1 Kings 5–9: The Temple & Its Dedication

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 23: Tuesday

“But will God truly dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built!”

1 Kings 8:27 LSB

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Monday’s Bible reading in Exodus finished the building of the tabernacle and its dedication. Tuesday’s Bible reading, 1 Kings 5–9, records the building and dedication of the temple in Jerusalem by Solomon almost 500 years later.

The description of the materials and building of the temple are incredible. The skill involved was the highest craftmanship. With tens of thousands of laborers and craftsmen working on it, it took seven years to build.

Alan Millard describes what a priest would see in the Holy Place and the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies:

“Apparently the porch has no doors; gates may have closed the passage, bt he would have faced a pair of folding doors at the entrance to the ‘holy place’. These were made of cypress wood, carved with flowers, palm-tress, and cherubim, and plated all over with gold, as was all the wood-work. In this room he would see the golden incense altar, the table for the sacred bread, and five pairs of lampstands. Additional light came from a row of windows high in the wall. Beneath his feet was a golden floor. And if he could see into the ‘holiest place’ the whole room would have shone a dim gold in the light admitted through the doorway.”¹

The sight would have been awesome in the truest sense of the word. The beauty and splendor honored God, however, God said this to Solomon regarding a heart, not simply a gilded building, that honored Him.

And the word of Yahweh came to Solomon saying, “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and do My judgments and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will establish My word with you which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”

1 Kings 6:11–13 LSB

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In 1 Kings 8 the furnishing of the temple are brought in. Even as when the glory of Yahweh covered the tabernacle when it was completed so that Moses could not enter it, the glory of Yahweh filled His house so that the priests could not enter.

Now it happened that when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.

1 Kings 8:10–11 LSB

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Then Solomon speaks to the people, and then turns to the altar to prayer to God.

“But will God truly dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of Your slave and to his supplication, O Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your slave prays before You today; that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your slave shall pray toward this place. And listen to the supplication of Your slave and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; listen in heaven Your dwelling place; listen and forgive.”

1 Kings 8:27–30 LSB

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As you read his prayer, you’ll find, “Solomon’s prayer, for the royal house (23-26) and for the nation (27-53) echoes the language of Moses [cf. Deuteronomy 30, etc.].”²

Chapter 9 contains God’s warning to Solomon of what will happen to Israel if they forsake Him. The book of Jeremiah provides a contrast to this chapter. Here they are worship at the temple. In Jeremiah’s day, Derek Kidner commented, they used “the temple as a ‘safe house’ against not just the enemy, but the Lord.”³ Last Friday in the closing chapters of Jeremiah, we read of that judgment coming to pass in the destruction of the temple (compare the painting in that post with the one here).

This broad view of history can give us a better understanding of who God is—He is God—and teach us reverence and awe of Him.

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Architectural model of the temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem, 1883: After a design by Thomas Newberry, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain. Click the image to enlarge. Here is a video close-up.
Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem: James Tissot. Public Domain.
¹Alan Millard, “The Temples,” Eerdmans’ Handbook of the Bible, David Alexander, Pat Alexander, eds.; David Field, Donald Guthrie, Gerald Hughes, Alan Millard, I. Howard Marshall, consulting eds. (Lion Publishing, Tring, Hertfordshire, England; Guideposts ed. by special arrangement with Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: 1973) 254.
²“The Historical Books,” Eerdmans’ Handbook of the Bible, David Alexander, Pat Alexander, eds.; David Field, Donald Guthrie, Gerald Hughes, Alan Millard, I. Howard Marshall, consulting eds. (Lion Publishing, Tring, Hertfordshire, England; Guideposts ed. by special arrangement with Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: 1973) 257.
³Derek Kidner, The Message of Jeremiah: Against wind and tide (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1987) 49.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.