Good evening. We are in first Kings chapter seven<inaudible>. Let’s begin with a word of prayer. Our merciful father in heaven, we bow before you. Grateful for this day for the life that we have and the joy that we have,
the recognition that we have, that you exist and that you were creation has been placed here. Now we might be a part of it, but we might bring honor and glory to you. We know that you are worthy to be praised and we are so grateful that that you have revealed yourself in your word, that it’s proven itself to be true over and over and over again.
We pray that you will be with those who are dealing with illnesses, difficulties, sicknesses. We pray that they might be returned to their health, pray that those who are dealing with the loss of loved ones might be comforted. We pray for those who were waiting on diagnosis and and different issues to be discovered and understood that they might have some comfort as well.
We pray for missionaries that are abroad, that they might be safe in their travels safe in their labors, but most especially that they’d be bold in their speech and sound in the faith. We pray for boldness here at home as well and we pray that we might always focus on serving you above self. All this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We began on Sunday noticing the constructing of the temple and the elements of the temple that were used in that construction.
So we have Solomon who’s on the throne. He begins building the temple in what year of his reign? Third year it takes the first year to do what? To lay the foundation. Uh, it’s going to be interesting that Solomon will, will take a year to lay the foundation. And yet we will find, we will find, if I can get my words out,
uh, over in the book of Haggai guy that the, when the children of Israel return from Babylonian captivity, they again returned to build the temple and it takes them a lot longer to lay the foundation on it. Does anybody remember how long it took them? Does it state it? And it’s either in hat guy or it’s in a, in Ezra,
but I think it’s in hat guy. So in the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet to his rebel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest saying, thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying this,
people says the time has not come. The time that the Lord’s house should be built. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet saying, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. So they are in the second year of the righteous in uh,
the sixth month at that point. And then they begin to build. They, they actually, the book of hat guys, one of those unique prophets in the old Testament, he was one of them. They actually listened to that. That was actually pretty rare, the old Testament where they actually would listen to the prophet of the Lord. Um, that had something to do with the leadership they had.
But if you go back and look, my memory serves me correctly from the time they initially went to Israel to build the temple, they went Israel, they ran into issues. And, and you’ll, if I’m, if I’m incorrect about this, I’m sure one of you’s going to find it and, and prove me incorrect. But it took them 16 years to actually lay the foundation for the temple.
Not because they were building the entire time, but because they got started, they got stopped and they never finished until 16 years later, which is by the way, why when Nehemiah comes and, and uh, or am I getting that right when Nehemiah comes and gets the work going again when Haggai is there as well. So, uh, Solomon taking a year to do it,
it’s not a big, big surprise, but also recognize this. You remember that? Uh, I think it is again in Nehemiah that we read about when the people who had seen the first temple who were alive at that time to see the first temple and saw it saw, saw the second temple foundation be laid, they knew there was going to be no comparison.
We’re going to let till we’re wait until all of the Amber alerts get finished going off here. Yeah. It’s an Amber alert. So When they saw the foundation late, those who were old enough to have remembered the, the temple of Solomon, they wept because of there was no comparison, uh, between what they knew they would build and what Solomon had built.
So we begin in chapter seven and verse one, but Solomon took 13 years to build his own house. Now how many years did he take to build the temple? It took seven years to build it and another year to lay the foundation. So a total of eight. It was finished in the 11th year of his reign, but Solomon took 13 years to build his own house.
So he finished all his house. He also built the house of the forest of Lebanon. His length was 100 cubits, it’s width, 50 cubits and its height. 30 cubits with four rows of Cedar pillars and Cedar beams on the pillars. And it was paneled with Cedar above the beams that were on 40, uh, excuse me, 45 pillars, 15 to a row.
There were windows with beveled frames in three rows and window. Uh, And the window was opposite window in three tiers and all the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames and the window was opposite window in three tiers. He also made the hall of pillars. Its length was 50 cubits, its width, 30 cubits and the front of them was a Portico with pillars and a canopy was in front of them.
Then he made a hall for the throne and the hall of judgment where he might judge and it was paneled with Cedar from floor to ceiling. And the house where he dwelled had another court inside the hall of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had taken as wife. So here in the beginning of chapter seven we have an iteration of different building events that Solomon goes through.
