1 Kings 7

Most people remember King Solomon as the man who built the temple of God in Jerusalem, but during his reign, he was occupied with many different activities. These chapters record a series of vignettes depicting some of the things Solomon did to advance his kingdom and enhance his life. But these activities also reveal Solomon’s character and expose some of the areas of weakness that later produced a bitter harvest. Gradually, Solomon became more interested in prices than in values, and in reputation rather than character, and in the splendor of the kingdom rather than the good of the people and the glory of the Lord.

The work on the temple structure was completed in seven years, but it took several more years for Hiram and his crew to decorate the interior and construct the furnishings. While they were busy at the temple, Solomon designed and built a palace for himself that was a combination of personal residence, city hall, armory, and official reception center. “I enlarged my works,” he wrote, “I built houses for myself” (Eccl. 2: nasb).

When you read this description of the project, you get the impression that it involved several isolated structures, but 1 Kings 9: refers to “the two houses [buildings],” the temple and the “palace.” The palace was twice as large as the temple and probably had two if not three stories. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. (The temple was 90 x 30 x 45.) The total structure included two porches or colonnades, Solomon’s own residence, a residence for his Egyptian wife (and perhaps part of his harem), a throne room (“hall of justice”), and a spacious reception hall, all tied together by a large courtyard set off by walls like those at the temple.

We don’t have a detailed description to guide us, but it appears that when you approached the building, you came to a smaller porch that served as the main entrance (v. 7). This led to a larger porch or colonnade with cedar pillars, which probably served as a waiting room. From here you moved into “the hall of pillars,” a large assembly hall with sixty cedar pillars (vv. 2–3), forty-five of which held up the cedar-beamed ceiling that formed the floor of the second story. Fifteen pillars were placed opposite each other against the side walls, to the right and left of the entrance, and fifteen down the center of the room, all bearing the cedar beams. The other fifteen pillars were placed strategically where needed, especially at the entrance (see v. 6 niv).

Because of the abundance of these cedar pillars from Lebanon, the structure was known as “the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.” The assembly hall was no doubt used for official government occasions. In this hall, Solomon displayed three hundred large shields and two hundred smaller shields, all made of wood covered with gold (10:16–17). The larger ones used seven and a half pounds of gold each, a total of 1,500 pounds, and the smaller shields three and a half pounds apiece, making 1,025 pounds, a total of 2,525 pounds of gold for all five hundred shields. Since gold is too soft to provide protection, these shields were not used in battle but were there to impress visitors. They were taken from the building only when displayed on special ceremonial occasions.

From the hall you moved into the throne room, the “Hall of Justice,” where Solomon met with his officers, settled disputes referred to him, and gave judgment concerning governmental affairs. It was there he had his magnificent throne described in 10:18–20. Solomon’s living quarters, and, we assume, the queen’s quarters, were behind this throne room (7:7–8 niv). Of course there were other entrances to various parts of the building, all of them protected by the king’s special bodyguard, and Solomon had a private concourse that led from his residence to the temple. Next to the temple of the Lord, Solomon’s “palace” must have been an imposing structure.

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.

The furnishings of the temple were important to the priests, for without the divinely ordained furniture, they couldn’t do their ministry or please the Lord.

The brazen altar (2 Chron. 4:1). As you approached the temple from the east, you came to the entrance to the inner courtyard of the priests. It was to this entrance that the people brought their sacrifices and offerings to be presented to the Lord. On the right, toward the north, stood the altar of brass, thirty feet square and fifteen feet high (2 Chron. 4:1), where the fire was kept burning and the priests offered the sacrifices (see 8:64; 9:25; see Ex. 27:1–8; 38:1–7). The height of the altar suggests that there must have been steps leading up to a ledge on which the priests could stand and minister (see Ezek. 43:13–17). Some students believe that the altar itself wasn’t fifteen feet high but was shorter than that and stood on a stone base that raised it higher. The tabernacle altar was only four and a half feet high.

The laver or molten sea (vv. 23–26; 2 Chron. 4:2–5, 10). To the left of the entrance, on the south side of the court (v. 39), stood the huge “molten sea” that replaced the smaller laver that had stood in the tabernacle court (vv. 23–26; see Ex. 30:17–21; 38:8). It was round and made of brass a handbreadth thick with the image of lilies around the rim, and it could hold over 17,000 gallons of water. This large basin measured fifteen feet across and was seven and a half feet high. It stood on the backs of twelve cast statues of oxen, in groups of three, with each group facing a different direction. Perhaps these twelve oxen represented the twelve tribes of Israel. (See 2 Kings 16:17.)

