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THE TEMPLE. I Kings 6:1-13. 05/15/2022. #14.
1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 Now the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. 3 The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of the vestibule extended ten cubits from the front of the house. 4 And he made for the house windows with beveled frames. 5 Against the wall of the temple he built chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. 6 The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple. 7 And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 8 The doorway for the middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. 9 So he built the temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. 10 And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams. 11 Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: 12 “Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
1. Building of the Temple
a. Finally, the Temple is built
a1. Many years of planning & collecting material the Temple is started
a2. 418 years after the Exodus (app. 1450 BC), the temple began (1032 BC) in Sol.’s 4th year
b. The Tabernacle is retired & its furnishings will be transferred to the Temple
c. The Temple plan was that of the Tabernacle, but the dimensions were greater
a1. Temple proper: 90’ x 30’ x 45’
a2. 3 stories of side rooms for priests & storage (each room 7.5’ to 9’ wide)
a3. 2 outer courts (one where the priests made sacrifices & one for the people)
d. The Temple building was divided into 2 rooms:
a1. The Holy Place (60’ x 30’)
a2. The Holy of Holies (30’ x 30’)
e. The Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant
a1. Divided from Holy Place by a veil
a2. High Priest entered the H of H once a year on the Day of Atonement
f. Ziv = 2nd month in sacred calendar
a1. April-May (after 1st month of Nisan, which contains the Passover)
a2. Eighth month in seasonal calendar, which begins in Sept. (Tishrei), the month of Yom
Kippur (Day of Atonement)
2. The Temple Mount
a. The Temple was a small portion of the Temple Mount, which covered 35 acres
b. Chambers were built into the wall around the entire Temple complex (many rooms)
c. Zerubbabel’s temple was not as elaborate or expansive (temple was the same dimensions
d. Herod the Great expanded the Temple, which was still unfinished when it was destroyed in 70 AD
e. All the quarried stone was shaped & finished at the quarry, so there was no chiseling on site
f. The support beams rested on narrow ledges outside the wall, so the beams would not rest in the wall
3. Temple etiquette
a. The temple was a fixed structure, unlike the Tabernacle, so it had to stand on that particular spot
b. God tells Solomon, that the Temple will only be useful if he obeys God’s commands & statutes
a1. The building provided no protection
a2. The building dispensed no grace
c. God would perform his word given to David, if Israel would obey & honor God
a1. God’s words were superior to the temple
a2. Disobedience desecrated the temple
d. David received an unconditional covenant
a1. Like the covenant with Abraham, God would fulfill his word to put David’s descendent on throne
a2. Blessings are always conditioned upon obedience to God
e. God would stay dwell among Israelites as long as they walked in his ways (Deuteronomy 28)
f. Romans 8 eternal life to the believer is unconditional
a1. Blessings upon the believer is conditioned upon our submission to God
a2. Tools can neither save, nor make one holy