The Living Bible (139 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Finally the actual construction of the Temple began. Its location was in Jerusalem at the top of Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to Solomon’s father, King David, and where the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite had been. David had selected it as the site for the Temple.
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The actual construction began on the seventeenth day of April in the fourth year of King Solomon’s reign.
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The foundation was ninety feet long and thirty feet wide.
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A covered porch ran along the entire thirty-foot width of the Temple, with the inner walls and ceiling overlaid with pure gold! The roof was 180 feet high.
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The main part of the Temple was paneled with cypress wood, plated with pure gold, and engraved with palm trees and chains.
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Beautiful jewels were inlaid into the walls to add to the beauty; the gold, by the way, was of the best, from Parvaim.
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All the walls, beams, doors, and thresholds throughout the Temple were plated with gold, with Guardian Angels engraved on the walls.
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Within the Temple, at one end, was the most sacred room—the Holy of Holies—thirty feet square. This too was overlaid with the finest gold, valued at millions of dollars.
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Twenty-six-ounce gold nails were used. The upper rooms were also plated with pure gold.
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Within the innermost room, the Holy of Holies, Solomon placed two sculptured statues of Guardian Angels and plated them with gold.
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They stood on the floor facing the outer room, with wings stretched wing tip to wing tip across the room, from wall to wall.
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Across the entrance to this room he placed a veil of blue and crimson finespun linen, decorated with Guardian Angels.
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At the front of the Temple were two pillars 52
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feet high, topped by a 7
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-foot capital flaring out to the roof.
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He made chains
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and placed them on top of the pillars, with 100 pomegranates attached to the chains.
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Then he set up the pillars at the front of the Temple, one on the right and the other on the left. And he gave them names: Jachin (the one on the right), and Boaz (the one on the left).
He also made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.
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Then he forged a huge round tank 15 feet across from rim to rim. The rim stood 7
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feet above the floor, and was 45 feet around.
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The tank was encircled at its base by two rows of gourd designs, cast as part of the tank.
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The tank stood on twelve metal oxen facing outward; three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east.
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The walls of the tank were five inches thick, flaring out like the cup of a lily. It held 3,000 barrels of water.
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He also constructed ten vats for water to wash the offerings, five to the right of the huge tank and five to the left. The priests used the tank, and not the vats, for their own washing.
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Carefully following God’s instructions, he then cast ten gold lampstands and placed them in the Temple, five against each wall;
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he also built ten tables and placed five against each wall on the right and left. And he molded 100 solid gold bowls.
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Then he constructed a court for the priests, also the public court, and overlaid the doors of these courts with bronze.
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The huge tank was in the southeast corner of the outer room of the Temple.
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Huramabi also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins for use in connection with the sacrifices.
So at last he completed the work assigned to him by King Solomon:
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The construction of the two pillars,
The two flared capitals on the tops of the pillars,
The two sets of chains on the capitals,
The 400 pomegranates hanging from the two sets of chains on the capitals,
The bases for the vats and the vats themselves,
The huge tank and the twelve oxen under it,
The pots, shovels, and fleshhooks.
This skillful craftsman, Huramabi, made all of the above-mentioned items for King Solomon using polished bronze.
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The king did the casting at the claybanks of the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah. Great quantities of bronze were used, too heavy to weigh.
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Solomon commanded that all of the furnishings of the Temple—the utensils, the altar, and the table for the Bread of the Presence must be made of gold;
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also the lamps and lampstands,
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the floral decorations, tongs,
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lamp snuffers, basins, spoons, and firepans—all were made of solid gold. Even the doorway of the Temple, the main door, and the inner doors to the Holy of Holies were overlaid with gold.
So the Temple was finally finished. Then Solomon brought in the gifts dedicated to the Lord by his father, King David. They were stored in the Temple treasuries.
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Solomon now summoned to Jerusalem all of the leaders of Israel—the heads of the tribes and clans—for the ceremony of transferring the Ark from the Tabernacle in the
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City of David, also known as Zion, to its new home in the Temple.
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This celebration took place in October at the annual Festival of Tabernacles.
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As the leaders of Israel watched, the Levites lifted the Ark and carried it out of the Tabernacle, along with all the other sacred vessels.
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King Solomon and the others sacrificed sheep and oxen before the Ark in such numbers that no one tried to keep count!
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Then the priests carried the Ark into the inner room of the Temple—the Holy of Holies—and placed it beneath the wings of the Guardian Angels; their wings spread over the Ark and its carrying poles.
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These carrying poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the outer room, but not from the outside doorway.
The Ark is still there at the time of this writing.
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Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Mount Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were leaving Egypt.
