Solomon Builds the Temple

 

The temple is built on the threshing floor that David bought to build an altar to stop the plague. We are told that in 2 Chronicles 3. We know this as Mount Moriah. Abraham was sent by God to Moriah and told God would show him what mountain to sacrifice on.

God always knew the future and controls every detail He desires to. The temple, of course, would become the new place of the sacrifices for atoning for sins in place of the tent of tabernacle.

There are many magnificent churches in the world, grand in scale and design. There are churches with gold-covered parts. They seem inspired by the temple of the Lord and its grandeur and opulence.

I think they are forgetting, though, that God allowed the temple to be destroyed, twice. It was destroyed for rejecting Him, but also, it was finally destroyed and not rebuilt when Jesus started building a new temple.

We are called His temple and are being built together as a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.

We no longer should be trying to prove the superiority of our God by the height and richness of our places of worship.

Speaking of height, it’s listed as 120 cubits, which is maybe around 200 feet. The pillars out front are a third of that. I can’t picture 200 feet tall. It’s the height of about 6 telephone poles high. It was overlaid with tens of thousands of pounds of gold. I can’t picture that either.

Those foreigners (2 Chronicles 2) had to bear that weight to carry the burdens of gold from the quarry to the temple site. There were tens of thousands of them too.

I wonder if any of them considered it a privilege to carry their load? As part of the temple, we each carry a little load of the whole thing. We each carry in us a little part of what is to be the whole temple of God.

Do we ever consider it a burden to be joined together to others, to have to share the temple, to need others to do their parts for it all to be joined together? Or, do we consider it a privilege that we get to do our little part in the building of the temple?