Solomon’s Sanctuary
‘Walk about Zion, go round her, count up her towers, review her ramparts, scan her citadels, that you may tell the age to come what a God our God is forevermore. ‘ (Psalms 48:12-14, Moffatt)
According to 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17, David planned a stone sanctuary for the Lord. He was inhabiting his own house of cedar, and God gave him rest from all his enemies. Then he meditated the design of a temple in which the Ark of God might-be placed, instead of being set ‘within curtains,’ in the tent of the tabernacle.
The greatest event of Solomon’s life was the erection of this Temple. This building fulfilled a prophecy, (2 Samuel 7:13) and was a symbol of Jehovah’s abode with the people. So it was itself both a prophecy and a type for the Jewish people and the Church, and a monument to God’s abiding presence with his people. (Jeremiah 7) Its history is an index to the history of the Jews themselves. When it fell, they were scattered; as it rose from its ruins, they gathered round it again; and history dates the captivity, with equal accuracy, from the destruction of the Temple (1 Kings 9:7-8; 2 Chronicles 7:20; Jeremiah 7; Jeremiah 44:2-5)
Jerusalem was built on two opposite hills (east and west), between which the Tyropean runs southeast and then south. The eastern hill is about 100 feet lower than the western. Its northern summit is Mount Moriah, which slopes down into Ophel. This was the City of David.
1 Kings 5 tells of King Solomon writing to his friend Hiram, King of Tyre, who had jurisdiction over the forests of Lebanon. ‘Command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon… So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to his desire… and Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand in the mountains… so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.’
The great Temple of God was purposed and largely prepared by King David and later built by King Solomon. The building commenced in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign and finished in the 11th. The story of its cost seems fabulous, the gold and silver employed in its construction being estimated in today’s dollars above 3 billion. It was a wonderful structure for its day – one of which King Solomon in all his glory and wisdom, and the people of Israel with him, had good reason to rejoice.
Man builds his reality first and later observes the shadow. Unlike man, God first builds his shadow and later the reality. The shadow of the temple precedes the glory of the kingdom. (Hebrews 10:1; 1Co 10:11) In its antitypical sense Solomon’s Temple certainly represents the glorified Christ, head and body, built up of living stones as the Apostle Peter explains. (1 Peter 2:5) A11 were marked of the Lord for their positions in the Temple and fell asleep in Jesus until the time of the First Resurrection, the time for the construction of the Temple.
In the cooperation of Gentiles with Israel in the rearing of the Temple we see a symbol of their higher union in the glorious architecture of that spiritual house.
‘The context shows that King Hiram not only contributed largely to the Temple as a friendly gift, but also supplied skilled workmen under Solomon’s pay… Thirty thousand Israelites were drafted to serve in the Temple construction one month out of each quarter. Besides these there were 150,000 laborers, apparently foreigners, hired from outside, or they may have been aliens residing in the land – Canaanites. The overseers would appear to have been 550 chiefs and 3,300 subordinates of whom 250 were Israelites and 3,600 Canaanites. (1 Kings 5:13-16; 9:21-22; 2 Chronicles 2:17, 8:10) This preponderance of the Canaanites amongst the overseers implies that the laborers were mainly Canaanites, and also reminds us that ‘the Canaanite was still in the land.’ The fact that the Canaanites, strangers from the Commonwealth of Israel, were the chief laborers in the construction of the Temple, seems to have been typical of the fact that aliens, strangers, foreigners, and enemies of the Truth have the larger share in the work of preparing the antitypical Temple. Their hammering, chiseling, melting and casting, under divine providence, serve to make ready the living stones and glorious pillars for the spiritual house. Verily they know not what they do. Their work is greater, better, than they comprehend, as the glories of eternity will demonstrate.’ (R3282)
The consecration services began with the transfer of the Ark from Mount Zion. The Ark was carried to its place of rest to the innermost Sanctuary, and placed between the two standing cherubim in the Most Holy. The staves were removed, for the Ark had found its permanent home. It sat there with only the Mosaic law within. The pot of manna and Aaron’s rod had been removed, for they were symbols of the Church’s earthly pilgrimage. But God’s Law stands forever. And so it will be when the Church is complete. Only God’s Law will prevail among mankind.
The Ark, representing the embodiment of the divine covenant with Abraham, must be transferred from the Tabernacle to the Temple. The temple supersedes the wilderness tabernacle as the meeting place between God and his covenant people. The great King, antitypical Solomon, has about finished the temple construction.
The priests then reverently retired from the most holy, and were about to minister in the Holy Place. As the trumpeters and singers sounded praise and thanks, singing, ‘He is good; for his mercy endureth forever,’ then the house was filled with the cloud – the cloudy pillar. This cloud symbolized the Lord’s presence through the wilderness journey, and subsequently with the Tabernacle. Now it rested upon the Temple for the first time. There was such an extreme brightness that the priests could no longer remain in the Holy.
