Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ Week 38: Tuesday
Then Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying,
“As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build him a house to dwell in, so do for me. Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, dedicating it to Him, to burn fragrant incense before Him and to set out the showbread continually, and to offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of the LORD our God, this being required forever in Israel The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?”
2 Chronicles 2:3–6
In Tuesday’s Bible reading of 2 Chronicles 1–5, Solomon is now king. Chapter 1 records the beginning of his reign, and chapters 2–5 describe the building of the Temple (cf. 1 Kings 5–8). Notice the significant location of the site (cf. 1 Chronicles 20–24: A Threshing Floor & the Temple).
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
2 Chronicles 3:1
In chapter 5, the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Temple. The book finishes with the anointing of Solomon as king and the death of David. H. L. Ellison writes:
“11b–13a are an addition by Chronicles [cf. 1 Kings 8:1–11] stressing the pomp of the occasion; obviously all available priests and Levites were on duty, not merely the weekly course (cf. 1 Ch. 24). The blowing of the trumpets was specifically a priestly duty (Nu. 10:8).”1
This would have been incredible event to witness:
“When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to divisions), and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”
2 Chronicles 5:11–14
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1H. L. Ellison, “1 and 2 Chronicles,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., p. 385.
Original content: Copyright ©2011 Iwana Carpenter
Kindling for Candles 
This is a direct reference to the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, when 120 gathered together to receive the Spirit of the Lord ten days after His ascension to heaven. Pretty much the exact same thing happened in the upper room. The Lord filled it with His glory. There was a big difference, though. It was not the Temple where it occurred, since it had become under the strong influence of the Sadducean party and mammon. The humble upper room is believed by reputable scholars to be the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, who wrote the gospel carrying his name as dictated to by Peter the apostle. The home was in the Essene quarter southwest of the Temple Mount. Our Lord Jesus started His worldwide community in a house.