He, he builds the temple and then he builds his house and then he builds this structure and that structure. And finally we read, he also built a house for who? For Pharaoh’s daughter. Why is Pharaoh’s daughter in the land? Because that’s his wife. Um, I don’t know if any of y’all have ever done something special for your wife, but uh,
Solomon did, he built her a house that wasn’t his house. I mean he spent 13 years building his house. Now, I don’t know. This may be one of those situations, you know, they say there are some spouses that can stay married until they build a house together and that experience is so disruptive in a marriage that maybe that’s, you know,
who knows. Maybe when she was, he was done with that project, she said, all right, and now you’re building mine because I didn’t like what you did with you know, the other one, who knows. Um, but he’s going to build this house for her. One of the things that you’re actually going to see this leading into in Solomon is going to,
as he marries more wives and as those wives bring his heart away from God, he is going to begin to build places, high places for their idols. And this is just the beginning of the departure from God. But then notice all these were of costly stone cut to size. Trim was saw, trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves and also on the outside to the great court.
These were expressions of prosperity. These weren’t, you take the stones that you find in the quarry and you’ve used them the best that you can and you make the best structure that she can get by with cause it’s all you got. These were expert craftsman ship hewn out stones. Uh, now I don’t know what kind of saws we’re talking about since these are saws being used to cut stone,
but we’re dealing with people who knew what they were doing and they made these structures and they did so in an extravagant way. The foundation was of costly stones, large stones, some 10 cubits and some eight cubits. Somebody give me a rough idea of how large a cubit was. 18 to 21 inches on average, 18 inches times 10. How large is this stone?<inaudible> 18 feet in length.
Some, you know, just 16. These are massive. These are no small things. So then notice And above were costly stones hewn to size. And Cedar wood at the great court was enclosed with three rows of human stones and a row of Cedar beams. So we’re the inner court of the house of the Lord and the vestibule of the temple. Now King Solomon sent and brought who Ram from tire.
Now I think there’s a difference in the King James version and the new King James here that in the spelling of the name, um, I believe the King James says, Hiram, H I R a M and R questions. Since I come from the King James version, they also state Hiram. The new King James is spelled it H. U. R.
A. M. A. So, uh, verse 13 now King Solomon sent and brought who room from tire. He was the son of a widow from the tribe of NAFTA lie. And his father was a man of tire of bronze worker. He was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work.
Solomon looks for someone to do the inner workings of the temple, the bronze work. This is a specialized skill, quite obviously, especially as we begin reading through it. You’re going to see that this person’s no ordinary bronze worker. Uh, this man is, is truly skilled at, at this work as an art. Um, and so he’s going to bring this individual,
but this individual is half what? Half Jew? Half Gentile. He’s, he’s from the tribe of, uh, from what tribe? NAFTA lie, but his father is from what location? Tire. So it was mother’s from NAFTA Lai, his father’s from tire, but tire. Remember as the, the nation, the city nation that uh, they had received help from the King in building in the Cedars for the temple and for all of these other things.
And so they’ve got a good relationship with this nation. And so here’s this individual. He’s half Jew and he comes to do this work for Solomon. So we’re going to begin reading about the bronze work that was done, uh, in the temple and in other places. He was the son of a, um, I already read that verse. Verse 15,
he cast two pillars of bronze, each one 18 cubits high and a line of 12 cubits measured the circumference of each. These aren’t small things are they? That they had these massive pillars that were made. Uh, he then he made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the top of the pillars. The height of the one Capitol was five cubits.
The height of the other capital was five cubits. He made a lattice work with Reese of chain work for the capitals were on top of the pillars, seven chains for one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars in two rows of pomegranates above the network, all around to cover the capitals that were on top and thus he did for all he does,
he did for the other capital, the capitals that were on top of the pillars in the hall. We’re in the shape of Lilly’s four cubits. The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above by the convex surface, which was next to the network and there were 200 such pomegranates in rows on each of the capitals all around. Then he set up the pillars by the vestibule of the temple.
He set up the pillar on the right and called its name Joshin and set up the pillar on the left and called its name. Boaz, the tops of the pillars were in the shape of lilies, so the work of the pillars was finished and he made the sea of cast bronze, 10 cubits from one brim to the other. It was completely round.
Its height was five cubits and a line of 30 cubits measured its circumference. What’s, what’s this sea that we’re talking about? What was it used for? It was used for the priests. Okay. It was used for the ceremony, ceremonial cleansing of the priests as they were making the offerings as they were preparing to go up into the alter to make the offerings where they were preparing to go into the Holy place to make the offerings.
These were having to do with the procedures and the offerings and the consecrations of the priest. What is the, if you take the type apology of the tabernacle and the worship and the old Testament forward to the new Testament, what was the consecration of the priests? A type of, in the new Testament, what’s the anti type Baptism? If you put the type ology together between the old Testament,
the new Testament, you go forward to the book of Hebrews and you will find that the Holy place is representative of the church. You could not enter the church until you passed through the water. And so there was a typology there between the consecration of the priests and that also this, the idea of making one wholly, uh, consecrated, uh, between that and entering the temple or the tabernacle.
