Please open your copes of God’s word to 2 Chronicles 2 and we will be there is just a moment. There is an interesting and unique process that happens when you are preparing to have your first child. The pressing need is that the room has to be ready for the baby’s arrival. We need the crib built. We need the walls painted. We need the car seat installed. We need to have the supplies ready. We want everything to be perfect when we bring home our child. I remember that there was even a baby wipe warmer. I think as first time parents we just purchase everything because we do not want to lack anything. We want everything to be ready and right. As you come to 2 Chronicles 2, we are reading about King Solomon and the people of Israel preparing for God’s new house. God is going to be with his people in this new and permanent house. Solomon’s task is to build a house worthy of the glorious presence of the Lord.
The Temple’s Preparation (2 Chronicles 2)
Chapter 2 begins proclaiming Solomon’s purpose to carry out the task of building a temple for the name of the Lord. Solomon is asking the king of Tyre of workers and supplies for this monumental task. But what Solomon says to the king of Tyre shows the understanding that Solomon has about the Lord. Notice what Solomon says in 2 Chronicles 2:5-6.
The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? (2 Chronicles 2:5-6 ESV)
Notice that Solomon proclaims that greatness of God. There is no one greater than our God. But now listen to what Solomon says in verse 6. Who is able to build God a house? Notice the two problems he observes with his task. First, nothing is able to contain our God. The highest heavens cannot contain our God. We need a place to approach God and worship God. But there is nothing in all of creation that can begin to contain or even properly represent our God. The universe cannot begin to hold the glory of God. Solomon understands this truth. The Lord spoke through Isaiah and said it like this:
Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66:1 ESV)
Think about the imagery that God is using. The earth is God’s ottoman where he puts his feet. Heaven is his chair. So what house are you going to build him on earth once you have this picture of God’s grandeur in your mind? Second, Solomon sees how inadequate he is for this task. Solomon humbly understands how unworthy he is for this great task. But this does not mean that Solomon will not do this because he knows that we need a place for worship. No one can build God a temple. But Solomon says that we need a place for worship where sacrifices can be offered before our glorious God. Solomon is preparing a temple for a glorious God. The king of Tyre responds positively, recognizing that the Lord loves his people and that is why the son of David has been made king over them.
The Temple’s Construction (2 Chronicles 3-4)
Chapters 3-4 record Solomon building the temple. I want us to pay careful attention to 2 Chronicles 3:1. Verse 1 tells us that Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. Now there are two significant points about this location. One is explicitly stated and the other is assumed that the reader will know. First, we are told in verse 1 that Mount Moriah is the place where the Lord appeared to David on the threshing floor of Ornan. This is a reference back to 1 Chronicles 21. Remember that David commanded for a census which invoked God’s wrath. God sent an angel of the Lord to destroy Jerusalem but then relented (1 Chronicles 21:15). Why did the Lord relent? We are told that the angel of the Lord had spoken to Gad who told David to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan (1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1). This place where God’s wrath was averted and mercy flowed would be the future location of the temple.
But there is another reference in the scriptures regarding the importance of Mount Moriah. You might remember that Abraham was commanded to take Isaac, his only son whom he loved, to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains God would reveal (cf. Genesis 22:2). Please also remember that just as Abraham was going to follow through with the command, the angel of the Lord stopped him. Rather than Isaac being offered, a ram was offered up as a burnt offering instead. Listen to what Abraham understood from this.
So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:14 ESV)
This would be the place where the Lord would provide the offering for the sins of the people. Now in the days of Solomon, a temple is being constructed on the site so that the people could worship God and offer sacrifices.
Again, as you read chapters 3-4 and the details of the temple, the word I want you to think about is “glory.” This is a glorious temple. It seems like every sentence has the word “gold” in it because Solomon made this temple glorious with gold. There are very few things in the temple that were not overlaid with gold. We read an excellent summary at the end of chapter 4.
Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God’s temple: the golden altar; the tables on which was the bread of the Presence; the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed; the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold); the pure gold wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors of the main hall. (2 Chronicles 4:19-22 NIV)
Everything was the best that Solomon had to offer to build this temple. The imagery of beauty and purity would have been staggering to see.
