1 Kings 7: “
By
1.INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked at chapters 5 and 6.
1.1.1. We saw that Solomon made
preparations for building the temple by asking help from his father’s friend
and ally, Hiram the king of
1.1.2. With Hiram’s help, Solomon
began the building of the temple for the Lord.
1.1.3. We saw that it has been said
that because of all of the difficult and tedious preparatory work that David
performed for the building of the temple that he really should get the credit,
or most of the credit, for the work. We
looked at many ways that David prepared for the temple being built:
1.1.3.1. We observed the huge amounts
of gold, silver, brass, and iron that David collected for the building of the
temple and we saw that after David had asked the leaders in Israel to
contribute also from their personal reserves that according to Warren Wiersbe,
the gold and silver collected totaled 4,050 tons of gold and over 38,000 tons
of silver.
1.1.3.2. In 1 Chron. 22:1-4 we read
that David also brought together artisans and laborers to work on some of the
items in the construction plans and these workers prefabricated much of the
furnishings of the temple, “1 Then David said, “This is the house
of the Lord God, and this is the
altar of burnt offering for Israel.” 2 So David gave orders to
gather the foreigners who were in the
1.1.3.3. In 1 Chron. 28 we read that
David gave to Solomon the plans for the building of the temple that the Lord
had communicated to him.
1.1.4. We saw that the building of
the temple by Solomon began in 966BC.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at chapter 7.
1.2.1. When we study the accounts
of the life of King Solomon we see that more than any other of God’s leaders
that he had this continual desire to build.
His projects were incredibly huge and intricate, yet this did not scare
him away from completing them.
1.2.2. To be fair to Solomon, we
really don’t know why it took him 13 years to build his own house and only 7 to
build the temple, but several factors could have come into play :
1.2.2.1. David had much of the temple
already prefabricated saving construction time.
1.2.2.2. There was not the urgency to
build his own house that there had been in building the temple.
1.2.2.3. People were probably more
eager to help with the building of the temple than in building things for
Solomon’s own personal use.
1.2.3. While we look at the
structures that Solomon built, we really do not know if each was a separate
structure or whether any of the structures were part of a grouping.
1.2.4. We will also observe how
that though the temple was in scale exactly twice the size of the tabernacle,
that in many particulars the temple was constructed to multiply more than 10
times the worship and sacrifice that could be accomplished by the priests.
1.2.5. In our last study, as we
considered the awesome construction of the temple for the Lord we discussed the
incredible prosperity and grandeur of Solomon and the things that he built and
accomplished, and in Luke 12:27 Jesus spoke the following referencing this
glory of Solomon, “27 “ Consider the lilies , how they grow :
they neither toil nor spin ; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory
clothed himself like one of these.”
2.VS 7:1 - “1 Now Solomon was
building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.” - Solomon built his own house, taking 13 years
2.1.
Solomon was more concerned about building the temple of the Lord, so he
built it first. Then, when it was
completed he began building his own house.
2.2.
This house was Solomon’s palace and was located in
2.3.
1 Kings 9:10 tells us that it took Solomon 20 years total to build the
house of the Lord and his own house (7 for the temple + 13 for his own house),
“10 It came about at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had
built the two houses, the house of the Lord
and the king’s house.”
2.4.
1 Kings 9:17-19 refers to cities that Solomon built besides the
buildings mentioned in this chapter, “17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer
and the lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness,
in the land of Judah, 19 and all the storage cities which
Solomon had, even the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen,
and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all
the land under his rule.”
2.5.
We will see that this palace for Solomon included a personal residence,
city hall, throne room, armory, and an official reception center.
3.VS 2:2-8a - “2 He built the house
of the
3.1.
This house appears to be a vacation house for King Solomon.
3.2.
This house was twice the size of the temple. The length of the house was 100 cubits (150
feet) or about half the length of a football field. The width then of the house was about half of
that, or 75 feet. The height of the
house was 30 cubits or 45 feet.
3.3.
The house was built upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams
upon them.
3.4.
The house was built throughout using the famed cedars of Lebanon.
3.5.
Hiram the king of
3.6.
In 1 Kings 10:17,21 we read of further furnishings that were placed in
Solomon’s house, “17 He made 300 shields of beaten gold, using
three minas of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the
forest of Lebanon. …21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of
gold, and all the vessels of the house of the
4.VS 7:8b - “He also made a house like this
hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had married.” - Solomon also built a house for his wife who
was Pharaoh’s daughter
4.1.
