2 Chronicles 1-4: Building the Temple

We read 2 Chronicles 1–4, from Solomon’s request for wisdom to the craftsmanship of the temple, and reflect on why God’s detailed patterns still shape how we build bodies, marriages, and daily habits. The details point to heaven’s pattern and call us to excellence where it matters most.

• Solomon asks for wisdom to lead Israel
• God grants wisdom with wealth and honor
• Strategic trade and resources for the build
• Alliance with Hiram and master craftsmanship
• Temple foundations, goldwork, and holy spaces
• The sea, lampstands, tables, and bronze work
• Hebrews 8:5 and the heavenly pattern
• Other patterns this side of eternity
• A call to build with excellence and intent

Chapters

• 0:34 Solomon Ascends And Asks For Wisdom
• 2:20 Wealth, Power, And The Temple Plan
• 4:15 Alliance With Tyre And Skilled Craftsmanship
• 7:02 Foundations, Goldwork, And Holy Space
• 9:48 The Sea, Furnishings, And Bronze Work
• 12:33 Why The Details Matter: A Heavenly Pattern
• 14:03 From Temple To Today: Bodies, Marriage, Excellence

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. Last episode we wrapped up the book of First Chronicles with King David passing along his commission and his blessing and his resources and his plans and blueprints, everything to his son Solomon to begin the work of building a temple to the Lord. And now we're starting 1 Chronicles, and it picks up right where we left off. So really no more context necessary than that. Let's keep it going with 2 Chronicles, and we're going to be reading chapters 1 through 4, kind of short chapters here, in the New English Translation. Solomon, son of David, solidified his royal authority, for the Lord his God was with him and magnified him greatly. Solomon addressed all Israel, including those who commanded units of a thousand and a hundred, the judges and all the leaders of all Israel who were heads of families. Solomon and the entire assembly went to the worship center in Gibeon, for the tent where they met God was located there, which Moses the Lord's servant had made in the wilderness. Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiragirim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, was in front of the Lord's tabernacle. Solomon and the entire assembly prayed to him there. Now Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the meeting tent, and he offered up one thousand burnt sacrifices. And that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Tell me what I should give you. Solomon replied to God, You demonstrated great loyalty to my father David and have made me king in his place. Now, Lord God, may your promise to my father David be realized, for you've made me king over a great nation as numerous as the dust of the earth. Now give me wisdom and discernment so I can effectively lead this nation. Otherwise no one's able to make judicial decisions for this great nation of yours. God said to Solomon, Hm, well, because you desire this, and didn't ask for riches, wealth, or honor, or for vengeance on your enemies, and because you did not ask for long life, but requested wisdom and discernment so you could make judicial decisions for my people over whom I've made you king, you are granted wisdom and discernment. Furthermore, I'm giving you riches, wealth, and honor surpassing that of any king before or after you. Solomon left the meeting tent at the worship center in Gibeon and went to Jerusalem, where he reigned over Israel. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses. He had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. The king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones. Cedar was as plentiful as sycamore trees are in the foothills. Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt and from Kew, the king's traders purchased them from Kew. They paid six hundred silver pieces for each chariot from Egypt, and a hundred and fifty silver pieces for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria. Solomon ordered a temple to be built to honor the Lord, as well as a royal palace for himself. Solomon had seventy thousand common laborers and eighty thousand stone cutters in the hills, in addition to thirty-six hundred supervisors. Solomon sent a message to King Hurim of Tyre. Help me as you did, my father David, when you sent him cedar logs for the construction of his palace. Look, I'm ready to build a temple to honor the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him in order to burn fragrant incense before him, to set out the bread that's regularly displayed, and to offer burnt sacrifices each morning and evening, and on Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and other times appointed by the Lord our God. This is something Israel must do on a permanent basis. I'll build a great temple, for our God is greater than all gods. Of course, who can really build a temple for him since the sky and the highest heavens can't contain him? Who am I that I should build him a temple? It will really only be a place to offer sacrifices before him. Now, send me a man who is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as purple, crimson, and blue colored fabrics, and who knows how to engrave. He'll work with my skilled craftsmen here in Jerusalem and Judah, whom my father provided. Send me cedars, evergreens, and algum trees from Lebanon, for I know your servants are adept at cutting down trees in Lebanon. My servants will work with your servants to supply me with large quantities of timber, for I am building a great, magnificent temple. Look, I will pay your servants who cut the timber twenty thousand cores of ground wheat, twenty thousand cores of barley, hundred and twenty thousand gallons of wine, and one hundred and twenty gallons of olive oil. King Hiram of Tyre sent this letter to Solomon. Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king. Hiram also said, Worthy of praise is the Lord God of Israel, who made the sky and the earth. He's given King David a wise son who has discernment and insight, and will build a temple for the Lord as well as a royal palace for himself. Now I'm sending you Hiram Abi, a skilled and capable man whose mother is a Danite, and whose father is a Tyrion. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stones, and wood, as well as purple, blue, white, and crimson fabrics. He knows how to do all kinds of engraving and understands any design given to him. He'll work with your skilled craftsmen and the skilled craftsmen of my lord David, your father. Now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he's promised. We'll get all the timber you need from Lebanon, and bring it in raft like bundles by sea to Joppa. You can then haul it on up to Jerusalem. Solomon took a census of all the male resident foreigners in the land of Israel after the census his father David had taken. There were one hundred and fifty three thousand six hundred in all. He designated seventy thousand as common laborers, eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills, and thirty six hundred as supervisors to make sure the people completed the work. Solomon began building the Lord's temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David prepared at the threshing floor of Orn in the Jebusite. He began building on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign. Solomon laid the foundation for God's temple. Its length, determined according to the old standard of measure, was ninety feet and its width thirty feet. The porch in front of the main hall was thirty feet long, corresponding to the width of the temple, and its height was thirty feet. He plaited the inside with pure gold. He paneled the main hall with boards made