The Temple Construction in Jerusalem
3 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of [a]Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build on the second day in the second month [b]of the fourth year of his reign.
Dimensions and Materials of the Temple
3 Now these are the [c]foundations which Solomon laid for building the house of God. The length in [d]cubits, according to the old standard was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. 4 The porch which was in front of the house was as long as the width of the house, twenty cubits, and the height 120; and inside he overlaid it with pure gold. 5 He overlaid the [e]main room with cypress wood and overlaid it with fine gold, and [f]ornamented it with palm trees and chains. 6 Further, he [g]adorned the house with precious stones; and the gold was gold from [h]Parvaim. 7 He also overlaid the house with gold—the beams, the thresholds and its walls and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 Now he made the [i]room of the holy of holies: its length across the width of the house was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to 600 talents. 9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.
10 Then he made two [j]sculptured cherubim in the room of the holy of holies and overlaid them with gold. 11 The wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 The wing of the other cherub, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house; and its other wing of five cubits was attached to the wing of the [k]first cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits, and they stood on their feet [l]facing the main room. 14 He made the veil of violet, purple, crimson and fine linen, and he worked cherubim on it.
15 He also made two pillars for the front of the house, thirty-five cubits [m]high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits. 16 He made chains in the inner sanctuary and placed them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and placed them on the chains. 17 He erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.
This passage starts and ends with reminders of things which some may have chosen to hide (even more so in American culture today, but we’ll leave that alone). First, they chose to build the temple on the (former) threshing floor of Ornan. This was the exact location where David offered sacrifices to God after bringing a plague on the nation by ordering a census.
Second, in the end Solomon names one of the pillars Boaz. This would be an enduring reminder of their ancestor, who was a great man. But attached to that memorial was Solomon’s great great grandmother Ruth. Now Ruth also was a great woman, but also a foreigner, a Moabitess, and God’s people were under strict orders not to marry foreign women. Of course, the trouble wasn’t with Boaz, it was his kinsman who married Ruth in the first place. Rather Boaz was doing the honorable thing to redeem his kinsman’s property by marrying Ruth.
There’s something bigger in both cases, and that is the amazing redemption of God, played out in the lives of His people. In the first case, the plague was not supposed to end at the threshold of Ornan. It was stopped though, as David pleaded for the lives of the people and for God’s mercy to be shown. God displayed His mercy on that day and at that place, when he cut the punishment short.
And if you read the story of Ruth, you will see the amazing parallel of the redemption played out between Ruth and Boaz as you compare it with how God himself redeemed the world, and woos his bride.
God’s love reigns supreme, his mercy endures forever, and that was (and is) cause for celebration. As the song plays on my feed right now, his love is “too good to not believe.” Yet many would do just that, they would rather forget how amazing He is, and just dwell in their own misery. God is not willing that any should perish though, and He made a way for us to be redeemed. He made a way, for all who are willing, to experience His love and mercy, poured out on us who are unworthy. Are you willing?