Solomon Prepares to Build The Temple
February 24, 2020
Commentary
Hiram, King of Tyre, located on the Mediterranean Sea north of Israel, sent his envoys to pay his respects to Solomon the new King. Hiram had been an ally and friend of King David and had supplied materials and laborers to build David’s palace (II Sam. 5:11).
Now Solomon works out a contract with Hiram to supply lumber and servants for building the temple (v. 6). The agreement included transportation of the logs which were to be bound into rafts and floated down to Israel. However, Hiram wanted something in return which was food for his royal household (vv. 7-9). This agreement included 125,000 bushels of wheat and 115,000 gallons of olive oil. Due to Solomon’s wise business dealings this treaty arrangement continued for many years and brought peaceful relations between the two countries (vv. 10-12)
The Temple was not a cost-efficiency, “budget-cutting” project. Israel supplied almost two hundred thousand workers for this project. Solomon drafted many non-Israelite males as well for this temporary government service. They had to work this into their schedules along with their private responsibilities. This forced labor eventually proved very distasteful to the Israelites. Some of these worked in Lebanon in three shifts, allowing one month at work and two at home. Several thousand were charged with the delivery of materials and others were masons, hewing stones.
Application
When the Israelites left God’s path, He would correct them and He wants to do the same for me. However, when I hear His voice of correction, I must be willing to follow it. Next time I go through a difficult time, I need to appreciate what God is doing and learn what He wants to teach me.
Isaiah 30:18– 33 (NET)
18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy; he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. Indeed, the Lord is a just God; all who wait for him in faith will be blessed.
19 For people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem you will weep no more. When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy; when he hears it, he will respond to you.
20 The Lord will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them.
21 You will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, “This is the correct way, walk in it,” whether you are heading to the right or the left.
22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag, saying to them, “Get out!”
23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground, and the ground will produce crops in abundance. At that time your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
24 The oxen and donkeys used in plowing will eat seasoned feed winnowed with a shovel and pitchfork.
25 On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.
26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare, and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones and heals their severe wound.
27 Look, the name of the Lord comes from a distant place in raging anger and awesome splendor. He speaks angrily, and his word is like destructive fire.
28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river that reaches one’s neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction.
29 You will sing as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival. You will be happy like one who plays a flute as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel.
30 The Lord will give a mighty shout and intervene in power, with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.
31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; he will beat them with a club.
32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel with which the Lord will beat them will be accompanied by music from the tambourine and harp, and he will attack them with his weapons.
33 For the burial place is already prepared; it has been made deep and wide for the king. The firewood is piled high on it. The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone, will ignite it.