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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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1 Kings 6:9
“So he built the Temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks.”
The Temple was David’s vision. He desperately wanted to build a Temple for the God he loved. God honoured his heart’s desire but didn’t allow him the privilege of building it, because he had fought too many wars and shed too much blood (1 Chronicles 22:8).
But it’s not easy following someone else’s vision. It meant Solomon wanting the same things as David; loving God as David did; being prepared to persevere through the difficulties, disappointments and sidetracks, which would surely come to divert, frustrate and delay anyone trying to follow the Lord’s vision. (They come if it is your own vision, let alone someone else’s.)
Solomon had to make it his own vision even though David had already drawn the plans and revealed the blueprint. Solomon was not given the freedom of having his own plan; he had promised to follow the design laid down by David.
It’s worth reading the details carefully - to try and visualise the dimensions and the design, for we find through doing so that this was probably the most magnificent building ever constructed. Each inner stone was shaped and beautiful in its own right, but then it was ‘covered’ with cedar on the outside so the stone could not be seen. And then even the magnificent cedar, which had designs of gourds and open flowers carved in it, was overlaid with pure gold. Solomon made great doors out of olivewood and had cherubim, palms and open flowers carved in them - and you guessed it - he overlaid them with beaten gold, too. In all, it took 7 years to build.
“In building this Temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the Temple site while it was being built” (v 7). This means that it was an even more fantastic engineering feat than first thought. The building site was quiet. Not like any other. There was order and peace. This meant that every block had to be made exactly according to a template and then brought to fit into its own exact position in the Temple. Each was unique, but together with the rest, was made into an incredible building for God’s glory.
The same process is also happening to us. Peter tells us, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Yes, we too are unique. We are being fashioned individually, on earth, by the Holy Spirit, to become more and more like the Template - until we are conformed to the Image of the Son of God (see Romans 8:29) - when we will fit perfectly in our place in the Spiritual House, the Temple of God. We don’t need to worry about our looks because God’s grace and beauty cover them.
Together we make up the Spiritual House, which constantly offers up praise and worship to the Lamb who sits on the throne. Yes, together we reflect His Glory.
Here is the picture of the final desire of God. We are to be a fit dwelling place for God - not only as the Temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) but also as the Holy City (see Revelation 21:2).
Isn’t that awesome and something worth praising God for?
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