Reading for June 9
1 Kings 5:1-6:38
The temple. This incredibly symbolic and spiritual structure for the Jewish people was built under the reign of King Solomon. Some great little nuggets of info that come out of this:
- A timeline is finally given: Solomon began construction on the temple four years into his reign as king. This was 480 years after the Israelites exile from Egypt. It is likely from this passage that scholars were able to trace back the time of each king and judge. David ruled for 40 years, and I think Saul ruled for 40 years as well...confirming with Wikipedia...yup. That's interesting - each king ruled for 40 years a piece. That earthly + heavenly number is pretty prevalent in the OT. (4 earthly X 10 heavenly perfection = divinely appointed kings)
- God proclaimed to David that his son would build a temple for the LORD. Again, is this fate and proof of God's existence, or Solomon knowing his history and consciously fulfilling things that were predicted about him?
- The reason no one built the temple until now was because Israel had so many enemies on every side. At this point in the Israeli history, there was a time of peace. Extremely hard to believe because it seems like ever since the Israelites left Egypt they were warring with one nation or another. It took 480 years for them to reach a peaceful state. Pretty insane.
- The temple was built with the help of laborers from another nation, Tyre. Tyre was really far away - look:
That's not an efficient work arrangement. But I suppose it couldn't hurt. The two nations already had a lot of good will between them, so this could only help matters.
The final thing that is of interest here is the fact that there is so many details written about the structure of the temple. We have seen this before many times - for example Noah's Ark was given a chapter or two's worth of details about its construction, the Ark of the Covenant was given I think 6 or seven chapter's worth of writing, and here again we see about a chapter's worth of content on the construction of the temple.
I know that the temple is incredibly important to Jewish history, but I don't know much about it. I know that it's referenced in the Gospels so it stood for at least 1000 years, and I know that there is still a wall of it standing today, commonly referred to as the wailing wall. I'm excited to see all the stories that take place around and in this temple.
One more thing - the construction of this temple permanently cements the Israelites in their new home - 480 years after their exile from Egypt. Even though they had inherited the promised land many many years ago, they were in a state of perpetual war and were still at risk of losing it all because of bone headed leaders. Now the war time was over and they were building a monument to their Lord. What a great feeling that must have been for them.
Acts 7:1-29
Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin.
In this section, Stephen recounts all the Jewish history starting with Abraham and going up until Moses flees Egypt for killing a guard who was beating an Israelite. He does it with startling clarity and passion as someone who studied and adored the word of God.
The coolest thing that I found in this section is from the actual history itself. It must have gone over my head before. Before Abraham had a single child, God led him to the land which the Jews would eventually inherit and call Israel. To prove to Abraham that he was going to give him descendants, God told him that his offspring will live and prosper in this land many years later. Stephen reminds the members of the Sanhedrin that this is the land in which they are currently standing.
There's not much to interpret there, but I just think its so cool that God promised something so huge and it came to pass. In other words God has made other promises that could have been fulfilled just because the people believed that they would be. The fact that the Jews ended up living in the very spot God told Abraham they would end up living is a pretty big coincidence...they overcame countless obstacles for that to take place such as surviving in the desert for forty years and escaping from being slaves...
Psalm 127:1-5
Love this stuff.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.
Kinda further delves into the proverb that the foundation of all wisdom is the fear of God. Everything that is done is done in vain if God is not part of it.
Proverbs 16:28-30
28 A perverse man stirs up dissension,
and a gossip separates close friends.
29 A violent man entices his neighbor
and leads him down a path that is not good.
30 He who winks with his eye is plotting perversity;
he who purses his lips is bent on evil.
Verse 30 is really funny. I'm gonna walk around winking and pursing my lips all day tomorrow.
Now that because Jesus "tore the temple in two" and we are all "temples of the living God" (literal equivalents of this grand temple built in 1 Kings) where the Holy Spirit dwells, I wonder if God has recorded somewhere the amount of cubits my heart is.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I meant this to be a profound parallel between the way God cares for his dwelling place the temple and the way God cares for His new dwelling place, our hearts, or just a lame joke on how specific those measurements are in the Bible.
My soul has four columns, seven cubits each, covered in gold and made of acacia wood. Don't forget the two rings placed next to it.
I think it also speaks to the way God cares for aesthetics and beauty. It's really popular in Western Protestant Christianity to reject how good something looks or care about the quality of something's appearance, whether its a church building or clothing or whatever, as frivolous and a sort of pious rejection of material idolatry. It's absolutely true that we should not be overzealous about appearance, especially just to impress people.
But God also clearly cared for the quality and appearance of his dwelling places. He didn't go all cheap on the temple, even if you could say "well, maybe if this wasn't covered in gold, we would have this amount of money to give to the poor." It's a fine fine line, obviously, but God cares for beauty because it reflects God's beauty.
I used to, for example, not give a crap about what I wear or the condition of my room and claim spiritual superiority. But that gets close toward dualism and Gnostism -- in other words, rejecting the goodness of THIS world, in favor of a other-worldly escapism.
This, I think (jumping to a different topic), also speaks to your love of photography. I truly believe God loves art, God loves beauty, and God loves the capturing of this beauty, the care for the contrast in color, the way lighting plays with the image, etc etc, in a way that reflects His care.
Just a thought.
Chris - those are some FANTASTIC thoughts. I always had that "they could give that money to the poor" mindset about the Vatican. I had a really conflicted experience when I went there but your thoughts really give me a fresh perspective on the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the temple God was arguably most proud of was Jesus himself, and Jesus' entire persona was built on humility and lowly means. That's not to say there wasn't beauty to be found in Jesus, but I've often heard it said that Jesus was probably not much to look at.
It's certainly an interesting issue, and I'm starting to see the point of spending time and money on things of beauty that honor God. But how does that look to the outside, non Christian world? I don't know, I could go either way...