There must have been a system for removing small amounts of water so the priests could wash their hands and feet, but this system isn’t explained in the text. Perhaps there were spigots at the base of the basin. If the priests didn’t keep their hands and feet clean as they ministered in the temple, they were in danger of death (Ex. 30:20). In Scripture, water for drinking is a picture of the Spirit of God (John 7:37–39), while water for washing is a picture of the Word of God (Ps. 119:9; John 15:3; Eph. 5:25–27). As the priests labored for the Lord in the temple, they became defiled and needed to be cleansed, and as we serve the Lord, we too can become defiled and need the “washing of water by the word.” Jesus pictured this truth in John 13 when He washed the disciples’ feet.

The ten stands and lavers (vv. 27–39; 2 Chron. 4:6). These were beautifully decorated metal wagons, six feet square and four and a half feet high, with handles at each corner. Each stand could hold a basin that held 230 gallons of water. The stands were kept in the court of the priests right next to the sanctuary, five on the north side and five on the south side. Since the stands were on wheels, they could easily be moved from place to place. They were used for the washing and preparing of the sacrifices (2 Chron. 4:6) and perhaps for the general cleanliness of the temple. The dirty water could then be wheeled away and disposed of in a proper place and the basins filled with clean water from the molten sea.

It’s worth noting that these very practical and useful stands were also very beautiful, which teaches us that God sees beauty in holiness and the holiness of beauty (Ex. 28:2; Ps. 29:2; 96:6, 9; 110:3).

The golden incense altar (6:20, 22; 7:48). The altar was made of cedar covered with gold, but we have no dimensions given in the text. It stood before the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, and on it the priests burned incense each morning and evening when they cared for the lamps (Ex. 30:1–10; 37:25–29). In Scripture, the burning of incense is a picture of our prayers rising up to the Lord (Ps. 141:1–2; Rev. 5:8; Luke 1:8–10). The Lord gave Moses the recipe for the mixture of spices that was used in the tabernacle and temple worship (Ex. 30:34–38), and this mixture was not to be counterfeited or used for any other purpose. The golden altar was used for no other purpose, and on the annual day of Atonement, the high priest applied blood to this altar to cleanse and purify it (Ex. 30:10). Without “clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3–5), we can’t approach the Lord and expect Him to hear and answer prayer (Ps. 66:18; Heb. 10:19–25).

The golden lampstands and tables (vv. 48–49; 2 Chron. 4:7–8, 19–20). In the tabernacle that Moses constructed, there was only one table for the loaves of bread, but the temple had ten golden tables, five in a line on each side of the Holy Place. The tabernacle had one golden lampstand with seven lamps on it, but the temple had ten golden lampstands in the Holy Place, five along the north wall and five along the south wall. They provided the light needed for the ministry in the Holy Place.

The miscellaneous utensils (vv. 40–50; 2 Chron. 4:7–8, 11–22). The priests required many different utensils in order to carry on their work, including wick trimmers, bowls for sprinkling water and sacrificial blood, dishes, ladles, large pots for cooking the meat from the peace offerings, and shovels for removing the ashes. The temple was an imposing structure that contained expensive furnishings made of gold and polished bronze, but the daily ministry would have been impossible without these small utensils.

It’s difficult to calculate the cost of this building in modern currency. It isn’t enough just to know the price of the precious metal today, but we also need to know its purchasing power. Then we must calculate what Solomon paid for manpower and materials and try to express it in contemporary equivalents. When you consider that there was gold overlay on the inside walls and floors, the furniture, the doors, and the cherubim, you have no hesitation concluding that this was a very costly building. And yet all this beauty was destroyed and this wealth was confiscated when the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem and destroyed the temple (see Jer. 52). Nebuchadnezzar robbed the temple and deported the captives in stages, and eventually his men burned the city and the temple so they could get their hands on all the gold that was there.

How painful it is to realize that Solomon, the man who constructed the temple, was the man who married a multitude of foreign wives and encouraged idolatry in Israel, the very sin that turned the nation away from God and brought upon them the fiery judgment of the Lord.