pastors, elders and deacons who are over seeing the work of God. Those that are shepherding the flock of God that has been entrusted to them.
It
is as Peter said, “Coming to Him as to a living stone,
rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also,
as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.” I Peter 2:4-5. You see, we,
as living stones, are serving our King for the building up of
the
Also, Paul tells us in II Corinthians 3:1-3, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” In other words, our lives are a living testimony to our God and others should see that, they should be able to read our lives!
Let me make one more point here and that is in regards to what God is doing in our lives. The cutting away, the chiseling in our lives as God is molding and shaping our lives to fit into His dwelling place, the heavenly temple of God. Regarding this work that God is doing, Spurgeon wrote, “We have been the subjects of a great deal of secret, unseen, underground work. The Lord has spent upon us a world of care. My brother, you would not like to unveil those great searchings of heart of which you have been the subject. You have been honored in public; and, if so, you have had many a whipping behind the door lest you should glory in your flesh . . . All those chastenings, humblings, and searchings of heart have been a private laying of foundations for higher things.” God is working in us down here so that we will fit in up there as this story tells us. We are told:
A famous evangelist told the following incident: I have a friend who in a time of business recession lost his job, a sizable fortune, and his beautiful home. To add to his sorrow, his precious wife died; yet he tenaciously held to his faith - the only thing he had left. One day when he was out walking in search of employment, he stopped to watch some men who were doing stonework on a large church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. “Where are you going to put that?” he asked. The workman said, “Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I’m shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there.” Tears filled my friend’s eyes as he walked away, for the Lord had spoken to him through that laborer whose words gave new meaning to his troubled situation.
- Our Daily Bread
That is what God is doing in us folks. He is working in us down here so that we will fit in up there! And here is the amazing thing, if you are not already amazed at what God is doing in your life. Paul, in Hebrews 2:11 tells us, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” You see, He is working in our lives, sanctifying us or setting us apart from this world for His glory.
But, not only that, Paul also tells us in I Thessalonians 5:23-24, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” Notice, one day we will be completely sanctified and that is when we go to be with the Lord, but God will continue to work and He will complete the work, He will do it, the work will be finished! There may be a lot of cutting and chiseling but He will finish the work and it will be a masterpiece because the Master did the work in us and through us!
From this verse we can ascertain when Solomon began the
work on the
Now how did Solomon know what to build, how to build it, what it would look like? We are told in I Chronicles 28:11-12, “Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat; and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things.” In other words, God gave to David the plans for building this temple and David gave those plans to his son, Solomon, who was to build this temple.
As you will see, the temple was twice as big as the tabernacle was. Just to give you an idea of how big Solomon’s temple was, a cubit is roughly 18 inches long and is measured from your elbow to the tip of your index finger. That would make the temple, which Solomon built twice as big as the Tabernacle as I have said. This temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet tall. Also, the temple had an extension, or porch in front of it, and this porch was 30 feet wide and 15 feet long. We will cover some more of the details of this temple as we read on here in I Kings and again in Chronicles.
VERSES
4-6
Keep in mind that the tabernacle did not have windows, for the only light source was a seven-branched oil-burning lamp. That was the only thing that lit the Holy place as it stood to the left side of the opening to the Holy of Holies. This Menorah or seven-branched oil-burning lamp pointed to Christ. Remember what Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” This Menorah had a central shaft, and connected to it were the other branches. Those 6 branches represent man, and we are only complete when we are attached to Christ or the main branch. The Holy of Holies had no artificial light in the tabernacle, but was lit from the glory or the presence of God.
What I do want you to notice is that the temple did allow
a little artificial light to come in through these narrow windows.