1 Kings 3:1 tells us that this house for Pharaoh’s daughter was build
after Solomon had built the temple and his own house.
4.2.
This house may have housed some or many of his wives, and it has even
been called by some a “harem house.”
4.3.
This house Solomon built for Pharaoh’s daughter was built to be like
his vacation house in the
5.VS 7:9-12 - “9 All these were of
costly stones, of stone cut according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and
outside; even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the
great court. 10 The foundation was of costly stones, even large
stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. 11 And
above were costly stones, stone cut according to measure, and cedar. 12 So
the great court all around had three rows of cut stone and a row of
cedar beams even as the inner court of the house of the Lord, and the porch of the house.” - The construction for the houses David built
is expounded upon
5.1.
We see here that the buildings had a foundation made of costly stones
that were 10 cubits x 8 cubits. On the
inside of the houses the construction was primarily of cedar.
5.2.
The court around the houses was constructed of costly stones and cedar
beams.
6.VS 7:13-22 - “13 Now King Solomon
sent and brought Hiram from
6.1.
This Hiram is not Hiram the king of
6.2.
This man Hiram was really skilled in ay kind of construction work,
however he was an expert in working with bronze and therefore was highly
valuable in the construction of these two huge highly decorative pillars
located outside the front of the temple proper.
6.3.
2 Chron. 2:13-14 tell us more about the background and skills of this
man Hiram, “13 “Now I am sending Huram-abi, a skilled man,
endowed with understanding, 14 the son of a Danite woman and a
Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and
wood, and in purple, violet, linen and crimson fabrics, and who knows
how to make all kinds of engravings and to execute any design which may be
assigned to him, to work with your skilled men and with those of my lord
David your father.”
6.4.
The Bethany Parallel Old Testament Commentary says the following about
this man Hiram of whom it says that he was of the tribe of Naphtali, “In 2
Chronicles 2:14 his mother is said to have been of the daughters of Dan. The apparent discrepancy may be reconciled
thus: Hiram’s mother, though belonging
to the tribe of Dan, had been married to a Naphtalite, so that when married
afterwards to a Tyrian, she might be described as a widow of the tribe of
Naphtali. Or, if she was a natie of the
city of
6.5.
These two pillars were about 27 feet high and 18 feet in
circumference. They were free-standing, about
3 ½ inches thick and hollow. There was a
decorative capital on top of each pillar that was 4 feet high.
6.6.
The weight of the pillars with a capital could have been as much as 16
to 30 tons each.
6.7.
We saw in our last study that by these pillars being named “Jachin”
(“he establishes”) and “Boaz” (“in him is strength”) the Lord was establishing
a memorial to the fact that the temple and salvation itself came about from Him
and by His strong arm.
7.VS 7:23-36 - “23 Now he made the
sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and
its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. 24 Under
its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely
surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. 25 It
stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing
south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and
all their rear parts turned inward. 26 It was a handbreadth
thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom;
it could hold two thousand baths. 27 Then he made the ten stands of
bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and
its height three cubits. 28 This was the design of the stands: they
had borders, even borders between the frames, 29 and on the borders
which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the
frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were
wreaths of hanging work. 30 Now each stand had four bronze
wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were
cast supports with wreaths at each side. 31 Its opening inside
the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like
the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there
were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. 32 The
four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were
on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. 33
The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a
chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all
cast. 34 Now there were four supports at the four corners of
each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. 35 On
the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on
the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. 36 He
engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and
palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around.” - The description of the building of the cast
metal sea at the temple site is discussed
7.1.
In 2 Chron. 4:1, the brazen altar that was in the inner court is
described, “1 Then he made a bronze altar, twenty cubits in
length and twenty cubits in width and ten cubits in height.” The brazen altar is where the people brought
their animals to be sacrificed to the Lord.
The altar was made of brass and was 30 feet square and 15 feet high. The height of the altar suggests that some
sort of staircase had been constructed for the priests to ascend up to the
altar to make the sacrifices. The
priests kept the fire going in the brazen altar.
7.2.
The brazen altar was much bigger than the corresponding altar in the
tabernacle for it would need to handle the sacrifices for an ever growing
number of Israelites from then on.
7.3.
The molten sea replaced the laver that had been in the tabernacle as it
was used for washing. The molten sea was
much bigger than the laver and was 15 feet across and 7 ½ feet high. It could hold over 17,000 gallons of
water. The sea was built upon the backs
of 12 cast statutes of oxen, in groups of 3, with each of the four groups
pointing in a different direction. There
may have been a spigot on the bottom of the molten sea for taking out small
amounts of water and washing hands and feet as was required by priests before
making sacrifices.
