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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today we briefly interrupt temple details to zoom in on Solomon's personal house, dividing the temple description in half. This is probably an intentional move by the author to illustrate a sad point. Solomon has a divided heart. There was also a hint toward this in yesterday's reading, when the Canaanite laborers worked in shifts, where they spent one month working on the temple, followed by two months working on his house. And according to today's descriptions, his house is much larger. Granted, houses that hold physical people have to be larger than ones that house God's spirit and a few small pieces of furniture. So it's reasonable that it might take longer and be larger. But this interruption of the narrative is. Is probably there to tell us about what's happening in Solomon's heart. He uses a lot of the same resources for his house. And he doesn't just build a house. He builds a whole palace complex. And it's majestic. He has his own palace, his wife's palace, a throne hall, and the hall of Pillars. While his father David had humble roots as a shepherd, Solomon was bougie, maybe a little too bougie, like the bougiest. And it becomes a problem for him. We'll read more about that in the future. Next, we jump back into the descriptions of the temple furniture. You can see how they've come a long way from the tabernacle. This temple is gorgeous. Solomon hires the most skilled craftsmen, and for the bronze items, he uses an artist named Hyram. Not to be confused with King Hyrum of Tyre, where he got the cedar trees. Hyram doesn't just have skill, he has wisdom and understanding, too. And you may recall from our lengthy tabernacle descriptions that God empowered bezalel in Exodus 31. Along those same lines, it says, I have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship. When you have a task as important as this, it's vital to choose not only the person with talent, but with wisdom and understanding. For a role related to the temple, character and integrity seem to be even more important than skill. 1 Kings 7:48 is kind of confusing because it says Solomon made all the vessels, but it's more likely that he just commissioned the making of them. As far as we know, he wasn't a goldsmith. He was probably more into things like binge watching Jeopardy and feeling smarter than all the contestants. Solomon also commissions all the work that has to be done around the temple as a part of the temple complex that includes the bronze basin, which holds somewhere between 12,000 and 18,000 gallons. That's about as much as the average swimming pool, but this is like an above ground pool suspended on the backs of 12 bronze oxen. I know it sounds lovely, but I doubt you'd get that approved by your HOA. Solomon also makes 10 lampstands or menorahs, even though God only asked for one. There are so many other details and extravagant decorations. In fact, in the 1980s someone discovered what was believed to be one of the pomegranates mentioned in 2 Chronicles 4:13 and the Israel Museum, which is like the Smithsonian, bought it for over half a million dollars. It was the size of a thumb. In case you want to see what the temple might have looked like, we've linked to a short video demonstration in the show notes. It's about five minutes long and it's really helpful. Granted the images of the cherubim leave a lot to be desired and even the video's creator himself admits to that. But I didn't have time to make my own computerized rendering of the first temple, so this will have to suffice. And if you want to see a real approximation of what this might have looked like, we'll also link to a separate short video just to give you a visual. This video shows an entirely different temple from this time period, but it's made of some of the same materials. It was a pagan temple in Syria, 500 miles north of Jerusalem, and it was just discovered in 1955. It was the most well preserved temple from that time period, but then it was destroyed by airstrikes during the Syrian Civil War in 2018. Based on how closely it resembles the Bible's blueprint for Solomon's temple, lots of historians think either this temple's design influenced Solomon or Solomon's design influenced this one. What was your God shot today? This was a tough day for finding God, wasn't it? Here's where I saw him. 1 Kings 7:21 describes the two exterior pillars of the temple which faces east. It says he set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jakin, and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz. The name Jakin means he will establish, and the name Boaz means in strength. He will establish in strength at the place where you would have entered God's house, where you draw near to his presence. As you pass through the columns holding it up, you would have been reminded that God initiated all of this. And that he is sustaining it. And what he initiates will not only be sustained, it will be fulfilled because he's doing it in strength. I don't want to spoil this beautiful new temple for you, but I'm going to. It gets destroyed, but do you know what doesn't get destroyed? God's presence with his people. That temple was always meant to be a temporary house for Him. He doesn't dwell in buildings anymore. He dwells in his people. And did you know that he marks us with the very same promise? Philippians 1:6 says it this way. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. He will establish in strength, established in strength, established in him, kept secure until the day of Christ Jesus. He's where the joy is. Uh oh, did your podcast not load today? Of course not. You're listening to it right now. But if that ever happens, here are some things you should try. Just remember the three R's. Refresh, Reopen, Restart. First, just try refreshing the page. Your podcast platform may just need a reminder that new content is available. If that doesn't work, try completely closing and reopening the app. Finally, you may need to restart your phone. Hey, sometimes we all just need a reboot. If those three things don't work, try finding us on Podbean or YouTube. You can always find their episodes there.