He began to build the house of the Lord.
The temple built
Solomon’s temple is the most wonderful and interesting building in the world’s history. It was “the mysterious centre of Israel.” It was far more to Israel than the Vatican is to Rome. It was, so long as it stood, God’s only earthly palace and temple. The Pyramids of Egypt were old when it was built, and they show no signs of decay. Solomon’s temple utterly perished after four centuries. Greek and Roman artists have given the laws of beautiful and stately architecture to the world, but no one has ever dreamed of copying, in any respect, the sacred building at Jerusalem. Brunellesehi’s dome at Florence, St. Peter’s at Rome, the Milan Cathedral are almost miracles of daring genius and patient toil. The temple was in comparison a homely and plain building in its style. Its size was, as compared with these, small and insignificant. Yet God in a peculiar sense was its architect. He filled it with His glory. “His eyes and His heart were there.” The simple description before us is greatly amplified in this Book of Kings, and in that of Chronicles, where there are differences noted. Our attention may rest at present on the--
I. Date of the temple. It is given with precision. Months and years are mentioned for the first time since the Exodus. Here we have one of the two or three points clearly made in the Scripture by which its chronology is determined. We can easily remember that Solomon’s reign began about one thousand years before Christ. Homer was singing of the Trojan war. Two and a half centuries must pass before Romulus and Remus founded Rome. It seems long since Columbus discovered America. Add a century nearly to this period, and you have the time between the Exodus and the temple. How long the decay! Wilderness wandering, rude days of the Judges,--nearly three hundred years. Samuel and the prophets, King Saul, and then David,--these all must come before God can have a permanent home on earth for men to see and admire and love.
II. The site of the temple. This is not mentioned in our text, because so familiar and so often recorded elsewhere. It was on Mount Moriah, to which Abraham centuries before had raised his eyes in sad recognition of the place for the sacrifice of Isaac.
III. The size and plan of the temple. Many a country church is larger than this famous edifice in its interior dimensions. The cubit is an uncertain measure; but allowing it the largest limit, we have a room inside of only ninety feet by thirty. It had three distinctly-marked parts. First, the “temple of the house” (verse 3), or holy place, sixty feet long by thirty wide. Then, second, came the “oracle” (verse 7), or most holy place, a perfect cube, thirty feet in each of its dimensions. This was perfectly dark. In front came, although part of the whole building, a porch fifteen feet deep, running across the whole east end of the structure. All this was of stone, covered, according to Josephus, with cedar. On the sides of this building there was what we should call a lean-to, i.e. sets of chambers, not for residence, but for some other purposes connected with worship. They were entered from without by a door and winding-stairs, so that the holy places themselves were always kept separate.
IV. Preparations for this work. They had been going on for thirty years, ever since the day when David conceived of giving the ark of God a suitable home. Money had been accumulating, and a special treasurer had charge of it. It amounted, perhaps, to eighty millions of dollars. Spoils of battles were brought to it, like the banners hanging in Westminster Abbey. Shields and vessels of gold and silver were gathered in great numbers. But the materials of the temple itself were all brought from afar.
V. The workmen and their work. They were largely foreigners, under Hiram, King of Tyre, or native Canaanites, reduced to practical slavery. Their numbers were immense, one hundred and fifty-three thousand Gibeonites alone engaging in the toil. Thirty thousand Jews, in relays of ten thousand, worked side by side with Tyrian and Sidonian. The significant statement is made that their work was so perfect that part came to its part without the sound of the axe or hammer. This is unparalleled in architecture. In boring the Mont Cenis Tunnel under the Alps, so exquisitely accurate were the engineers, that the two shafts begun at opposite sides of the mountain met each other with scarcely the variation of a line. The Brooklyn Bridge is a triumph of human courage and skill; but those silent seven years on Mount Zion, in which the house of God grew into form, each stone hoisted to its place without the shaping touch of the chisel, in which every beam sunk into its socket with no shading of its already true lines,--that perfect design, perfectly carried out,--where shall we find its equal? That silence was suggestive. It was Divine.
