The Building of the Temple
6 Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came 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 [a]began to build the house of the Lord. 2 As for the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty [b]cubits and its width twenty cubits and its height thirty cubits. 3 The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits [c]in length, [d]corresponding to the width of the house, and its [e]depth along the front of the house was ten cubits. 4 Also for the house he made windows with artistic frames. 5 Against the wall of the house he built stories encompassing the walls of the house around both the nave and the inner sanctuary; thus he made side chambers all around. 6 The lowest story was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he [f]made offsets in the wall of the house all around in order that the beams would not [g]be inserted in the walls of the house.
7 The house, while it was being built, was built of stone [h]prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.
8 The doorway for the [i]lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. 9 So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and [j]planks of cedar. 10 He also built the stories against the whole house, each five [k]cubits high; and they [l]were fastened to the house with timbers of cedar.
11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. 13 I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
14 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 Then he built the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the [m]ceiling he overlaid the walls on the inside with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress. 16 He built twenty cubits on the rear part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the [n]ceiling; he built them for it on the inside as an inner sanctuary, even as the most holy place. 17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty [o]cubits long. 18 There was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen. 19 Then he prepared an inner sanctuary within the house in order to place there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 20 [p]The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar with cedar. 21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. 22 He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.
Sometimes we sell God short, and ourselves in the process. Our God is a great God, and Solomon built the most amazing temple he could imagine to honor the God who had blessed His people by calling them His own.
If you have made God the Lord of your life, you are a child of The King of the Universe. The One who made every atom in existence, and every star, a Universe whose scope is beyond our understanding, calls you His own.
There is nothing more amazing, more magnificent, more awe inspiring, than to be called children of the Most High. We ought not to act like paupers, when our Father owns it all, and we ought to honor Him in any way that we can.
Though the temple could not and would not contain God’s glory, it was a place to meet with Him nevertheless, and to remind the people of Israel that they served the one God who had met His people, and yet was beyond imagining. He is personal, and yet unfathomable. His greatness, and His desire for you seem at total odds, yet that is who He is.