7.4.
When the molten sea was completely full of water it would weight almost
71 tons, since water weights 8.345404 lbs per gallon.
7.5.
The molten sea stood on the backs of 12 oxen, three facing in each of
the four directions, north, south, east, and west. Someone once commented that perhaps that
since Aaron had cast a golden calf for the people to worship at one point that
now the golden sea was situated on top of 12 oxen to demonstrate the fact that
the oxen were no more that menial beasts of burden and their load was nothing
but the very water used to wash away impurities.
7.6.
2 Chron. 4:6 tells us that the priests washed in the water of the
molten sea.
8.VS 7:37-39 - “37 He made the ten
stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form. 38
He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was
four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin. 39
Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on
the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the
right side of the house eastward toward the south.” - The construction of 10 basins with stands is
described
8.1.
There is multiplication in the temple over what the tabernacle
provided. We have already seen that the
size of the temple proper was twice the size of the tabernacle, however here we
see that there was a huge molten sea and 10 basins for washing in the temple verses
just a laver in the tabernacle. We will
see in a minute that inside of the temple that the one Menora (7 candlestick
candle) use to light the tabernacle was replaced with 10 lamps. We see multiplication again…
8.2.
There were also 10 stands for the 10 lavers in the inner court that
were used for washing. The basins of the
lavers were 6 feet square and 4 ½ feet high, holding about 230 gallons of water
each. The stands were on wheels and were
moved all over the inner court as needed in order to provide proper
washing. Remember, the animals were
required to be washed before being sacrificed.
The wheels on the basins allowed them to be wheeled all around as
needed, and the dirty water to be cleaned out.
8.3.
The real issue of what stands in between God and men is the uncleanness
of men due to their being stained by sin.
We as God’s people have been brought near to the Lord because of the
perfect sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, and His blood having washed us
clean. However, when we allow sin to
enter into our lives we again are found to be unclean and need the blood of
Christ to freshly be applied to our hearts.
This is why we must always be in the habit of applying 1 John 1:9 to our
lives, “9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Remember, the confession mentioned here is a
Greek word that implies repentance from our sins, and this repentance on our
part is necessary to appropriate Christ’s work on our behalf and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
8.4.
Eph. 5:26 also mentions the washing that occurs through the word of God
in our lives. God’s word is used by the
Lord to bring conviction of sin and thus we are made aware of our need to apply
1 John 1:9 to our lives by confessing and repenting of our sins. It is so important for us to be in the word
on a daily basis so that we can continually be experiencing this washing from
our sins and thus experience all of the great blessings of being “right” with
the Lord.
9.VS 7:40-46 - “ 40 Now Hiram made the basins
and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he
performed for King Solomon in the house of the Lord: 41 the two pillars and the two bowls
of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two
networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of
the pillars; 42 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two
networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of
the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars; 43 and
the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands; 44 and the one sea
and the twelve oxen under the sea; 45 and the pails and the shovels
and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the
house of the Lord were of
polished bronze. 46 In the
plain of the
9.1.
The casting used for making of the various temple artifacts was done ‘in
the plain of the
9.2.
Hiram built several types of utensils for the temple in addition to the
2 large pillars.
10.VS 7:47-51 - “47 Solomon left all
the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of
the bronze could not be ascertained. 48 Solomon made all the
furniture which was in the house of the Lord:
the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the
Presence; 49 and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on
the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and
the lamps and the tongs, of gold; 50 and the cups and the snuffers
and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges
both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the
doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. 51 Thus
all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought
in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the
utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.” -
Utensils, furniture, and lampstands are described
10.1.
Whereas the
10.1.1.
We as God’s people need to walk as children of the light doing good
deeds of the same kind as our heavenly Father does, He who dwells in
unapproachable light.
10.2.
With all that was plated of gold in the temple, it is hard to believe
but there was actually more silver and gold and utensils that were made by King
David than could fit in the tabernacle, therefore Solomon put the excess of
everything in the ‘treasuries of the house of the Lord.’
11.CONCLUSIONS:
11.1.
As we consider the great splendor of the structures that Solomon built
for the Lord and his personal use, it is so important for us to realize that
today none of those structures is standing, including the temple. Within a few hundred years of building the temple
the people of