And yes, not much light came in but there was a little. In the
tabernacle it was the light of God that was depended upon and
here we see a small amount of natural light being allowed into
this temple. And yes, Solomon’s temple was awesome in structure
and yet it did not represent Christ as the tabernacle did. That
is why we read in the New Testament about the tabernacle and the
temple almost seems to be silent. As you study the tabernacle
you will see that every piece of furniture, the coverings, all
pointed to Christ. The temple did not. And it will be through
these same windows that the glory of God, His presence, will depart
from
How does that relate to us today? How does that relate to the Church today? There are many churches today who allow the light of the world to light their churches, instead of letting God fill their lives. The worlds programs and insights do not compare to the light of God. And if these churches continue down this road, the glory of God will depart from their presence. And please understand what I am saying here. If you take away God’s Word you have taken away God. Jesus is the Word of God and if we want to know about Him, if we want to know what He requires of us, then we need to be in His Word. But how often today we hear people, leaders, pastors say that they need more light and that light is the light of the world and not the light of God’s Word! Remember what Jesus said in John 8:12, “ . . . ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’” We don’t need the light of this world but the light of the world, Jesus Christ and His light will dispel any darkness in our lives!
Also, all around the
All the stones from Solomon’s temple were cut away from the temple site. You can go and see Solomon’s quarry today, which is located under Jerusalem, between the Damascus gate and Herod’s gate. Solomon’s Quarries, also known as Zedekiah’s Cave, is a 5-acre underground limestone quarry that runs the length of five city blocks under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The entrance to Solomon’s quarries is just beneath the Old City wall, between the Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate, as I have said. This area was filled with limestone that was used in the construction of the temple. To get these stones out they would drill holes into the limestone and pack the holes with sticks. They then would pour water over these sticks, which then would expand causing the limestone to crack, and then they would remove it. Then these stones would be chiseled down to the exact size and numbered to where they would go in the temple. And they fit perfectly; no mortar was used in this project, for these stones were interlocking. And as the stones dried in the sun, they would harden. You can see some of the foundation stones of Solomon’s temple today and these stones are so tight that you can’t even put a knife blade between them. And again, this is a picture of what God is doing in each of us. He is working on us down here so that we will fit in up there!
These are the side chambers that we mentioned before and they were located on the north, south and west sides of the temple and they were built with three stories. And these side chambers were used for storing things and for the priests to live in when they served in the temple.
Solomon is building the Lord His temple so why does the Lord tell Solomon that he needs to continue to walk after the Lord, follow after Him and then and only then will He be with him? Just because Solomon is doing outside work you might say, doesn’t mean that his heart is right with the Lord. He needs to stay close to the Lord and not do the work without the relationship. We will see that as much as God desired to dwell with the children of Israel, because they did not walk in His ways, His glory will depart from the temple! And the warning is simple. Don’t go through all the motion without the emotion or don’t do the work without drawing close to the Lord, without a deep relationship with Him or why are you doing it in the first place?
We are going to get more details of the temple and what took place at the dedication of this temple as we read on, but we are told that Solomon began this work and he completed it. May we be that diligent in the work that God has called us to do! May we not just go part way and stop before the work is done. There are many who are excited to be involved in the work but when the work becomes work, when it is tough, they drop out and they don’t finish it. They do make spiritual excuses like, “I don’t feel led to do this any more!” Or, “It looks like God has closed the door!” Or, “I’m involved in other things!” And the excuses can go on and like I said, they can be very spiritual sounding, but if God told you to start a work, He is not going to leave it unfinished!
VERSES
15-16
Here we see the dimensions of the Holy of Holies of the temple, twice as big as it was in the tabernacle. The Holy of Holies was a 30 foot cubed structure and as we will see, this is the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, with the Mercy Seat that covered this box where the commandments of God were kept and God dwelling above the Mercy Seat.
VERSES
17-18
Directly in front of the Holy of Holies was the Holy Place,
separated by the veil. The Holy Place was 60 feet long by 30 feet
wide. Right in the middle, next to the veil was the altar of incense.
To the right of the alter of incense was the Table of Showbread
and in Solomon’s temple there was not just one like in the
tabernacle, there were 10 of them and on the left side was the
seven-branched oil-burning lamp and again, Solomon made 10 of
them. That was all that was located in the Holy Place and as we
will see, 5 of these were to the right and 5 on the left in Solomon’s
temple, while in the tabernacle, the lamp was to the left and
the Table of Showbread was to the right.