VI. The builder of the temple. Not David, the man after God’s own heart. Not the father, but the son; not the man of blood, but the man of peace. Thus one life completes itself in another.
VII. The uses of the temple. Here we must abandon our modern conceptions of a house of God. The temple was not a place for congregational worship. There was no such thing known in the world at that time. The congregation could assemble in the court before the temple, and witness the sacrifices of animals, but they could not enter there. Only the priests were seen within those mysterious portals. We must banish from our minds all conceptions growing out of the modern church, save as all churches are sacred to the worship of God. Solomon repeatedly says that Jehovah desired this place that His name might be there,--the name of His holiness. There God was to be represented in His true character,--merciful and gracious, but perfectly holy. Israel was to pray towards that place, but God was to hear in heaven, His dwelling-place.
VIII. The condition of God’s blessing on the temple. While Solomon was busy in the seven years’ work, he was reminded that all his toil and expenditure would be in vain unless he walked in the way of the Lord. Stones and cedars, gold and jewels, fine needle-work and silver could not enclose and secure a purely spiritual presence. God speaks to Solomon himself as if He held him alone responsible for the preservation of the temple’s sanctity.
IX. The temple a type and prophecy of the whole body of Christ. It expressed to the ancient people of God the idea of His dwelling amongst them. He ruled the world, even all the heathen nations; but Zion was His home. Israel was His abode. Amongst them His glory and power were to be displayed. Josephus and Philo thought that the temple was a figure of the universe. Others have thought it typical of the human form, others still a symbol of heaven itself; but we have the Scripture proof of its being a prophecy and type of that final temple silently reared by the Spirit of God,--each stone a living soul,--and the whole structure filled and glorified by Christ. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The temple built
I. The Lord’s house begun.
1. The date.
2. The doing.
(1) When Solomon was ready, and the right time had come, he began to build the Lord s house.
(2) Solomon did not begin to build the Lord’s house before he was ready. He did not rush into the Lord’s service without counting the cost.
(3) Solomon could the more readily build well for the Lord’s use, because his father had foreseen the needs of the work. The Christian parent can make much easier the child’s entrance upon Christian service.
(4) Solomon began to build for the Lord, and he didn’t stop with the beginning, as do some so-called servants of the Lord.
II. God’s house builded.
1. The size of the temple.
2. The porch of the temple.
3. The chambers of the temple.
4. The building of the temple.
(1) The temple was a magnificent one. Nothing was too good for the Lord’s use. Solomon did not belong to the class of men who put their punched coin into the contribution-box and give their unmarketable produce to the minister.
(2) The temple was a large one. But Solomon and the parish committee didn’t commence to build until they had means to complete the Lord’s house without the assistance of a colossal mortgage.
(3) The temple was builded in silence. Many a great and grand Christian work is accomplished with little stir. For the time being a man may make as much noise in making a chicken-coop as in building a church.
(4) The temple was a permanent structure. Building for God is work that abides. And we may be stones in a temple of God that shall outlast the stars.
III. God’s promise to the builder.
1. The condition.
2. The conclusion.
(1) Performance promised.
(2) Presence promised.
3. Completion.
(1) The word of God came unto Solomon with the promise that his building for God should secure his up-building from God.
(2) The word of God comes unto us with the assurance that if we do a good work for Him and love Him, all things shall work together for good to us whom He loves.
(3) The word of God that came to Solomon comes to us, with the warning that even our temple-building will not avail unless we offer the sacrifices of obedience on its altars.
(4) The presence of God was specially promised to Solomon just after he had made special preparation for God’s worship.
(5) The presence of God in our hearts is assured to us so soon as we show suitable readiness to welcome His presence.
(6) The presence of God in some manifestation has never failed to His children. The temple of Solomon was destroyed; the later temple was burned. But their usefulness was over, for the presence of God now makes a temple of every believer’s heart. (S. S. Times.)