Then standing near the altar of the court, spreading forth his hands toward heaven, Solomon prayed in a manner that teaches us the purpose and object of the great antitypical Temple constructed by the antitypical Solomon. This was the dedication proper. 2 Chronicles 6:14-42 and 1 Kings 8:22-53 records Solomon’s dedication prayer. He acknowledged the literal temple as the place toward which all Israel should look as God’s dwelling place, the center of his power, authority, forgiveness and blessing and help in every time of need.
The Temple was dedicated in the 7th month. (1 Kings 8:2) However it was completed in the 8th month, Bul. (1 Kings 6:37-38)
‘As Solomon dedicated the Temple, so the Church of Christ will be dedicated, formally presented to the Father… Jesus, presenting us all as his members, as the Temple, which is his body, reared up on the third day, the third thousand-year day from the time of his death, the dawning of the great Sabbath. (John 2:18-22) As a result of the dedication, the glory of the Lord fills the Temple. The fact that the typical Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord before it was entirely completed, seems to imply that at the present time there will be some manifestation of God’s favor toward the Church in glory, while yet the work of construction is not quite finished.’ (R5714 205714)
THE APPEARANCE
Let us look with our mind’s eye into the inner court of the temple. The most prominent object in the Court of the Priests was the large altar of unhewn stones, a square of not less than 48 feet. All around It a circuit ran for the use of the ministering priests. The horns measured about 1.5 feet In height. An inclined plane, 48 feet long by 24 feet wide led up to the circuit from the south. There was a system for drainage into chambers below and canals, all of which could be flushed into the Kidron and towards the royal gardens. Finally, there were 8 marble tables for the flesh, fat, and cleaned innards where the sacrifices were prepared. The approach to God’s Holy Place is only by way of the Atar. So it is also in the antitype.
Between the altar and the porch of the Temple, but placed towards the south, was the Immense laver of brass, supported by 12 colossal oxen. Here the priests could wash and water could be drawn for the Sanctuary.
As we approach the Temple proper we notice two massive columns on either side of the entrance. ‘He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jakin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz’. (1 Kings 7:21) The names are significant. Jakin means: ‘He shall establish.’ Boaz means ‘In it is strength.’ They symbolize ‘The Christ’ who possesses the strength to establish the Kingdom. The same idea may be suggested in Psalms 96:6, ‘Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.’ According to 1 Kings 7:46 they were first cast in the clay of the plain of Jordan. This illustrates how the New Creatures were begotten while still in vessels of clay. These columns were 18 feet in circumference, 34.5 feet high. It was a gigantic task to move them to the Temple. So it is to bring the Church from her low estate to the high elevation of her destiny. The head of these columns were decorated with bronze pomegranates and chains of beautiful lily work. The head of every Christian is Christ, full of beauty, fruitfulness, fragrance and precious promises.
As we proceed into the Holy we first notice the walls. They are described in 1 Kings 6:15 and 1 Chronicles 29:4. ‘He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling; and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir… and the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers; there was no stone seen… and within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high… and he overlaid the cherubims with gold; and he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.
.. And the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree… and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work’ (verses 15-35).
The outside wall was constructed of stones smooth and beautifully finished. On the inside of the wall there was a layer of silver. Next came cedar wood in which were carved cherubims, palms, flowers and chains. These reliefs were then covered with gold. Finally the gold was inset throughout with precious stones. It was a dazzling sight.
One thinks of the floor of fir, a symbol of everlasting life because of its evergreen nature. Here is the ground on which we stand. As we enter this temple we enter upon eternal life. ‘Whosoever believeth on me hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’
Upon every side, the walls were covered with cedar wood. According to Leviticus 14 and Numbers 19, cedar was one of the ingredients in ceremonies of cleansing. So in our temple, there is that all around which cleanses from sin. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.’
As for the gold, we remember the text of Psalms 45:13, ‘The king’s daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold.’ Isaiah 54:11-12, ‘Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.’ 1 Peter 2:5, ‘Ye as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.’ Here are pictured the ingredients of truth, preserving promises, character fruitage, the divine nature, and crystallized characters.
There were also carved cherubim on the walls, marking God’s attributes. The cherubim alternated with figures of palm trees and open flowers. We are told ‘the righteous man shall flourish like a palm tree’. (Psalms 92:12-14) The open flowers were probably lilies and pomegranates – fit symbols of the many precious promises of the Word; all flowers, all ‘open’ for our enjoyment, means bringing forth of ‘much fruit.’