Yeah, you do the math on this. This is, um, this is no a small swimming pool. Uh, this is no kiddie pool out in the yard. This thing was massive. But what, what I enjoy reading about is what was underneath it. Cause this thing was, this was thing was raised up. This, this wasn’t ground level.
You didn’t just walk down into it. You had to go up into it. No. Notice what we read. Um, verse 24, uh, below its brim were ornamental buds in circling it all around 10 to a cubit all the way around the sea. The ornamental bloods were cast in two rows when it was cast. It stood on 12 oxen.
So the sea stood on 12 oxen, three looking toward the North three looking toward the West three looking toward the South three looking toward the East. The sea was set upon them and all their back parts pointed inward. So you’ll get the picture here. If you were looking at it, no matter which way you walked around it, there would have been three oxen facing out North,
South, East and West. Uh, Verse 26, it was a hand breadth thick and it’s brim was shaped like the brim of a cup like a Lily blossom. It contained 2000 BAS. Uh, that was their measurement there for the liquid. He also made 10 carts of bronze. Four cubits was the length of each cart, four cubits it’s with and three cubits,
its height. And this was the design of the car. They had panels and the panels were between frames on the panels that were between frames where lions, oxen, and cherubim. And on the frames was a pedestal. On top. Below the lions and oxygen were Reese of plated work. Every cart had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze. And it’s four feet had supports under the labor where casts or excuse me,
were supports of cast bronze beside each reef. It’s opening inside the crown at the top was one cubit in diameter and the opening was round shaped like a pedestal one and a half cubits in, uh, in outside diameter and also on the opening were engravings but the panels were square, not round under the panels were four wheels and the axles of the wheels were joined to the cart.
The height of a wheel was one and a half cubits. The word Winship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their actual pins, their rims, their spokes and their hubs were all cast bronze and there were four supports at the four corners of each cart. It supports were part of the card itself and on top of the cart at the height of half a cubit,
it was perfectly round. And on the top of the cart it’s flanges and its panels were of the same casting on the plates of its flanges and on its panels he engraved cherubim, lions and Palm trees. Whenever there was a clear space on each with Reese all around. Thus he made the 10 cards. All of them were of the same mold, one measure and one shape.
Then he made 10 lab labors of bronze. Each labor contained 40 bags and each labor was four cubits on each of the 10 cards was a labor and he put five carts on the right side of the house and five carts on the left side of the house. He set the C on the right side of the house towards the Southeast. Harum made the Lavers in the shovels and the bowls,
so Hyrum finished doing all the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of the Lord. The two pillars, the two bull shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars, the two networks covering the two bull shaped capitals, which were on top of the pillars, 400 pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bull shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars,
the 10 cards, the 10 labors on the carts, one C and 12 oxen under the sea, the pots, the shovels in the bowls, all these articles which hear him made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, where of burnished bronze and the plain of Jordan that King had them cast in clay molds between succuss and Zara. Zara tan and Solomon did not weigh all the articles because there was so many.
The weight of the bronze was not determined, so there’s so much bronze going in to these structures and into these things that they just said, yeah, we’re not going weigh it. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s too much. The best way. W, w it’s kind of like when they were gathering the corn in Egypt in the years of plenty.
And they started initially counting how much was coming in and they left off counting because they said, okay, uh, we’re done with this, this, this, there’s too much here. Uh, much the same thing here. Solomon did not weigh all the articles because there were so many, the way that the bronze was not determined, the Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of the Lord,
the alter of gold and the table of gold on which was the showbread, the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary with the flowers in the lamps and the WIC trimmers of gold, the basins, the tremors, the bowls, the Le ladles, and the censors of pure gold and the hinges of gold,
both for the doors of the inner room, the most Holy place, and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
So we’ve got a lot of detail here, got a lot of specifics. We’ve got a lot of interesting pieces that by the way are useful to help us get a picture in our minds of what this was, what it looked like all these centuries later. We can kind of maybe if not to perfection, but we can get an idea of the size and the scale and the massiveness of all of these things that were created and the detail,
the care and the concern. This wasn’t haphazard, this wasn’t sloppy, this, this was a immaculate work and they found someone who was excellent and skilled and knowledgeable and wise to do it, which by the way also hearkens back to the old Testament in the book of Exodus, that there were workers who were given that wisdom to be able to do those things.