VERSES
19-22
Notice that all this beautiful wood is covered with gold,
pure gold! We are told in the Scriptures that Solomon used 100,000
talents of gold or some 3,750 tons, which equals in our day at
least $45 billion! Not only that, but in regards to the silver,
he used 1,000,000 talents of silver or again, some 37,500 tons
of silver, which equals another $10.8 billion! Plus, if you were
to add in all the wood, precious stones the cost today to put
up this temple would be over $56 billion! It was an impressive
structure, but Solomon wanted nothing cheap, this was for the
Lord!
VERSES
23-28
As you read this, and I did miss this before, it seems
that these two cherubim mentioned here are not the ones that are
overseeing the Ark of the Covenant but are inside the Holy of
Holies and they faced towards the entrance of this room and their
wings spread out so that one end touched the side of the room
and the other wing of the second cherub touched the other side
of the room and their inside wings touched each other! When the
High Priest entered the room they would see these massive cherubim
that stood 15 feet high and their wingspan was also 15 feet!
VERSES
29-38
With this massive workforce it took them seven years to complete this temple project and as I have said, what an awesome structure it was. Can you imagine climbing up to Jerusalem and as you get closer you see this temple and you are singing songs to the Lord. In fact, Psalms 120-134, those 15 Psalms are called songs or Psalms of ascents.
And these Psalms were sung as the Jews made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You see, the Jewish Law required every able adult male Jew, within 15 miles of the city of Jerusalem; to come to the temple for 3 of the main feasts a year. In the spring, it was the feast of Passover. In the summer, it was the feast of Pentecost. And in the fall, it was the feast of Tabernacles. Now, of course, many came for the other feasts also, but these 3 feasts they were required to come for.
And why are these Psalms called the songs of ascents? Because no matter which way you come to Jerusalem, your final journey will be upward, for Jerusalem sits some 2,600 feet above sea level. Thus, as you hit the 3 valleys that surround the city of Jerusalem, you would then begin to make your final ascent. And what an emotional experience it must have been. Just riding up to Jerusalem on our tour, it was exciting. And as tired as we were, you could just sense the joy of coming to this land where God has placed His name. As great as Herod’s temple was, it did not compare to Solomon’s!
Now keep in mind that as spectacular as this structure was, and it truly was the focus of the nation, without continued faithfulness to the Lord, it is just an empty structure!
It took seven years for them to complete the house of the Lord but for Solomon’s house, it took them 13 years to complete! Some argue that his priorities were wrong, that he spent an enormous amount of time building his house and almost half that time in building the house of the Lord. G. Campbell Morgan thinks along those lines as he wrote, “It does show the place which his own personal comfort and luxurious tastes had come to occupy in the life of Solomon . . . It is often by such simple, and unexpected tests, that the deepest facts of a human life are revealed.” But think about this for a minute. How many thousands of people were working on the temple and how many people were working on his house. You see, I think the answer is as simple as that. And Solomon had the temple built first, his priorities were right!
These seem to be administrative office buildings and in I Kings 10:16-17 it mentions that there were 500 gold shields that were hung there and Isaiah calls this building an armory, (Isaiah 22:8). The house of the forest of Lebanon was 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. The hall of pillars was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. He also made the hall of judgment where he gave his judgment over various situations. Again, this was spectacular.
Now today, how can this relate to us? Simply, if we are more concerned about our house than the house of God we have our priorities wrong. Haggai spoke powerfully on this subject in Haggai 1:3-10. He wrote, “Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ‘Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?’ Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,’ says the Lord. ‘You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.’” The Lord brings judgment upon them because the house of the Lord was in ruins and they were fixing up their own homes!
This was not Hiram king of Tyre, but another Hiram that was also from the city of Tyre, and he was gifted in working with bronze. His mom was Jewish and his dad was a Gentile and he was the best man around to do this fine artistic work. In fact, he took after his Gentile father in this kind of work.