Church building
One of the greatest living architects, writing on church architecture says: “I do not forget the profound emotion that an ancient church must still excite in any susceptible breast. We need not try to analyse it. But when we are building our sanctuaries to-day, we must ask ourselves how much of this is really religious, how much artistic or historic in its promptings; and further, how much of its really religious portion is genuine and personal, and how much merely sympathetic and imaginative?”
Church architecture
Dr. Cuyler, in his “Recollections of a Long Life,” has some interesting remarks on church buildings. “I fear,” he says, “that too many costly church edifices are erected that are quite unfit for our Protestant modes of religious service.” It is said that when Bishop Potter was called upon to consecrate one of the” dim religious” specimens of medieval architecture, and was asked his opinion of the new structure, he replied: “It is a beautiful building, with only three faults. You cannot see in it, you cannot hear in it, you cannot breathe in it!”
The temple built
That temple, which Solomon built and dedicated, which was restored from its desolation in the time of Nehemiah, and which Herod the Great rebuilt, was known to all devout Israelites as the house of God. God by His prophets taught them so to regard it.
I. Devout intercourse of men with God is prayer. “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” In the ancient temple-worship God caused E is people’s prayers to be symbolised by the smoke of incense, the sweetest possible fragrance that could be devised and secured by the art of the apothecary (Exodus 37:29; Luke 1:8-10). It is only trusting, submissive, unselfish prayer that we can offer up with any good hope of pleasing Him. Such prayer will not limit itself to the things which we feel the need of for ourselves--things which will do good to us.
II. This spiritual fulfilment is for all mankind.
1. This was plainly enough taught in the original declarations concerning the temple which we have in the Old Testament. The text (Isaiah 56:7) affirms that Jehovah called His house a house of prayer “for all nations.”
2. The dispensation which had its local seat at Jerusalem was predestined to be temporary, while the spiritual worship which it taught and temporarily helped was to be permanent and universal. This even pious Israelites were slow to learn, slow to believe. Ought our worship to be less reverent than that in the ancient temple? In these Christian synagogues ought not attention to the Word of God to be as serious and devout as in the Jewish synagogues? Our prayers and our service of song,--ought we not to be as careful that they be true and pure heart-worship, as of old they u ere careful not to offer strange fire or unhallowed incense? Are we keeping our dedicated sanctuaries quite clear of everything which would strike our Lord as unsuitable for His Father’s house of prayer? (H. A. Nelson, D. D.)
Solomon’s temple viewed as a type of the glorified Church
I. In this temple we have a Divine idea.
1. The church in heaven is a Divine idea of mercy. What St. Paul said to and of those who composed the church at Corinth is applicable to the redeemed in heaven--“Ye are God’s building.” The idea of forming a society of perfect spirits claims God for its Author. Roman force, Popish prescription, and philosophic reasoning have failed to weld together in blissful harmony the spirits of men. The Almighty Intelligence is at the foundation of the “church of the firstborn.” The plan of the building is God’s plan.
2. The church in heaven is a Divine idea of remedial mercy. “Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.”
II. In this temple we have a Divine idea embodied.
1. The building of Solomon expressed the Divine contrivance or idea. It was God’s thought made palpable or visible. The Supreme Being gave Solomon the idea, and he gave visible effect to it; he prepared the materials. As the king found them, they were unfit for use. Man in his natural state is unfit for the church in heaven. A sinner in the building of the glorified church would disfigure the whole edifice. A change is necessary here before such an one is fit for the perfected church. The statement--“Ye must be born again,” is applicable to every man who has not experienced the change.
2. He prepared the materials at a distance from the temple. Lebanon was some distance from Zion, and here Solomon’s men shaped the stone and wood, and hence it was the scene of action and noise, but it was all quiet at Zion; there was not the sound of hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard at Zion. And in a religious sense, all the squaring and shaping of character for the temple in heaven must be done and is, done on earth. There is no Gospel-hammer used in eternity to break men’s hearts; there is no fiery blaze of Christian truth in heaven to burn out depravity and sin from the soul.
