Day 162 (1 Kings 5-6, 2 Chronicles 2-3) - Year 7
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we drop in on Solomon as he's preparing to build the temple. He wants the best of the best material, so he does some negotiating with the king next door in Tyre, which is in Lebanon, just north of Israel. Previously, King Hiram of Tyre had a great relationship with Solomon's dad, David.

And even though Hiram is a Gentile, today he even recognizes and blesses God and his work on Israel's behalf. So he and Solomon are off to a great start. Hiram has access to incredible cedar trees in his country. They can grow to be 100 feet tall. That's a 10-story building. And not only that, but their lumberjacks use some special logging techniques that have a full five-star rating on Yelp.

As Solomon and Hiram are negotiating, Solomon tries to send some of his guys to quote-unquote help out with cutting the cedar trees, but he's probably doing that as a means of finding out their logging techniques. Hiram seems to pick up on this and maybe assumes that Solomon is being sneaky, so he plays it cool. He says, oh, that's so nice of you to offer. What a great idea, but how's about we just bring it to you and save you the trip? Then you can just give us some food in exchange for it.

It's like when you're selling something on Craigslist and you have to say, yeah, thanks for offering to come all the way to my apartment, but we can just meet at the Midway Point instead. Like, maybe the police department? Do you know where that is? But then Solomon sends 30,000 Canaanites from among his work crew to Lebanon anyway, and he gets away with it somehow.

On top of that, he has 150,000 Israelites working on things too. That's nearly 200,000 people, more than two times the number of people who work at Google. This is a massive project.

The end of chapter 5 mentions that they lay the foundation with dressed stones. These are stones that have been smoothed over into perfect cubes or boxes for a seamless fit. And when you hear the word stones, don't think tiny little rocks. The largest stone in the temple foundation today weighs 570 tons. That's over 1 million pounds. You can even touch that stone if you take the tunnel tour underneath the Old City of Jerusalem.

This kind of masonry is super impressive, even for somebody who doesn't care about masonry. And for stones this size, it definitely requires a lot of workers. Even though the temple's foundation is really large, the temple itself is only 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Pretty small by modern standards. If you're not good with visualizing measurements, just know it's about half the size of a Chick-fil-A, but two to three times as tall, depending if the Chick-fil-A has a playground or not.

Temple construction takes them seven years, and it's all taking place roughly 500 years after the Israelites came out of bondage in Egypt. This has been a long time coming. But here it is, God's glorious dwelling place made of the finest materials on earth—gold and cypress and precious stones. They prepare the Holy of Holies for the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant by hanging a huge curtain to separate it from the holy place, to block off the area where God's earthly throne will dwell.

This curtain is important in the storyline we'll continue to follow. The first century historian Josephus describes it as being four inches thick. Behind this curtain, or the veil as it's commonly called, are two cherubim statues carved out of olive wood. Cherubim, you may recall, have four faces and they have four wings covered in eyes.

Here's a trick I like to use to help me keep cherubim straight from seraphim. Seraphim have six wings, and the words seraphim and six both start with S. And the word cherubim sounds like a chair which has four legs, like the four wings and the four faces of the cherubim. In scripture, cherubim often serve as guards of holy places, like the Garden of Eden and in the Holy of Holies.

So maybe picture these cherubim standing guard while standing by a chair. But remember, the chair doesn't actually exist. It's just a memory tool. These cherubim statues here in the Holy of Holies are massive, about half the height of the ceiling. And the wings of these statues stretch from wall to wall. The whole temple structure is magnificent. Solomon really doesn't do anything halfway.

But God is quick to remind Solomon that impressive buildings aren't what guarantee His presence with them and His blessing over them. In 6:12-13, God says their covenant relationship is based on hearts that demonstrate their love for Him through obedience. Did you notice where the temple was built? This is where my God shot came in today. We know it's at the side of Ornan's threshing floor, but where is that? Today we saw that it was located on Mount Moriah.

Do you remember what else happened on Mount Moriah? It's been a while, so here's a refresher. That's where Abraham went to offer Isaac in Genesis 22, before God stopped him and said he would provide the sacrifice. Many people believe the temple was built on that exact site, on the southern end of Mount Moriah. Something else happened on this mountain that we haven't read about yet. It's where God did provide the sacrifice. On the northern end of this mountain, the highest point is called Mount Calvary, or Golgotha, and it marks the site of Christ's death.

From the start of the story to the fulfillment of the story, this mountaintop has been a focal point. He's not only been providing all along, but he's been foreshadowing his plan for ultimate provision all along as well. He's writing a beautiful story with this mountaintop as the heart of the action. He's sentimental like that. And he's where the joy is.

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