1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.
This chapter, which details the technical building of the temple, is very interesting from both an engineering standpoint and a spiritual standpoint. First, the author of 1 Kings gives us a date that the temple was built: 4th year of his reign in the month of Ziv. Solomon’s reign began about 971 BC. That mean that the temple began being built in 967.
But this date is a little more descriptive than at first glance. The temple’s building also began 480 years after the Israelites came out of Egypt during the Exodus. If the temple was built in 967 and the Exodus happened 480 before that, it means that the Exodus (which is undated in the Pentateuch) happened in approximately 1447 BC.
2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. 4 He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls. 5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. 6 The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.
The ancient system of measurement is quite different from our modern day method. A cubit of measurement is approximately 18 inches and derived from he distance between the crook of an elbow and a fingertip. So, when the author describes the portico ( the covered entranceway of the temple) as extending the width of the temple (20 cubits) and projecting 10 cubits from the front of the temple, we have to do some math to figure out the exact measurements:
The portico: 20 x 18 = 360 inches. 360 inches / 12 inches = 30 feet Length of the temple: 60 x 18 = 1080 inches. 1080 inches = 90 feet Lowest floor: 5 x 18 = 90 inches. 90 inches = 7.5 feet Middle floor: 6 x 18 = 108 inches. 108 inches = 9 feet Third floor : 7 x 18 = 126 inches. 126 inches = 10.5 feet
Although it isn’t apparent yet, the temple was built as a permanent representation of the tabernacle. It will contain a main room and the Holy of Holies as the tabernacle had.
7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. 8 The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. 9 So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. 10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.
Solomon builds his temple in two ways. First, he dresses all the rocks at the quarry, meaning that the work of chiseling the stone out of the rock and preparing it was done somewhere else. Second, the temple is erected in a type of silence that is quite different from normal construction. Those building it receive the stone that is ready to be placed at the temple. The reverence is noteworthy: Solomon is creating something quite different, a new construction for God on sacred ground. It will not be built of shoddy product and will not be built in the customary way.
11 The word of the Lord came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”
In the book of Kings, we will see this promise throughout. It is given to Solomon and subsequent kings as both reminder and warning. There is a covenant here, an implication of duty: if the king follows God and the people follow the king, then the kingdom will be blessed by prosperity, health and dominion. God will be close to them and they close to God. But the opposite is also true: if they choose to live on their own strength and abandon God, there will be restlessness, war, famine and pestilence.
14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. 16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 17 The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. 18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.
The interior walls were lined with cedar, a very costly and valuable wood. This wood came from the north from King Hiram, the ruler of Tyre and Sidon. The region was well-known for men who worked with timber. Solomon would sanction only the best for the temple.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. 22 So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary. 23 For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. 26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
Solomon gave the inner sanctum ( the Holy of Holies) special attention. The room was overlaid with pure gold and intricate carvings surrounded the future home of the Ark of the Covenant. This room, separated by gold chains, underlaid the fact that it was not accessible to all. It was only reserved for the high priests. Not even Solomon was to enter it.
29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. 30 He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold. 31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. 32 And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. 33 In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. 34 He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings. 36 And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams. 37 The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.
The intricacy, the carving, the gold, the wood from Sidon, and all of the appointments to the temple took seven years of work.
Solomon’s temple is an interesting metaphor for how we should approach our work with God. First, Solomon used the finest materials to build his temple. In our walk, it is important to give the best we have God. Oftentimes we don’t do this. We give our leftovers. We make concessions like this: if I have enough time, at the end of the week, I will go to church or read the bible, but only if I have time and it works for my schedule. We do this, right? We shove God into a corner. When everything else is done, then perhaps we will make time. When we’ve exhausted everything else, then we’ll make time - if it lines up right. This isn’t what a relationship is.
First fruits is an important concept to understand. Proverbs 3:9-10 give us an introduction:
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
But what are first fruits? First fruits refers to the very best you have as a sacrifice to God. Back in the time of Moses, the sacrifice was a very literal one. Leviticus 23:10-14 says:
“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
What this means is that the first fruit offering, the offering of the Israelite’s very best animals, was what God desired. But why? Why does God want our very best? Because it is a two-fold relational covenant. First, we are surrendering our best to show our trust in God. Second, because we trust God by giving our best to Him, He offers the provision and protection we desire. But nothing happens until we trust him with our best.
Solomon could have built structures and homes and palaces for himself and his people, but instead he used the very best to build God’s temple. In the same way, God desires our very best. In our lives, we tend to give the very best time, energy and focus to things other than God. If we are doing that, then we are putting the relationship in an inferior position. In Solomon’s case, at least at this point, he is putting his relationship with God first.
We note this with all of the details inside and outside the temple. From the solid gold overlays to the carvings and attention to detail in every aspect. If we are moving forward in our relationship with God then we are moving in sync with him. We are understanding and growing in what He desires. That understanding commits us to action. When we go into action, we desire the same things that God does.