But in all of this, in all of this, we can easily lose track of the thing that was important. And the point that God will make over and over and over again. It struck me as Eric was preaching about Jonah on Sunday. Somebody turn over and read Jonah chapter two, but getting about verse five through verse 10, uh, round verse five,
wherever it makes sense to start The is compass me about even to the soul, the depth close me roundabout. The weeds were wrapped about my head down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth parse was about me forever, brought up my life and corruption fainted within me, heard the Lord and my prayer came in unto me for blind vanities per I will pay that Joan is there and the fish.
Yeah, Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and to preach. It goes the other direction. It struck me as we were reading that on Sunday as Eric was presenting the lesson that Jonah says, his prayer Went up Into where the Holy temple of God. And do you think for one moment he thought and he was saying or he was describing that it went into this golden cased temple in Jerusalem.
No. Here we are in Jonah’s day and Jonah knows the truth, the truth that’s been stated time and time again in old and new Testament. God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. The temple and the tabernacle were to be a symbol of God’s presence with Israel. God’s statement that he would dwell with them, that he would be in their midst,
that he would be with them so long as they would be with him. And when you went to the tabernacle, when you went to the tent, when all Israel had brought it, had had, had gotten their inheritance, they had built their own houses, they had built their own barns. David has built Jerusalem. The walls were set around Jerusalem.
David’s living in a panel house. When you go to the tabernacle and it’s Justin Old tent, There’s nothing special about it. There’s nothing magnificent about it. There’s nothing praiseworthy about it except one thing. God’s presence was there. And when you went to the temple a few years later, when Israel’s gone and the parted from God and God’s presence is no longer in the temple,
there were many praise worthy things to say about the temple, but it was missing the one thing that mattered. God’s presence wasn’t there. When we look at the old Testament and when we see the lessons from the old Testament, we see this great work and we see this magnificent wisdom and we see this, this intricate effort and we see this grand vision of building something for God.
But we also see the, the person who had the grand vision of building something for God, eventually lost track on building something for God and started building something for himself. And when he got done building something for God, he went on and build more things for him self and the people who saw this great temple and worshiped in this great temple and saw these magnets,
magnificent things, saw this thing and praise gone and consecrated it to God and and had a desire for this to be the house of God And failed to appreciate that the house of God was the heart of men. Jesus said when he went into the temple, You have taken a house of prayer. You’ve turned it into a den of thieves, and yet Jesus said that this house was to be a house of prayer for all nations,
And yet you will see even that they will take the temple and they’ll section out, Oh, this is where the Gentiles can be. Gentiles can’t have any part in this place or this place or this place. They can’t come. No. Well, here’s the court for the women court, for the women’s out here, the court for the men’s in here court for the Gentiles out here court for the Jews in here.
They turned it into a place of separation. God intended his tabernacle to be a place of unity, a place where people came together to praise him and not themselves. We need to be careful that we don’t turn Valiant efforts at building something for God into magnificent expressions of our own grander because we’ve done it far too many times in the church. We need to learn the lessons from Solomon Of the things that he did right and all do.
We need to learn the lessons of the things he did wrong because we need to walk into the courts of God’s house with humility and with recognition of who he is. But I will say this, of all the things that you see in the temple, all the things that you see in the artwork of the temple and the creation of this structure, one of the things that you get that carries forward long after the temple is destroyed is the picture of this place in view of the eternal throne of God.
The throne of God and the presence of God in the prophets carries much of the imagery from the temple. When a Z keel sees the vision of the one who’s on the chariot of fire there in Ezekiel chapter one, and in other chapters, and you see the wheels and you see the BESE looking each direction. All a lot of these pieces of imagery come from the temple<inaudible>,
But God wants us to know there’s a spiritual, it’s significance that’s far greater than the physical one. And that’s true also, when you get into the book of revelation, let’s go through the questions. Question number one more time was used in building a Solomon’s house or be God’s house, a Solomon’s house. For whom did Solomon build a special house? Pharaoh’s daughter?
