The Temple in Jerusalem (Flashdevo for 1 Kings 5-8)

1 Kings 5

At this point in history, there wasn't yet a temple in Israel for the worshipping of God and originally, everyone had thought that it was going to be David who would have built the temple, but then Solomon becomes the king. In this chapter Solomon makes an alliance with Hiram, the king of Tyre. He writes to Hiram asking for his help and sends down cedar logs to be brought to Jerusalem to build the temple. Because of this message, this alliance was made, and each ruler helped out one another.

1 Kings 6

This chapter details the temple in all of its grandeur. It describes the dimensions of the temple. I am thinking in my mind that the temple is this massive huge building, but in reality, it probably wouldn't be much bigger than a regular church building we'd see in the U.S. I might even equate the temple in size to my home church, FBC of West Palm. However, I doubt that FBC would be covered in gold statues of cherubs and be the place where the Ark of the Covanent rests. The temple took 7 years to build. The temple was also dedicated 480 years after the Israelites fled Egypt during their slavery days.

1 Kings 7

I remember from my Ancient Near East History class that Solomon had made a mistake when he had built his palace because instead of spending more time on the Temple of God, he took more time to build his palace. It took Solomon an extra 6 years to build this palace, as opposed to building the Temple of the Lord. I feel that taking that time away from God is giving Solomon the idea that it is okay to disrespect God, when all along, he should have been switching the lengths of time around. This chapter details the specifics of Solomon's palace, the layout of the rooms, etc. And it sounds massive! The man has pillars made out of bronze in the palace! You want to talk about trumping someone... let's compare Saddam Hussein's former palace in Baghdad to the palace that Solomon has in Jerusalem, and you'll see that Solomon's was more lavish.

Solomon had ordered craftsmen to help him build furnishings for the temple, that were made out of gold and bronze. This was important because the use of precious metals shows reverence to God and that he is valuable to the people...

1st Kings 8

This chapter is a list of prayers and petitions that Solomon is asking God to answer on behalf of his father David. Solomon's wisdom is so that he can guide Israel through dark times that lie ahead for the nation, and you can see in this chapter (Verses 23-52) how he cries out to God for his help.

Also in this chapter, the temple is dedicated.

GRACE AND PEACE!

Chapter 9 tomorrow...look for Spurgeon's daily advice later.