Hello everyone!
Today I read 1 Kings 6-7.
In the fourth year of his reign, Solomon begins building God's temple.
Now, I'm not going to talk a lot about this topic today, because it's a big one, and I could probably do several posts on it. Which I might, in future.
Today, however, I want to barely scrape the surface.
To start, let's look at the size of the temple.
1 Kings 6:2-6 - As for the house which King Solomon began to build for the LORD, its length was sixty cubits and its width twenty cubits and its height thirty cubits. The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits in length, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth along the front of the house was ten cubits. Also for the house he made windows with artistic frames. 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. 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 made offsets in the wall of the house all around in order that the beams would not be inserted in the walls of the house.
Now, I know you might look as confused as I did. That's because I had no idea how big a cubit was.
So, let's break this down.
1 cubit = 1.5 feet
So, the temple's length was 60 cubits. 60 cubits = 90 feet.
The temple's width was 20 cubits. 20 cubits = 30 feet.
The temple's height was 30 cubits. 30 cubits = 45 feet.
So, the temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
Wow.
But that's not all!
The porch of the temple was 20 cubits long. 20 cubits = 30 feet. It was 10 cubits deep. 10 cubits = 15 feet.
The porch was 30 feet long and 15 feet deep.
Wow.
But wait! There's more!
Solomon built stories around the house he built for the Lord.
The lowest story was 5 cubits wide, which is 7.5 feet. The middle was 6 cubits wide, or 9 feet. And the third story was 7 cubits wide, or 10.5 feet.
So, the temple that Solomon built for God was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had a porch that was 30 feet long and 15 feet deep. And the side chambers that Solomon built to encompass the porch and the inner sanctuary were 7.5, 9, and 10.5 feet wide.
Take a moment to look at a ruler. That's 12 inches, or 1 foot. How many rulers would it take to encompass this temple?
Isn't that amazing.
And do you know how Solomon built it? Stone by stone.
That's right. No hammer, axe, or any iron tool helped to build the temple. It was laid carefully, stone by stone.
And Solomon put a lot of effort into this. He used cedar and gold. He overlaid the entire sanctuary with gold. Pure gold. Real gold.
Do you know how big the sanctuary was?
20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. How many feet is that? 30 feet. 30 feet long, wide, and high. Overlaid with real, pure gold. He used pure gold chains in the front of the inner sanctuary.
He placed cherubim made of olive wood in the inner sanctuary. Each was 10 cubits, or 15 feet high. One wing was five cubits, or 7.5 feet. He placed them so that one wing was touching a wall, and the other touched the other cherub.
Imagine that for a second.
7.5 feet is taller than all of the tall men I know. My brother is about 6 feet tall. One wing of each cherub was taller than a person!
Wow.......
I just spaced out trying to imagine that. No. Really. Try to picture that. Isn't that great?
And then he engraved the walls of the whole house.
Now, if you noticed in your reading, Solomon used cedar, cypress, and olive wood to build the temple in addition to the stone and the gold.
If you remember from Exodus, the tabernacle was built of different materials. The altar was bronze, and they used acacia wood. Acacia wood is light, but strong, and hard. So it was a good choice for the portable tabernacle.
But Solomon was building God's permanent dwelling, now that His people were stationary. Cedar is strong and can last a long time.
This is what Solomon is known for. Wisdom like no other king, and building God's temple.
Well, that's all for today.
I hope you enjoyed this brief look at the temple.
Tomorrow I'll be reading 1 Kings 8-9. I hope you'll join me again.
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