Yes or no? Were saws used during the time of Solomon? Yes, they were, uh, um, question for a man of tire skilled in working with bronze, who worked for Solomon in building the temple was a Ethan B, Hiram C Cal Cole or D Darda B Hiram or who? Ram in the new King James. Uh, number five,
not included among the ornaments of the temple, which Solomon build was a pomegranates be oxen, C roses or deed Wheels. See roses. Okay. Uh, number six, high remain utensils for God’s house out of blank. Brass. Bronze. Yeah. The furniture placed in the house of God was made of Gold. Yeah. What did Solomon do with the things his father had dedicated,
Put them among the treasuries of the house of the Lord. One last thing that I wanted to mention just in that particular verse, and that is this, Solomon had respect for The efforts and the labors and the things that had come before him, even though he was in a different position, even though he had much more wealth to work with and had a time of peace that his father didn’t have,
he did not diminish what his father Had done. He had respect for it and he treated it with respect and I think that’s worthy of note and something of value there. Okay. Comments or questions? Yep. Alright. Thank you for your attention. Good evening. Good to see everybody here this evening and Oh,
Good crowd tonight. We still have a few out. Once we got on our sick list or usual ones, pretty much Darth and Riverdale, Julia Case and Jones spraying are still at home and Joe, you got your medicine adjusted. Nope. Anyway, they might still be working on that. Beverly Price is having some blood pressure problems. Your son knew, I didn’t know what was wrong but here this week tonight,
his blood pressure problem. Eric Habersham is still at home recovering from the flu and thanks. He might go to work tomorrow, may O’Neil, he sent Diana to get his report and she comes home and says, and nothing wrong with him so he can’t get out of all those honey do’s he’d been putting off. It’s good to know there’s nothing wrong with him.
I don’t believe out of center down there myself.<inaudible> Janet Jones is at home. She’s having blood pressure problems also and Rebecca still got the either or flu, whatever. She got ladies Bible class will be tomorrow at 10:00 AM and over here in the classroom for rush mowers are still in Ghana. We need to remember. Aaron would like to meet with the man briefly after Bible study.<inaudible> Here at college,
going to lead singing here at Richardson. The Bushnell and Aaron cohort has a closing prayer.<inaudible><inaudible> Evening. Is it on? Yep. We are studying this quarter in Isaiah and we came across this passage a day. I thought it was very interesting. Isaiah chapter 42 Isaiah 42 starting in verse one talks about the servant of Loris is a prophecy of Christ.
In verse one it says, behold my servant who I am, uphold my elect one in whom I sold the lights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruise Reed, he will not break a smoke in flax.
He will not quit. He will bring forth the justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has this has established justice in the earth and the coast land shall wait for his law. There’s a lot of things we can learn about Christ in this passage. We don’t have time for tonight to look at, but this is a scribing Christ and it’s describing,
it talks about a bruise. Read a bruised Reed. It’s not broken, but yet it’s at that point. If you lean against that Reed or if you push on that read, what’s going to happen? It’s going to break. It’s almost to that breaking point that says the smoking flax, this would be a candle that’s about to go out and starting to smoke and if it’s not helped,
it’s going to go out. It describes a point where it’s a desperation. There is nothing else that can be done. This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew chapter 12 Matthew 1215 through 21 Jesus just got done, uh, healing the withered man’s hand. He goes, the Pharisees are angry, of course, and he leaves. The multitudes follow him and he fell and he heals them.
He described his scribes there. It says that it’s a fulfillment of this prophecy. He healed those that probably at their wit’s end, there was nothing else they could do. They, they would not been healed for what they, what the ailment that they had. But think about us today. It’s interesting just before that in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28 through 30 Jesus said,
come unto me all you that are lay that labor and are heavy Laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find wrists unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The labor. There is a person that is at that point,
there’s nothing else they can do. It’s they’re weak. They’re like that read. That’s about to break that flax. That’s about to go out. This is talking about sin. When we’re outside of Christ, we can’t save ourselves. Romans six 23 we need Christ. Christ can heal us of that state. It says we can find rest and to our souls.
The only way we can find that rest is in Christ. John 14 verse six Jesus says, he is the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by him we can find that rest in Christ. We have to put him on in baptism. We have to put in in S S and maybe it would be baptized,
but Amman and baptism as Romans chapter six verse three through four States. Have you done that tonight? Do you need rest from your soul? Has, has sin wore you down to the point where you don’t know what to do? That rest can be found in Christ? If you have not put Christ on a baptism, don’t put it off. Do it tonight or for those that have that are a Christian but have straight away,
we can still find rest in Christ, can’t we? If you have need or prayers or if you’d like to become a Christian, pray that you do it now as we stand and as we sing<inaudible> Oh, Oh, I just pray. Gracious, heavenly father, we bow before you, grateful for the day that you’ve given us, grateful for the time that we have to spend together,
rightful for all that you do for us on a daily basis. We ask that as we depart from this place, you will give a safety pray that you will be with us as we are separated from one another until we return once again to assemble together, sing to pray to worship your name. We pray that you will continue to grant us your grace and your mercy each and every day of our lives.
We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory, and we thank you most especially for your son who died and sacrificed for us all this we pray in Jesus name. Amen.