The Temple’s Interpretation (2 Chronicles 5)
With the temple construction complete, 2 Chronicles 5 shows God’s presence coming to live in the temple. Solomon instructs for the ark of the covenant to be moved to the temple. Remember that David quickly learned about the need to handle God’s things according to God’s ways. We see that Solomon had also learned this. The priests bring the articles into the temple and the Levites carried the ark of the covenant into the Most Holy Place. There is an interesting point that is made in verse 10. We are told that the only articles remaining in the ark of the covenant are the two tablets that Moses put in there from Mount Sinai, the ten commandments. We are not told what happened to Aaron’s rod or the pot of manna. The point is not to focus on what is missing. Rather, the point is to focus on what is in the ark of the covenant and in the temple. The focus is on the covenant the Lord made with the people of Israel. God is fulfilling his covenant promises because of his faithful love for his people. You will notice that this is the very conclusion that the people draw. Look at verse 13 and consider what the words of the song proclaimed.
“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 5:13)
This is one of the important meanings that the temple was to strike in the hearts of the people. The existence of the temple showed the people that the God is good and his steadfast love endures forever. The Chronicler highlights this point. God is always faithful. God always keeps his word. God always fulfills his promises. What is so amazing about our God is that God is steadfast in his love and goodness even when we fail. God is still proclaiming that he is always keep his end of the covenant. God always does what he promised even if we do not.
To confirm this message, the chapter ends with the glory of the Lord filling the temple that Solomon constructed. A cloud representing God’s glory fills the temple so significantly that the priests could not perform their service. The last time we saw something like this was when the tabernacle was completed, recorded at the end of the book of Exodus. The glorious God has come to live with his people. This would be the place where the people could meet God, worship God, and have sacrifices made for their atonement.
But We See Jesus
But none of these things were the actual realities but shadows of a greater reality to come (cf. Hebrews 8:5; 10:1). The apostle Paul says that the things that belonged under the Law of Moses with all of its activities were shadows of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (cf. Colossians 2:17). When Jesus goes to Jerusalem, he cleanses the temple but then starts talking about how he is the true temple (cf. John 2:13-22). They were going to destroy this temple (his body) but he would raise it up in three days. Now that is quite a thing to say. It is something to say that your body is the temple, especially when we consider what the temple represented. The temple represented the dwelling place of God. The temple held the glory of God. The temple was signifying God’s steadfast love and goodness. But this is exactly what Jesus meant. Listen to what the Gospel of John says in chapter 1 about Jesus.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)
The point is not merely that the eternal God lived among us, which is an amazing and powerful truth. But it is even more than that. Jesus is the temple and tabernacle that those shadows from Moses and Solomon were pointing to. The Greek word for “dwelt” is an allusion to the tabernacle. Young’s Literal Translation tries to capture it with this reading: “And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us…” We have seen his glory when he tabernacled among us as a human. The place of God’s name, God’s worship, God’s greatness, and God’s glory can be seen in Jesus. Jesus is the temple that proclaims to us that God is good and that his steadfast love endures forever. God in all his glory is seen Jesus (cf. John 1:18; Hebrews 1:3). The place where Abraham was to offer his son but God provided, and the place where Solomon built this temple as a place for God’s glory and steadfast love, was also the place where Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. The radiance of the glory of God is shining powerfully and beautifully in Jesus. But there is something else the scriptures teach us about the temple.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)
When God calls us to be a temple to the Lord, it should really strike our hearts. Have we prepared our lives so that we are showing God’s glory in us? Just as Solomon understood that God could not live in the temple he built because he is too immense and too glorious for such, we should think about the Holy Spirit living in us in the same way. God is too immense and too glorious to be contained in our flesh. But the point is that God is with us and it should be seen in the transforming work that this happening in our hearts and is seen in the fruit of our lives. Our lives should be displaying the steadfast love of the Lord. Our lives should be displaying God’s glory to the world. This is Paul’s point. Glorify God with your body. Having the Spirit means you live as a temple. Having the Spirit means you know that your body is not your own but you have been purchased by God. God is now running your life. God’s glory is to be seen in us. What will you do differently to show it?