The room was lighted by 70 burning lights on 10 candlesticks, 10 times the brilliance of the Tabernacle. Food was provided on 10 tables instead of the 1 in the wilderness tent. Such will be the glory of our heavenly home. ‘The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof… And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light’. (Revelation 21:23,22:5)
The doors into the sanctuary, made of olive wood, suggest thoughts of the way into God’s purposes and to communion with him – access by Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared… but God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit.’ So do the olive wood doors swing open, revealing to us somewhat of the glories which lie beyond.
As we step into that which represents the divine presence we see a familiar piece of furniture. But all is changed. The Ark has been turned so we are looking at the narrow stave end of the chest. (1 Kings 8:7-8) If we stand perfectly still the two cherubim of love and power appear merged into one glorious central figure. Now two immense cherubim stand fully erect with wings outstretched to touch the walls. They face the east, in the direction of the offerings being brought into the court. These two represent love and power now open to mankind, while justice and wisdom become the burning light between them.
LESSONS IN RETROSPECT
The generations between Solomon and the captivity did something to increase the beauty and majesty of the Temple at Jerusalem. So must we ever be zealous toward the truth which we have inherited, and ever remember the purpose for which truth is given to us, ‘for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ’. (Ephesians 4:12)
For all the truths this Temple might portend, Israel forgot their Creator and polluted the temple with worship of the creature. For this God gave it over to destruction, and turned his face from his favored people. ‘Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law’. (\\#Ho 8:1)
‘Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground’. (Psalms 74:4-7)
All this happened on the 10th of the Hebrew month of Av according to Jeremiah 52:12-13 and 2 Kings 25:8 {1} This sublime lament might well have been composed in Babylon at the time of the captivity. It seems clearly to refer to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. There is no event in Israel’s earlier history which the words can fit. The Psalmist laments the destruction of the Divine Sanctuary by fire, its pollution by pagan symbols, and concludes on the despairing note, ‘we see not our signs; there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knowest how long’ (verse 9).
David’s throne was perpetual through the line of Solomon down to Zedekiah. When the Lord rent the kingdom from the hands of Zedekiah he did not give it to another family, but proclaimed an interregnum – a suspension of David’s kingdom, which might not go to another. The language of the prophecy is, ‘Thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end… Remove the diadem, take off the crown; this shall not be the same… I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him’. (Ezekiel 21:25-27)
All this beautiful work was burned and torn by the destroyers in Nebuchadnezzar’s army. Let us not join the destroyers of that which represents God’s truth. In their zeal many have done grave harm to the cause they espouse and disservice to the Lord they love. We do well to gratefully remember the labors of those who lifted up axes upon the thick trees, and treasure the carved work they set up in the sanctuary. Christians are the inheritors of a rich tradition. Other men have labored, and we have entered in to their labors.
PROPHETIC PERSPECTIVE
There has been no King of Israel, from Zedekiah’s day to the present – the overturning has been thorough. The fulfillment of this promise to David is nevertheless secure, sure as the word and oath of the Almighty. The antitypical David is assuming the reigns of government at the time appointed of the Father. He, as the antitype of Solomon, is building the Lord’s house, and his throne shall be established forever.
The temple was rebuilt after the captivity under Zerubbabel and later restored and remodeled under Herod. Jesus taught in the temple and in his last days drove the polluting money changers from the Temple colonnade. In Matthew 24 Jesus said concerning the temple, ‘There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’
The prophecy was fulfilled 37 years later in AD 70 when Titus, son of Vespasian, took up the siege on Jerusalem, and broke through the Temple wall on the 10th of Av and set the Temple on fire. It was the very day of the year that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple more than 600 years before. Liquid gold was gathered as it ran out between the stones. Isaiah 64:11 and Micah 3:12 would seem to have a two-fold fulfillment: once under Nebuchadnezzar and again under Titus on the same dates. {2}
Though Jesus said, ‘There shall not be left one stone upon another’ and ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,’ it has laid desolate for nearly 2000 years. Stones from the Temple mount retaining wall were recently uncovered in the positions they fell from the mount. The scene is called ‘the moment of destruction,’ and has not been further disturbed by archaeologists. During a brief Persian dominion in the 7th Century, a Jewish passerby engraved a verse on the western wall of the temple mount, based on the prophecy of Isaiah 66:14, ‘And you shall see, and your hearts shall rejoice, for your bones like the grass [shall spring forth].’ But the verse was never completed. The words ‘shall spring forth’ are missing. It is as though the engraver was interrupted during his work. No doubt the engraver felt that the beginning of the end of days was at hand, that the Messiah was about to come with redemption and resurrection of the dead. {3}
Today the 9th of Av is reverently kept by Jews as the last day of temple independence. It raises the national zeal of Orthodox Jews, often leading to an attempt to return the Temple mount to Jewish hands. Yet the 9th of Av revealed another turning point in history. The guns of August that began WWI were loosed on that day. {4} It was just seven times, 2520 years from its destruction under the fury of Babylon, marked at both ends on the same Hebrew day. It was 2520 years from the time Nebuchadnezzar torched Solomon’s temple till God’s judgments set the torch to the feet of Gentile dominion. It was WWI that eventuated in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate over Turkish held Jerusalem.
