Solomon Builds the Temple 1 Kings 6:1-38
Bible Story 91
RECAP
Solomon is Made King -1 Kings 1:28-53
28 Then King David answered and said, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So, she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. 29 And the king took an oath and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress, 30 just as I swore to you by the LORD God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so I certainly will do this day.”
31 Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and paid homage to the king, and said, “Let my lord King David live forever!”
32 And King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” So, they came before the king. 33 The king also said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. 34 There let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel; and blow the horn, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 35 Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, and he shall be king in my place. For I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.”
36 Benaiah, Jehoiada’s son, answered the king and said, “Amen! May the LORD God of my lord the king says so too. 37 As the LORD has been with my lord the king, even so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”
38 So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and took him to Gihon. 39 Then Zadok the priest took a horn of oil from the Tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” 40 And all the people went up after him, and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy so that the earth seemed to split with their sound.
41 Now Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the horn, he said, “Why is the city in such a noisy uproar?” 42 While he was still speaking, there came Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest. And Adonijah said to him, “Come in, for you are a prominent man, and bring good news.”
43 Then Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, “No! Our lord King David has made Solomon king. 44 The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites; and they have made him ride on the king’s mule. 45 So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him, king, at Gihon; they have gone up from there rejoicing, so the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard. 46 Also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. 47 And moreover the king’s servants have gone to bless our lord, King David, saying, ‘May God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and may He make his throne greater than your throne.’ Then the king bowed himself on the bed. 48 Also the king said thus, ‘Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, while my eyes see it!’”
49 So all the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid and arose, and each one went his way.
50 Now Adonijah was afraid of Solomon; so, he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. 51 And it was told Solomon, saying, “Indeed Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; for look, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’”
52 Then Solomon said, “If he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.” 53 So King Solomon sent them to bring him down from the altar. And he came and fell down before King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.”
Solomon Asks God for Wisdom - 1 Kings 3:3-14
1 Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s daughter; then he brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall all around Jerusalem. 2 Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places because there was no house built for the name of the LORD until those days. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
4 Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”
6 And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge these great people of Yours?”
10 The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. 13 And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. 14 So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
The Wisdom of Solomon - 1 Kings 3:16-28; 4:21-34
16 Now two harlot women came to the king and stood before him. 17 And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. 19 And this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him. 20 So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”
22 Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.”
And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son and the living one is my son.”
Thus, they spoke before the king.
23 And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” 24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So, they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”
26 Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”
But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”
27 So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”
28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
TODAY
Solomon Builds the Temple - 1 Kings 6:1-38
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.
History, Dates, and Times-
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.
The actual length of a cubit varied between different ancient groups of people. Here are some samples from Egypt, Babylon, and ancient Israel:
Hebrew
17.5 in
Egyptian
17.6 in
Babylonian Long
19.8 in
Hebrew Long
est. 20.4 in
Egyptian Long
20.6 in
The Hebrews used at least two different cubits. Solomon’s temple was built according to, the royal cubit. The fact that this was the “former measure” indicates that a different measurement was standard at the time.
The royal cubit was 523 to 525 mm (20.6 to 20.64 inches) in length: and was subdivided into 7 palms of 4 digits each, for a 28-part measure in total. The royal cubit is known from Old Kingdom architecture dating from at least as early as the construction of the Step Pyramids.
The temple was 103 Feet Long
34.3 Feet Wide
51.5 Feet High
3 The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house was 34.3 Feet Long and 34.3 Wide
The highest point of the temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall (about 20 stories or about 207 feet).
a passage, hall, or room between the outer door and the interior of a building: lobby. A foyer
The Temple sits on top of Mount Moriah
Today on top of Mount Moriah
Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac in this same location.
4 And he made for the temple 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.”
Who remembers a few chapters back when David sinned?
70,000 men died because David sinned.
Now God is saying to Solomon IF YOU do what is asked of you I God will not forsake Israel.
14 So Solomon built the temple and finished it.
15 And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards;
from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood;
and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress.
16 Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards;
he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.
17 And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long.
18 The inside of the temple was cedar,
carved with ornamental buds and open flowers.
God is a God of Beauty
All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.
Stone was a symbol of judgment so no stone was seen.
19 And he prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
20 The inner sanctuary was
twenty cubits long,
twenty cubits wide,
and twenty cubits high.
He overlaid it with pure gold
and overlaid the altar of cedar.
21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold.
22 The whole temple overlaid with gold until he had finished the temple;
also, he overlaid with gold the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.
23 Inside the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
24 One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.
25 And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. 26 The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. 27 Then he set the cherubim inside the inner room, and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall.
And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.
28 Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
Gold is a symbol of purity
29 Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.
30 And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries.
So, here again, we see God is a God of purity and beauty.
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were one-fifth of the wall.
32 The two doors were of olive wood;
and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
33 So for the door of the sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, one-fourth of the wall.
34 And the two doors were of cypress wood; two panels comprised one door, and two panels made the other door.
35 Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.
36 And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year the foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid, in the month of Ziv.
38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans.
So, he was seven years in building it.
MEMORY VERSE
13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
PRAY
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