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When the priests had undergone the purification rites for themselves, they all took part in the ceremonies without regard to their normal duties. And how the Levites were praising the Lord as the priests came out of the Holy of Holies! The singers were Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and all their sons and brothers, dressed in finespun linen robes and standing at the east side of the altar. The choir was accompanied by 120 priests who were trumpeters, while others played the cymbals, lyres, and harps.
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The band and chorus united as one to praise and thank the Lord; their selections were interspersed with trumpet obbligatos, the clashing of cymbals, and the loud playing of other musical instruments—all praising and thanking the Lord. Their theme was “He is so good! His loving-kindness lasts forever!”
And at that moment the glory of the Lord, coming as a bright cloud, filled the Temple so that the priests could not continue their work.
This is the prayer prayed by Solomon on that occasion:
“The Lord has said that he would live in the thick darkness,
But I have made a Temple for you, O Lord, to live in forever!”
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Then the king turned around to the people and they stood to receive his blessing:
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“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” he said to them, “the God who talked personally to my father David and has now fulfilled the promise he made to him. For he told him,
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‘I have never before, since bringing my people from the land of Egypt, chosen a city anywhere in Israel as the location of my Temple where my name will be glorified; and never before have I chosen a king for my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem as that city, and David as that king.’
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“My father David wanted to build this Temple,
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but the Lord said not to. It was good to have the desire, the Lord told him,
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but he was not the one to build it: his son was chosen for that task.
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And now the Lord has done what he promised, for I have become king in my father’s place, and I have built the Temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel
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and placed the Ark there. And in the Ark is the Covenant between the Lord and his people Israel.”
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As he spoke, Solomon was standing before the people on a platform in the center of the outer court, in front of the altar of the Lord. The platform was made of bronze, 7
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feet square and 4
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feet high. Now, as all the people watched, he knelt down, reached out his arms toward heaven, and prayed this prayer:
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“O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You are the God who keeps his kind promises to all those who obey you and who are anxious to do your will.
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And you have kept your promise to my father David,
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as is evident today.
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And now, O God of Israel, carry out your further promise to him that ‘your descendants shall always reign over Israel if they will obey my laws as you have.’
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Yes, Lord God of Israel, please fulfill this promise too.
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But will God really live upon the earth with men? Why, even the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you—how much less this Temple I have built!
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“How I pray that you will heed my prayers, O Lord my God! Listen to my prayer that I am praying to you now!
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Look down with favor day and night upon this Temple—upon this place where you have said that you would put your name. May you always hear and answer the prayers I will pray to you as I face toward this place. Listen to my prayers and to those of your people Israel when they pray toward this Temple; yes, hear us from heaven, and when you hear, forgive.
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“Whenever someone commits a crime and is required to swear to his innocence before this altar,
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then hear from heaven and punish him if he is lying, or else declare him innocent.
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“If your people Israel are destroyed before their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and call themselves your people, and pray to you here in this Temple,
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then listen to them from heaven and forgive their sins and give them back this land you gave to their fathers.
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“When the skies are shut and there is no rain because of our sins, and then we pray toward this Temple and claim you as our God, and turn from our sins because you have punished us,
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then listen from heaven and forgive the sins of your people, and teach them what is right; and send rain upon this land that you have given to your people as their own property.
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“If there is a famine in the land, or plagues, or crop disease, or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging our cities—whatever the trouble is—
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listen to every individual’s prayer concerning his private sorrow, as well as all the public prayers.
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Hear from heaven where you live and forgive, and give each one whatever he deserves, for you know the hearts of all mankind.
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Then they will reverence you forever and will continually walk where you tell them to go.
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“And when foreigners hear of your power, and come from distant lands to worship your great name, and to pray toward this Temple,
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hear them from heaven where you live, and do what they request of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will hear of your fame and will reverence you, just as your people Israel do; and they too will know that this Temple I have built is truly yours.
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“If your people go out at your command to fight their enemies, and they pray toward this city of Jerusalem that you have chosen, and this Temple that I have built for your name,
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then hear their prayers from heaven and give them success.
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“If they sin against you (and who has never sinned?) and you become angry with them, and you let their enemies defeat them and take them away as captives to some foreign nation near or far;
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and if in that land of exile they turn to you again, and face toward this land you gave their fathers and this city and your Temple I have built, and plead with you with all their hearts to forgive them,
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then hear from heaven where you live and help them, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
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“Yes, O my God, be wide awake and attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place.
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And now, O Lord God, arise and enter this resting place of yours where the Ark of your strength has been placed. Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your people rejoice in your kind deeds.
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O Lord God, do not ignore me—do not turn your face away from me, your anointed one. Oh, remember your love for David and your kindness to him.”