VERSES
15-22
Here we see Hiram casts these two pillars of bronze, which were free standing pillars. Their height was 27 feet, and they measured 18 feet around. On the top of these pillars were placed capitals, which were in the shape of pomegranates, each 7½ feet in length, making the total height of these pillars 34½ feet. Can you imagine seeing this as you came up to the temple; it was a very impressive sight to see.
Now it is interesting that they named these two pillars and you may be wondering why. I think the reason is in the names that are given to them. One of the pillars, Jachin, and it was on the right side and it means, “He shall establish.” The pillar that was on the left side was named Boaz and it means, “in Him is strength.” These two pillars were located just outside the Holy Place, and as you looked at them, before you entered the Holy Place, you were reminded that God has established this nation and it is only by His strength that they will continue on. It is as Psalm 96:6 says, “Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” Folks, every house of God should have as a reminder to the people that as they enter in, God will establish them and they will prosper in His strength. It is not about the teacher or the worship team or this or that, it is all about the Lord and that should always be the focus!
Now we are told of this sea of bronze, which was the laver for which the priests would use to wash themselves. In the tabernacle we are not told the dimensions of the laver, but it was small. It had to be for the tabernacle was a portable structure. But in the temple it is like a swimming pool. It was 15 feet across, 45 feet in circumference, and 7½ feet deep. It was able to hold between 12,000 to 15,000 gallons of water. Now you know why it was called the SEA of bronze, for that is what it looked like. Holding this laver up where 12 oxen, 3 on each side, most likely made of bronze.
VERSES
27-38
Here we see the carts and on these 10 carts were lavers that were used to wash the animals that were going to be sacrificed and these were portable, they could be moved around on the carts that were holding them. Each of these lavers could hold about 230 gallons of water.
As you walked in from the outer court to the inner court, the sea of bronze stood on your left, the southeast corner of the temple, with the 5 portable lavers on each side of the temple.
These are some of the things that Hiram had cast for the temple. He played a huge part in putting together the temple implements.
Remember that in the tabernacle there was only 1 Menorah and one table of showbread. Here in this temple that Solomon built, and I am not sure why, he had 10 seven-branched oil-burning lamps and 10 Tables of Showbread. He placed 5 of each of these on one side of the Temple and 5 on the other side.
As I have said, the temple was not really a picture of Christ as the tabernacle was. Remember what Jesus said in John 6:35, “ . . . I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” And, we are also told in John 8:12 that Jesus said, “ . . . I am the light of the world. He who follows after Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Now when you look at all that Solomon had, because of the abundance of materials and furnishings, some had to be placed in these storage areas within the temple.
As I close this evening, let me leave you with these words from J. Vernon McGee to think about. He wrote:
In the tabernacle there was one lampstand which spoke of Christ. In the temple there were ten. Again there is multiplication that has an application for us. In our contemporary society there is danger in becoming overly familiar with the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, the other day I listened to a message given on the radio in which the speaker mentioned the name of Jesus over fifty times before he was halfway through his message. To keep mentioning His name over and over is like multiplying lampstands. Also I heard a man say the other day that he was going to come into the presence of Jesus and sit down and talk with Him. Maybe he will; I don’t know. But the Bible does not suggest such familiarity with the glorified Christ. A man who was very familiar with Him when He was here on earth—who rebuked Him and made suggestions to Him, and reclined on His bosom in the upper room—was John. He was very familiar with Him in the days of His flesh. But John writes of his reaction when he sees the glorified Christ in these terms: “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead …” (Rev. 1:17). I think that is where you and I are going to be when we come into Christ’s presence. My friend, let’s not keep multiplying lampstands, becoming overly familiar with Him. He is the One whom we worship and adore. He is the One before whom we fall down upon our faces.
-
J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible Vol. II, p. 263
Solomon’s
Temple
Interior of the Temple with a view into
the Holy of Holies -
the curtain would normally be closed