3. He prepared the materials by different kinds of agency. The glorified people of God have been prepared by different agencies for their position in the heavenly temple, but all instrumentalities have been under Christ. He works all according to His purpose.
III. In this temple there is the union of a variety of materials.
1. The temple of redeemed spirits in heaven is composed of a great variety of character--the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the learned and unlearned are there built into a splendid edifice. No family can be pointed out which has not a member placed in that building.
2. This variety is blended in perfect harmony. Every character has been shaped by Divine skill for its exact position in the structure. “Holiness to the Lord” is inscribed upon every “living stone” therein. The abiding principle of pure love is the uniting and harmonising principle. Rome has a kind of outward union, but no incorporation or vital unity; but the perfected church is one vitality, and for ever.
IV. If this temple there is magnificence.
1. Look at it as a work of art. The temple upon Zion was the marvel of creation, and the church in heaven is, and ever will be, the wonder of the universe! What a blaze of concentrated glories is that celestial temple, what consummate purity and Divine art!
2. As a work of art executed upon the noblest principle. Love to God moved King David to suggest the building, and love to God impelled his son Solomon to carry out the work. The glorified multitudes before the throne are there through the love of God--love brighter, wider, deeper and higher than imagination in her loftiest--Divinest soarings has ever described or even conceived--love which only the greatness of a God could have displayed.
V. In this temple there is great value.
1. The temple church is composed of spirit--hence of greater value. The building at Jerusalem cost nearly nine hundred millions of money, but the treasures of creation are a mere bauble in comparison to the glorified church.
2. The temple church is composed of spirit, through a greater agency than the edifice at Jerusalem--hence of more value. The structure in David’s royal city was erected by Solomon, but the church is built into a holy temple by our Divine Saviour through the Holy Ghost. Solomon was a mat being, but “behold a greater than Solomon is here,” in the work of humanist roration.
3. The temple church is composed of spirit for immortality. The splendid fabric on Zion lasted upwards of four hundred years, and then it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The glorified church, however, is to last for ever. “I give unto My sheep,” says Christ, “eternal life.” The good of all ages and climes are built into “a habitation for God through the spirit,” and this building will continue longer than the sun, even for ever.
VI. In this temple there is glorious purpose.
1. It was erected as a dwelling-place for God. On the mercy-seat of that hallowed building God met the high priest, and other men through him. Probably no higher end can be contemplated in any work than this--to make earth the house of God. The great purposes of the Incarnation are to make earth the residence of God--to eject Satan--to sap the foundations of his empire, and to turn this wilderness world into a Paradise, wherein innocence and God shall reign triumphantly for evermore.
2. As the dwelling-place of God for the good of mankind. What a sacred spot was the temple at Jerusalem! Here the Supreme and ever-blessed Potentate unfolded His purposes of mercy, and made man acquainted with redemption by blood. God dwells in the midst of disembodied spirits, as their Everlasting Light, and the Perennial Fountain of all their joy! A river of blessedness, pellucid and permanent, flows through the heavenly temple, and on either side of it grows the tree of life, whose fruits convey an element of immortality to the participants. We shall see God from every point of the glorious pavilion of redeemed and perfected men. (J. H. Hill.)
The heavenly temple
I. Of the materials of which it was built. Solomon’s temple was a type of the spiritual temple in the material of which it was built.
1. It was built of stone. The heart of man in its natural state is a heart of stone.
2. It was built of stones brought a long distance. God might have made His temple out of materials on the spot. He might have chosen angels and archangels and seraphs, and beings who had never sinned. But such was not His purpose. He selected the stones from a distant country, the souls of man from earth rather than the angels of heaven. It was made of stones, made ready before they were brought to the spot. The stones of the heavenly temple are prepared before they are removed to their eternal position. We must be hewn out of the rock,--converted here; we must be prepared on earth, and fitted to occupy the exact spot intended for us before the time comes for us to be taken away.
