October 2

As David’s life draws to a close, here’s a quick reminder: I Chron. is David’s life as is I & II Samuel. I Chronicles being a slightly more regal and godly illustration of David.  Whereas I & II Samuel would make for a slightly higher grossing movie with all the illustrative details.  II Chron. covers the same time period of I & II Kings. The “Kings” covers the melee~ that was going on in both Kingdoms, while II Chron. is focussing on only the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

28/29 –  Here is David’s final instructions for the Temple, his calling forth of Solomon and declaring him the next king. Solomon is to build the Temple as his father reminds him to honor God and follow the plans every step of the way. The duties and details are stated to the Levites reminding them of their duties.  His encouragement to Solomon is what every child wants to hear from their father and it would eliminate the woes of much of the world if this type of word proceeded from every father. Before David heralds his last public worship service, he declares what his gifts for building the Temple are going to be. Not to belabor the math too much but here’s one picture: the gold that was amassed just for the Temple was 610,000 lbs. / 305 tons of gold! It’s almost 13 semi trucks loaded to capacity weight!. If it were a single cube of gold it would be 505 cubic feet [8 feet X 8 feet X 8 feet square!] <–GOLD!  We would spend like this on our houses of worship today were it not for our having so many otherpriorities.  As was mentioned, David’s last worship service was declared. His final declaration that the Kingdom would be led by Solomon, the sacrifices or worship are laid on the altar… And David passed from our world. Imagine David’s arrival in heaven, to be greeted by our Savior who would 970 years later be born in the City of David and be labeled “Son of David” … !!!

II Chr. 1 – Solomon starts out well; humbled, yielded, prayerful, surrendered to his God. He asks for wisdom and God gives him wisdom. And wisdom is the gateway to everything.  Solomon in no time has an impressive fleet of 12K horses and 1400 chariots.  He from the start had God’s blessing, the plans from his father to build the kingdom, he was able to defend his kingdom, and therefore Solomon has the confidence to build the Kingdom.

2 – Final preparations for the Temple and Solomon’s Palace are underway.  Do we realize what 150,000 stone cutters and transport men can get accomplished?! This is beyond immense. Solomon negotiates with King Hiram of Tyre who will do business and trade for supplies and send skilled help to see the job to finish. We read of all the cedar logs, the wheat and barley, wine and olive oil.  Just a visual here: the wine and oil poured together would fill eight full-size 10′ deep in-ground swimming pools.  That’s a lot of salad dressing!  o.k., we’ll get back to serious-

3 – The construction of the Temple begins.  The tallest part was 180′ high.  There were not hardly any buildings that tall anywhere. From that time to the invention of the elevator in the 1800’s very little was that tall because very few were willing to climb more than two flights of stairs to their home or office and almost no one was very excited to climb three flights to the fourth floor once or twice daily to their residence or business. So workers, foreign and local were in awe to be building something 180 feet tall over 27 centuries before anyone dreamed of living on the 18th floor; 180 feet up!  And the gold, the mathematics, the craftsmanship, the artwork and carvings, the metallurgy.   Was God worth it? Absolutely worth it.  It would be nice to see more beauty and immense artwork today dedicated solely to the worship of God.

4 – There were gorgeous and sturdy columns, and huge tanks, lampstands, and various articles and items for service and decoration in the Temple. There was gold and silver and bronze everywhere.  Where are those three medals regularly mentioned in athletic competition?  So much gold was used in so many of the items in construction and in overlayment that it’s been said that when one walked in they could feel the gold and the glory of it.

5 – Then Solomon finished the task and put all the items in the Temple that David his father had given him to put in there.  The greatest construction task in history has just been completed.  This was far more than just the ‘next thing’ on the king’s list.  We’ll catch his regal and moving prayer next week. Plus we’ll see what the spectacular thing that the Lord does!