from evergreen trees and plated it with fine gold, decorated with palm trees and chains. He decorated the temple with precious stones. The gold he used came from Parvame. He overlaid the temple's rafters, thresholds, walls, and doors with gold. He carved decorative cherubim on the walls. He made the most holy place. Its length was thirty feet, corresponding to the width of the temple, and its width thirty feet. He plated it with six hundred talents of fine gold. The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also plated the upper areas with gold. In the most holy place he made two images of cherubim and plated them with gold. The combined wingspan of the cherubim was thirty feet. One of the first cherubim's wings was seven and a half feet long and touched one wall of the temple. Its other wing was also seven and a half feet long and touched one of the second cherub's wings. Likewise, one of the second cherub's wings was seven and a half feet long and touched the other wall of the temple, and its other wing was also seven and a half feet long and touched one of the first cherub's wings. The combined wingspan of these cherubim was thirty feet. They stood upright, facing inward. And he made the curtain out of blue, purple, crimson, and white fabrics, and embroidered on it decorative cherubim. In front of the temple he made two pillars which had combined length of fifty-two and a half feet, with each having a plated capital seven and a half high. He made ornamental chains and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments and arranged them within the chains. He set up pillars in front of the temple, one on the right side and the other on the left. He named the one on the right Yaquin and the one on the left Boaz. By the way, my little study notes say that Yaquin means he establishes, and Boaz likely means in strength or by strength. And so of course they read from right to left, so it would have read Yakin Boaz, he establishes in strength. Interesting. Chapter 4. He made a bronze altar, 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high. He also made the big bronze basin called the sea. It measured 15 feet from rim to rim, was circular in shape, and stood seven and a half feet high. Its circumference was forty-five feet. Images of bulls were under it all the way around, ten every eighteen inches all the way around. The bulls were in two rows and had been cast with the sea. The sea stood on top of twelve bulls. Three faced northward, three westward, three southward, three eastward, and the sea was placed on top of them and they all faced outward. It was four fingers thick, and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold eighteen thousand gallons. He made ten washing basins, he put five on the south side and five on the north side. In them they rinsed the items used for burnt sacrifices. The priests washed in the sea. He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications and put them in the temple, five on the right, five on the left. He made ten tables and set them up in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made one hundred gold bowls. He made the courtyard of the priests and the large enclosure and its doors. He plated their doors with bronze. He put the sea on the south side in the southeast corner. Hiram Abby made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work on God's temple he had been assigned by King Solomon. He made the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped tops of the pillars, the lattice work for the bowl-shaped tops of the two pillars, the four hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments for the lattice work of the two pillars, each lattice work had two rows of these ornaments at the bowl-shaped top of the pillar, the ten movable stands with their ten basins, the big bronze basin called the sea with its twelve bowls underneath, and the pots, shovels, and meat forks, all the items King Solomon assigned Hiram Abby to make for the Lord's temple were made from polished bronze. The king had them cast in earth foundries in the region of the Jordan between Suckoth and Zarathon. Solomon made so many of these items they didn't weigh the bronze. Solomon also made these items for God's temple, the gold altar, the tables on which the bread of the presence was kept, the pure gold lamp stands and their lamps which burned as specified at the entrance to the inner sanctuary, the pure gold flower-shaped ornaments, lamps and tongs, the pure gold trimming shears, basins, pans, and sensors, and the gold door sockets for the inner sanctuary, the most holy place, and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. I understand some of those sections of that reading can feel a little bit repetitive or just a lot of details that are like, well, what are we supposed to do with all these details? And if you're with me when we're reading through the book of Leviticus, when they were receiving the plans and carrying out the plans to build the tabernacle in the first place, it sounded very similar. But while it's easy to kind of get lost in all of the details and measurements and quantities and weights of things, we need to remember why this is being done. And I think I've mentioned it before, I want to mention it again. Hebrews 8 5. The author is talking about the priests and the priestly duties, and he says, They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. They're saying the tabernacle, the temples, these are copies of what's in heaven. He goes on to say in verse 5, this is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle, see to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. This is not God being specific and detail oriented just for the sake of can you pay attention to directions and follow directions. It's not like God is like some diva rock star that's saying, I want all of my setup to be exactly these specifications, and if you don't, then I'm not gonna perform. It's not like that. God takes the building of his tabernacle and his temple so seriously because he's like, I'm giving you these blueprints because this is what I have here in heaven, and you can't see it, and you're not gonna be able to replicate it with your earthly materials and your earthly abilities. I understand that, but it's so important to me because I want you to be able to, frankly, when you come home, you're gonna feel at home because this is what I live in and operate in all the time. And I want to share that with you so that you can live in and operate in the same sort of environment that I'm in until we get to be together again one day. Now, the temple is just one aspect of this where God gives a model that reflects something in heaven. Another one is marriage. God designed marriage to be this shadow of this model of how Christ has a relationship with the church. Another model is your very body. God says you are a temple of the living God. We don't have a temple like Solomon built that we go worship and sacrifice in. We are the temple. Our body is the temple that we worship in and sacrifice in. With all of these models in mind, I hope we recognize Solomon's dedication to excellence is highly important because the excellence with which he went about building this and maintaining it and setting its systems in place reflected how much he valued this model that God gave to be able to reflect something of God. You may not be building a temple, but your body is the temple. Your marriage is supposed to be this model of what God's relationship is with us. Are you devoted to building it with excellence and beauty and precision and detail? Or are you believing Satan's lie that eh it is what it is? That's a thinking out loud thought for the day.