II. In the manner in which it was constructed.
1. That it proceeded gradually. It was impossible for a building to be made all at once, when the materials were brought from a distance and one by one fitted together. The temple of God has been going on ever since Abel the first righteous man was admitted to heaven.
2. That it was carried on according to a plan. It was impossible that each stone could fit into its appointed place unless that place was pre-arranged and foreseen. Nay, every detail must have been provided for, and all the parts accurately suited one to another. So the wisdom of Almighty God has foreseen and provided for every detail connected with His heavenly temple. Not only have those been selected who shall form part of the building, but every stone is numbered and has its appointed position assigned to it
3. It was carried on in solemn and mysterious silence. A fit type of the mysterious work of God in the construction of His temple in heaven.
III. Solomon’s temple was a type of the great spiritual temple in the object for which it was ordained. This was the glory of God. It was not for the pleasure of the king, or for manifesting the beauty of the carved stones--it was for the praise, the worship, and the glory of the Almighty. Let us remember that the end of our salvation is not merely, or even chiefly, our own advantage. There is a higher, a nobler object to be obtained--the praise of God. Conclusion:--
1. In all buildings, there are stones of all sorts, shapes, and sizes required. There are the massive pillars, the keystones to the arches, and the small rubble to fill up the courses. These may not all occupy so prominent a position, but they are all essential to the construction of the building. So the humblest Christians are required in the temple above as well as the more prominent and important.
2. In all buildings there must be builders. So God is the great Master Builder and the Divine Architect. He superintends the work. The under builders in this work are His ministers.
3. The foundation is Christ. The topstone is Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega--the beginning and the end. He is the basis and the glory of the whole building. (J. S. Bird, B. A.)
Character
There is an eminent satisfaction in reading this terse sentence. King Solomon not only began the house; he finished it. I have often thought that the temple was a fit emblem of a true man’s character, and Solomon’s action and energy a fit example for a true man to follow.
I. A man’s character must be built upon a solid foundation. The foundation of a man’s life must not and dare not be a thing of chance. The ancient temple taught us that. It was founded through agony, its position was indicated by an angel, itself was consecrated by sacrifice. Life and character stand upon great, solid, permanent principles. No opportunism is of any use. Quick methods, suggested by selfishness, and attempted by inexperience and ignorance, will give us a house of cards to be blasted by a breath. What is more, a temporary success upon any other foundation than these enduring principles is worthless. It has no true element of success. It is like a gilded ball for a baby; or a bubble to be pricked by the first chance and disappear. Eternal principles must be our foundation. Let me point out a few.
1. The deepest down must be truth. Without moral truth no man is tolerable to others or sure of himself. Moral truth teaches him to say what he believes, and upon no plea whatever to say anything else.
2. Another principle is honesty. A large portion of honesty is candour, for a mysterious person, with secret designs and practices, is never altogether honest.
3. Another principle is purity. This lies deep, but it is a sweet, enjoyable, and beautiful rule. There is no section or class to whom it ought not to be dear. It is very close to truth and to honesty, and without it no character can be strong. It belongs to ourselves, our thoughts, imaginings, wishes, and motives. It has a kind of chemical action going out through our whole nature, and so belonging to others so far as we belong to them and affect them. It is a function of our bodies, our intellects, and our souls. It wears the sunlight of holiness, for the perfectly pure is God.
4. Deeper yet, for Jerusalem was built upon the foundation of the hills; and man’s foundation is God. Jesus is the foundation which lies eternal. Religion is our relation to Jesus.
