SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 5
PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE (vs. 1-18)
King Solomon sent messengers to Hiram of Tyre that he was going to build a temple for the Lord. He needed cedars of Lebanon together with their skilled craftsmen to do the timber work. King Hiram consented to his request to provide him the cedar and pine log with the condition that David provided food for his royal household. So Solomon gave him twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty thousand baths of pressed olive oil. So the two of them made a treaty.
Solomon selected thirty thousand laborers from Israel and set them off to Lebanon with Adoniram as the one in charged of the forced labor. Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills and thirty three hundred foremen to supervised the project and direct the workmen. They used large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.
THOUGHTS:
God gave David the design for the temple. David and the people provided the materials and labor. Cooperation is needed to build the temple. God is building His holy temple today. Services of all kinds of people are needed. Are you willing to help build his Church?
The Lord’s temple was built with gold, silver, bronze and costly stones that could endure and give glory to God. God also wants His church to use the best materials and his design to build His church. Peter admonished the local church to build with gold, silver, precious stones and not of wood hay or straw. God is not impressed with the appearance of our building. What he wants is our obedience and wholehearted worship to make the church a blessing.