1 Kings 5

Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob” (Ps. 132:3–5). So wrote King David, for it was his passionate desire to build a temple for the glory of the Lord. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4).

The Lord knew David’s heart but made it clear that He had other plans for His beloved servant (2 Sam. 7). David was so busy fighting wars and expanding and defending the borders of the kingdom of Israel that he didn’t have time to supervise such a complex and demanding enterprise. Solomon, the man of peace, was God’s choice to build the temple, and his father prepared him for the task and encouraged him (1 Chron. 22 and 28).

Since the days of Moses, the people of Israel had brought their sacrifices and offerings to the tabernacle, but now they were no longer a pilgrim people but a nation settled in their own land. The tabernacle was a fragile, portable building, and the time had come for Israel to build a temple to their great God. The nations around them had temples dedicated to their false gods, so it was only right that the people of Israel dedicate a magnificent temple to honor Jehovah of Hosts, the true and living God. In the second month (our April/May) of the year 966, the fourth year of his reign, Solomon began the work, and these chapters record several stages of the project.

As he anticipated the building of the temple, David had set aside some of the spoils of battle especially for the Lord (1 Chron. 22:14). This amounted to 3,750 tons of gold, 37,500 tons of silver, and an unmeasured amount of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. All this wealth he presented publicly to Solomon (1 Chron. 29:1–5). David also added his own personal treasure and then invited the leaders of the nation to contribute as well (1 Chron. 29:1–10). The final totals were 4,050 tons of gold and over 38,000 tons of silver, not to speak of thousands of tons of bronze and iron, as well as precious stones. It was a great beginning for a great project.

David also gave Solomon the plans for the temple that had been given to him by the Lord (1 Chron. 28). David had also assembled some artisans and laborers to follow those plans and work in wood and stone to prepare material for the temple (1 Chron. 22:1–4). Hiram, king of Tyre, had provided workers and materials for the building of David’s palace (2 Sam. 5:11), and David had enlisted their help in preparing wood for the temple (1 Chron. 22:4). Solomon took advantage of this royal friendship to enlist Hiram to provide the workers and timber needed for the temple.

Hiram had sent Solomon his greetings on the occasion of his coronation, and Solomon had sent back official thanks plus a request for his help in the construction of the temple. In his message, Solomon indicated that he knew that his father had discussed the building of the temple with Hiram, so Hiram wasn’t hearing about it for the first time. David had even told Hiram about God’s covenant (2 Sam. 7) and God’s choice of Solomon to build the house of God. Solomon made it clear that he was constructing, not a monument to the glory of his father, but a temple to the honor of the name of the Lord (v. 5; see 8:16–20, 29, 33, 35, 41–44).

Solomon also requested a master artisan who could make the intricate and beautiful furnishings required for the temple (7:13–14; 2 Chron. 2:7), and King Hiram sent him Hiram (or Huram-Abi; 2 Chron. 2:13–14). He was the son of a mixed marriage, for his father was a Phoenician and his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. He was gifted as a metal worker and cast the two pillars at the entrance of the temple as well as the metal furnishings within the temple. As when Moses built the tabernacle, the Lord assembled the needed workers and empowered them to do their work (Ex. 31:1–11; 35:30–35).

Solomon’s letter was really a commercial contract, for in it he offered to pay for the wood by providing food annually for Hiram’s household (5:11), and also to pay the workers one large payment for their labor (2 Chron. 2:10). Until the work was completed, King Hiram’s household received annually 125,000 bushels of wheat and 115,000 gallons of pure olive oil. The workers would receive one payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat, 125,000 bushels of barley, and 115,000 gallons of wine and of olive oil, all of which would be divided among them. In his reply, Hiram accepted the terms and outlined the procedure. His men would cut the trees in Lebanon, prepare the logs, and then take them down the coast to Joppa (modern Jaffa; 2 Chron. 2:16), either on ships or bound together as rafts. At Joppa Solomon’s men would claim the timber and transport it overland to the building site, about thirtyfive miles away, as the crow flies.

As any pastor and church board can attest, building programs are not easy, and they either bring out the best or the worst in God’s people. But like Moses who supervised the building of the tabernacle, Solomon had a great deal going for him. Both men knew that God had chosen them to direct the work and that He would enable them to finish successfully. Both leaders had an incredible amount of wealth and materials at their disposal before they started, and both received the construction plans from the Lord Himself. Both were blessed to have leaders who gave generously to support the project.

It would take a great deal of manpower to fell the trees, trim the logs, and transport them to the construction site for the builders to use. David’s incomplete census had revealed that there were 1,300,000 able-bodied men in the land (2 Sam. 24:9), and Solomon conscripted only 30,000 to labor on the temple, about 2. percent of the total available labor force. Ten thousand of the men spent one month each quarter in Lebanon assisting Hiram’s men in their work, and then they had two months at home. These men were Jewish citizens and were not treated like slaves (9:22; see Lev. 25:39–43). We aren’t told if they shared in any of the wages Solomon promised Hiram’s workers, but they probably didn’t.

Solomon also took a census of the non-Israelite aliens in the land and drafted 150,000 of them to cut and transport stones for the temple (5:15–18; 9:15–23; 2 Chron. 2:17–18; 8:7–10). Of this group, 70,000 carried burdens and 80,000 cut limestone blocks from the hills. In charge of this group were 3,000 overseers and 300 supervisors who were aliens, and over the entire group were 250 Jewish officers. The stone blocks had to be cut carefully so they would fit together perfectly when assembled at the temple site (6:7), and that would demand careful planning and expert supervision.

Even though the conscription involved a very small portion of the male citizens, the Jewish people resented Solomon taking 30,000 of their men to work in Lebanon four months out of the year. This critical attitude helped to strengthen the people’s revolt against Rehoboam and to precipitate the division of the nation after Solomon’s death (12:1–21). Indeed, when it came to labor and taxes, Solomon did indeed put a heavy yoke on the people.

Both Jews and Gentiles assisted in the construction of the temple, and this fact is significant, for the temple was to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7; Matt. 21:13; Luke 19:46). After the captivity, the Persian government assisted the Jews in rebuilding their temple, and Herod’s temple had a special area for the Gentiles. Sad to say, some of the Jewish religious leaders turned the court of the Gentiles into a market for selling sacrifices and changing foreign money into Jewish currency. The church today is a temple of God composed of believers in Jesus Christ, both Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11–22). It is being “built up” to the glory of the Lord as “living stones”—both Jews and Gentiles—are added to the temple by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 2:5).

Hiram’s workmen in Lebanon were not worshippers of the Lord, and the aliens in the land of Israel were not Jewish proselytes, yet God used both of these groups of “outsiders” to help build His holy temple. The Lord would “have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4), but even if they aren’t believers, He can use them to fulfill His purposes. He used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army to chasten Israel, and called Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” (Jer. 25:9), and He used Cyrus king of Persia to set Israel free and help them rebuild their temple (Ezra 1). This should encourage us in our praying and serving, for the Lord can use people we least appreciate to get His will done on earth. God can even work through unconverted government officials to open doors for His people or meet the needs they might have.