11 May
11 May 
2 Chronicles 2-5
2 Chronicles 2
The king's devotion to the highest work of his life was, however, unhindered, and the second chapter gives us the story of how he commenced his preparations for doing that work by new commercial treaties with his father's old friend Huram. This was an alliance of a totally different nature. Huram recognized the truth about Israel, that it was a God-governed people, and in responding to Solomon's message plainly declared this to be the case. In Solomon's friendship for his father's friend there was everything that was noble and helpful.
In the record of Solomon's appeal to Huram, king of Tyre, for a skilled worker and for timber, we find his question, "Who is able to build Him a house?" It affords evidence of the greatness and truth of Solomon's conception of God, as the words immediately following show: "seeing heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him." Yet he was about to build a house for God. He declared its value as he understood it, "only to burn incense before Him." Solomon was under no delusion about God, and therefore made no mistake about the Temple. He never conceived of it as a place to which God would be confined. He did expect, and he received, manifestations of the Presence of God in that house. Its chief value was that it afforded man a place in which he should offer incense, that is, the symbol of adoration, praise, worship, to God.
2 Chronicles 3
In this and the following chapter we have the account of the building and furnishing of the Temple. In all fundamental essentials it was on the pattern of the Tabernacle which Moses had made. The proportions and relations were identical, but Solomon's Temple was larger. Its symbolism was exactly the same, though its magnificence was far greater. However, ornamentation was admitted which would have interfered with the express command that no likeness of God was to be attempted. It was a dwelling place for the unseen God, and its structure was representative of the way of man's approach to Him rather than revelatory of the nature of Being. That was a mystery beyond the comprehension of the finite mind, and it was a distinguishing element in the Hebrew religion that it made no attempt to explain. Solomon erected this glorious house on the spot chosen by his father. The story is told here in order to give a graphic and comprehensive idea of the splendor of the house itself.
2 Chronicles 4
The period occupied in building the Temple was seven years (1 Kings 6:38). The work being completed with filial and godly care, the king carried into the sacred enclosure all that his father had collected and dedicated to the purpose. Thus nearly half a millennium after the Exodus the chosen people are found in the land, with a king on the throne, and a permanent Temple in the midst of the chief city at the center of the national life. "Permanent," do we say? The only principles of permanence are faithfulness and purity. Already the elements of decay were at work in the heart of the king and among the people.
Nevertheless, the building of the Temple was a link in the chain of events moving surely forward under God to the Advent, "in the fullness of the time" of Him in whom all that the Temple symbolized, and infinitely more, was realized.
2 Chronicles 5
Construction being completed, the happy and solemn ceremony of dedication by the people and consecration by God followed immediately. With awe-inspiring dignity the Ark of God was carried to its resting place-not a new one, but which for long years had been the very center of the nation's lifer Its progress to position was accompanied by vast sacrifices, which spoke eloquently and solemnly of sinful men's only way of approach to God.
Then came a great burst of harmony in which vocal and instrumental music were combined in chanting, the song of the goodness and mercy of God.
Thus man's dedication of the house of God was completed, and it was immediately answered by God's consecration. As in the Tabernacle of old, so now in the new Temple, the cloud of glory possessed and filled the sacred place so that the ministrations of the priests had to cease.
There is an order in this which we do well to consider. Work performed according to the divine order, offered in sacrifice and praise, is acceptable to God. Such work He receives by possessing it with His own presence and glory. Such reception ever halts our service, so that, without activity, even of the highest order, we may wonder and worship.