II. The character must be built up for a high purpose. It was the consciousness of this which added the factor of greatness to the work of Solomon. The father of the work was the Tabernacle. That, at all events, provided the outline. But circumstances had shifted and lifted themselves during the four hundred years which stood between. New possibilities had arisen, and therefore larger and richer work must he effected. Here the ideal of character comes forward. That shows what we wish; the possible translates the vision into what we can. Therefore the purpose of our life aims at the highest service we can conceive and hope to render; such service contemplates God as its object--its highest is found in Him only. Hence, the character that is to be built is built for these:--
1. For Sacrifice.
2. A second purpose must, like that of Solomon, be Thanksgiving, for thanksgiving is as much a duty as prayer.
3. The Residence of God. It is almost astounding in its presumption. The heaven, even the heavens of heavens, cannot contain Him. We is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and how shall He come into perpetual association with it? Yet God vouchsafed to come down within a dwelling-place formed by these hands of sinful men; He was openly seen there, and His presence remained. Nor will He disdain the work which is of His own hands, nor refuse to dwell in the fleshy and spiritual temple which we consecrate to Him.
III. The character must be built up with large and noble ideas. It was a huge undertaking. The quarries and the forests of Lebanon, the raising and shaping of the stones, the conveying of the cedar to the sea and then to Joppa, and thence to Jerusalem, the textile work probably from foreign looms, the brass, the silver, and the gold, all expressed--and as they seem to us, exhausted--the grandest conception of the eleventh century before our Lord. Such are to be the kind of ideas that go to make up our character: the greatest we can, with all of care, all of patience, and all of completeness we may add. (W. M. Johnston, M. A.)
The law of beauty
When the marble, refusing to express an impure or a wicked thought, has fulfilled the law of strength, suddenly it blossoms into the law of beauty. For beauty is no outward polish, no surface adornment. Workers in wood may veneer soft pine with thin mahogany, or hide the poverty of brick walls behind thin slabs of alabaster. But real beauty is an interior quality, striking outward and manifest upon the surface. When the sweet babe is healthy within, a soft bloom appears upon the cheek without. When ripeness enters the heart of the grape, a purple flush appears upon the surface of the cluster. When the vestal virgin of beauty had adorned the temple without, it asks the artist to adorn his soul with thoughts and worship and aspirations. Ii the body lives in a marble house, the soul should revolt from building a mud hut. The law of divine beauty asks the youth to flee from unclean thoughts and vulgar purposes as from a bog or a foul slough. It bids him flee from irreverence, vanity, and selfishness as men flee from some plague-smitten village or a filthy garment. Having doubled the beauty of his house, having doubled the sweetness of his music, having doubled the wisdom of his book, man should also double the nobility and beauty of his life, making the soul within as glorious as a temple without. (N. D. Hillis, D. D.)
The soul’s temple
If Milton says that “a book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose for a life beyond life,” and affirms that we may “as well kill a man as kill a good book,” then the Divine voice whispers that the soul is the precious life-temple into which three score years and ten have swept their thoughts, and dreams, and hopes, and prayers, and tears, and committed all their treasures into the hands of that God who never slumbers and never sleeps. Slowly the soul’s temple rises, slowly reason sad conscience make beautiful the halls of imagination, the galleries of memory, the chambers of affection. Character is a structure that rises under the direction of a Divine Master-Builder. Full oft a Divine form enters the earthly scene. Thoughts that are not man’s enter the mind. Hopes that are not his, like angels, knock at his door to aid him in his work. Even death is no “Vandal.” When the body has done its work, death pulls the body down as Tintoretto, toiling upon his ceiling, pulled down his scaffold to reveal to men a ceiling glorious with lustrous beauty. At the gateway of ancient Thebes, watchmen stood to guard the wicked city. Upon the walls of bloody Babylon soldiers walked the long night through, ever keeping the towers where tyranny dwelt. And if kings think that dead stones and breathless timbers are worthy of guarding, we may believe that God doth set keepers to guard the living city of man’s soul. Man’s soul is God’s living temple. It is not kept by earthly hands. It is eternal in the heavens. (N. D. Hillis, D. D.)