It is our thought that Jerusalem will not be totally free until the Temple mount is returned to Jewish hands. Following the judgment of Micah 3:12, comes the restoration of Micah 4:1-2. Though this will primarily have a spiritual fulfillment, we think it could also have a literal counterpart.
‘It is our mission in the present time to prepare the gold, silver and precious things for the future temple – ready for its construction. As David and his work of preparing for the temple typifies the church in this present time, and our work of preparing ourselves and each other for the glories to follow, also Solomon’s kingdom, which followed, represents the kingdom of the glorified Christ. The construction of Solomon’s Temple typifies the resurrection of the church, in which all the members shall come together in glorious completeness, in the morning of the Millennial day.’ (R3259 203259)
‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ Let us labor until the work is done!. (1 Corinthians 3:16)
– Jerry Leslie
{1} ‘The day of the destruction of the Temple is given in one passage as the seventh of Av (2 Kings 25:8) and in another (Jeremiah 52:12) as the tenth of Av. Traditionally (Ta’an. 29A), this discrepancy is reconciled by the statement that ‘On the seventh [of Av] the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth, and toward dusk of the ninth day set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole day.’ The Tosefta Ta’anit 4:10 (also Ta’an. 29A) explains this discrepancy by stating that the destruction of the outer walls and of the courtyard started on the 7th of Av while the whole edifice was destroyed on the 10th of Av.’ (Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, Temple)
{2} ‘At the beginning of Av (August) the wall of the Antonia was finally stormed, and after a few days the Temple was set aflame (9th of Av).’ (\@Encyclopaedia Judaica\@, 1972, Jerusalem). ‘The frequent Roman assaults on the wall of the court were repulsed until the eighth of Av, when Titus gave orders to set fire to the gates of the court. The next day a council was held at the Roman headquarters to decide upon the fate of the Temple. According to Josephus, Titus did not want the Temple to be demolished, but a different source, probably based on Tacitus, states that he demanded its destruction. In Josephus’ account the burning of the Temple is accidental, resulting from a Roman soldier having thrown a burning torch through a window into one of the Temple chambers on the north side. In spite of Titus’ efforts to contain the flames (so Josephus says), another torch was thrown against the Temple gate (apparently the gate of the sanctuary because the entrance hall was not closed by a gate), and the entire building went up in flames, except for two gates (Wars 6:281). The Jewish defenders fought with desperate bravery until the very last, and when they saw the edifice go up in flames many threw themselves into the fire. According to Josephus (Wars 6:248-250) the catastrophe occurred on the tenth of Av in the year 70 CE; according to the Talmud (Ta’an. 29A) on the ninth.’ (EncyclopaediaJudaica, 1972, Jerusalem). ‘The city walls were breached in May; the fortress of Antonia adjoining the Temple Mount had fallen by late July. In August the Hebrew date is the ninth of Av, the same date on which, six and a half centuries earlier, Nebuchadnezzar’s troops razed Solomon’s Temple, the Temple of Herod was sacked and burned.’ (Heritage, Abba Eban, 1984, page 86).
{3} The Stones Cry Out\, Randall Price, 1997, page 190. The Holy Temple Revisited, Rabbi Leibel Remick, 1990, page 162. Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1986, Page 33.
{4} Besides the anger and ambition of nations, the conflagration of the Great War was precipitated by two notable events: (1) The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary while on a visit to Bosnia on June 28, 1914. (2) Serbia was issued an ultimatum on July 23, to which they mostly consented. Nevertheless Austria retaliated with bombarding Belgrade on July 29. Russia would not stand aside while their Serbian ally was attacked and mobilized for war. The rapid sequence of events followed which historians define as the igniting of the first World War. The events of the first 7 days of August follow. August 1-2 correspond to the Hebrew dates Av 9-10.
- Germany declares war on Russia
- Germany invades Luxembourg
- Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium
- Great Britain declares war on Germany
- Austria-Hungry declares war on Russia
- Serbia attacks Germany
- Russians invade East Prussia, Montenegro attacks Austria-Hungary.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition, 1973, World Wars. The Age of Empire, Eric Habsbawm, 1987. The Guns of August, Barbara Tuckman, 1962. Medieval and Modern Times, James H. Robinson, 1919.