Solomon's Temple! It took only 7 years to build the magnificent Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and 13 years to build Solomon's palace. Even to this day, they are considered some of the most amazing structures to have ever been built. While both of them were destroyed by the Persians and Babylonians and stripped of their gold many years later, by its description within the biblical text and from the testimony we have of other kings and the Queen of Sheba, it surpassed the beauty of most structures in Solomon's day. Here you have the most intelligent man in the world building a Temple to the honor and glory of the God of Israel. He spared no expense! It definitely had a "Wow!" factor!
Another "Wow" factor was at the dedication ceremony of the Temple! It says in 2 Chronicles 7:1-6, "When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever." Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts, the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORDfor his steadfast love endures for everwhenever David offered praises by their ministry, opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Israel stood."
One of the major features that set apart the Solomonic Temple from other Temples in the ancient world is that there was no idol in it. It contained only the Mercy Seat over the Ark and the Cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat. This declared to the world that idols are unnecessary for God to be present. The God of Israel was not localized in any sense. Neither was He bound to any other form such as the Ark. The Temple therefore was not necessary because of God's nature. He did not need it. One thousand years later, the first Christian martyr, Stephen, said to an unruly crowd:
...Solomon built God a house. However the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord or what is the place of My rest? Has not My hand made all these things?" (Acts 7:47-50, quoting Isaiah 66:1-2).
The Temple was built to meet the limitations and needs of God's people. It emphasized the way of salvation to the those who asked His forgiveness and represented the believers assurance of the grace of God for their joy and blessing. (1 Kings 8:27-30).
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!" (V. 27)
The Temple also symbolized the hearing ear of God:
Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day toward the place of which You said, "My name shall be there," and that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. (1 Kings 8:28-29).
It was also a place of refuge for the stranger:
Moreover concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name's sake. (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by your name (1 Kings 8: 4143).
The Temple is the house of prayer for all people where all nations of the earth should fear God:
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My House of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7).
Solomon's great wisdom and the unrivaled splendor of the First Temple brought pilgrims from near and far. The account of the visit of the Queen of Sheba (2 Chron. 9, 1 Kings 10) tells us something about this great king and the magnificent and holy light from God that blessed him and all the people.
Yet Solomon failed to heed the counsel of God and of his father David. He soon had accumulated horses and chariots (disregarding the admonition of Samuel and the Law of Moses), and in the course of time he excelled his father's love of women by accumulating "700 wives and 300 concubines." One of the great understatements of the Bible attributes Solomon's downfall to the influence of his foreign wives (which we'll read about tomorrow!):
For many years Solomon evidently wandered away from fellowship with His God, returning only much later, near the end of the life, to record for us in his book, Ecclesiastes, what he had learned about the emptiness of all of life apart from God.Now King Solomon loved many foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods; Solomon clung to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods- and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:1-13)
When Solomon died his son Rehoboam became king of Israel. The nation, however, was on a spiritual decline. Rehoboam's policies caused the kingdom to be divided into north (Israel) and south (Judah) separate regimes.
I hope this has been helpful! God bless!
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