Category Archives: Bible

Arts, Bible, Christianity, Culture, History

Solomon’s temple: celebration as project is completed

Jerusalem, c. 970 BC

[1 Kings 5:1–9:9; 2 Chronicles 2:1–7:22]

SOLOMON’S magnificent temple has been dedicated to Yahweh with a huge 14-day celebration in which some 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats were sacrificed. Burnt, grain and fellowship offerings were made in the courtyard before the temple.

It is reported that God has appeared to Solomon and declared himself pleased with the work. He promised again that if Solomon followed his father’s example and lived in faithful obedience to Yahweh, then the royal line of David would sit on the throne of Israel for ever. But if Solomon or his sons should turn away from God by failing to honour his commands or by following other gods, he would remove Israel from the land he had given them and would reject the temple.

The temple that Solomon built, fulfilling his father David’s great desire, is both a shrine to house the ark of the covenant and a constitutional building at the centre of the nation’s life. It bears some similarities to the desert tabernacle, the mobile worship-tent which accompanied Israel through the desert and into Canaan.

The sanctuary is strongly reminiscent of the tabernacle, but it has an added entry porch and three rooms inside. Alongside the middle chamber (the Holy Place) and the Most Holy Place are storage rooms. Some aspects of the design have been influenced by the Phoenician workmen sent by Hiram, king of Tyre.

The temple is modest in size – (about 27 m [87 ft] long by 9 m [30 ft] wide) – and is not intended to hold a large congregation. It is seen as the house of God, where he promised he would dwell among his people. It has taken seven years to build, however, using a large task force of labourers. All heavy tool work was done away from the site, which was regarded as holy. The stone was cut and dressed at the quarry, probably underground to secure that the noise did not carry, and when brought to the site was worked on in silence.

Constructed from Lebanese cedar and local limestone, it has small windows set high in the roof. Its inner walls are clad with cedar planking, and gold covers almost every surface to create an unforgettable sight. But only a few selected priests will ever enter the Holy Place and fewer still will pass through the gold-plated olive-wood doors into the Most Holy Place.

The temple furnishings have been made by Hiram, a craftsman from Tyre, working under Solomon’s direction. They include bronze pillars, chains, pomegranate decorations, and lily-shaped trims. He made, among many other items, a huge bronze basin for washing, supported by 12 bulls, which stands in the courtyard.

The entry chamber is unfurnished. In the Holy Place there are golden tables holding the Bread of the Presence, five pairs of golden lampstands, and the altar of incense. In the Most Holy Place is the ark of the covenant. There are intricate decorations on walls and doors, using motifs from plant life and representations of angelic beings. Some seem to be purely decorative, with no obvious symbolic function.

As part of the opening ceremonies, Solomon brought valuable artefacts which David had consecrated to God and placed them in the Temple storage rooms.

Standard
Arts, Bible, Christianity, Culture, History

We’ll always need a conquering hero

OLD TESTAMENT

– A narrative on 1 Chronicles 11,12

BY COMPARING the way people in different ages use the same word, we can trace changes in culture. In 1000 BC, heroes are brave warriors who risk their lives to secure David’s kingship. Less than 300 years later, the same society’s heroes were those who could hold their drink (Isaiah 5:22).

The twentieth century saw the same process compressed into less time when wartime heroes such as the RAF airman and physically legless Douglas Bader gave way to sports and screen anti-heroes who became emotionally legless devotees of wine, women, and narcotics.

In our more passive and indulgent age, we may have difficulty in identifying with the battle heroes of Chronicles. Today’s role models may be the unsung heroes of the emergency services, or an intrepid conservationist.

To appreciate Chronicles in the Old Testament we must enter the mindset of a different era. David was the Lord’s anointed, and he (and the Lord) were worth dying for. These are the heroes who inspired Jewish readers in different walks of life. They lifted spirits and gave vision. The author may want to show that people from all the Israelite tribes were loyal to David and prepared to die for him. This would have been important in later years as people looked back over the tragic story of the divided kingdom. In fact, he plays down the role of Judah and Benjamin, which later formed the nation of Judah and took on the story of God’s people.

David’s apparently disdainful waste of the water brought to him at great risk by ‘The Three’ was actually an act of worship and thanksgiving. (Water was poured out ‘before the Lord’ in several rituals). David, at this stage, was giving God all the glory and regarded anything done for himself as an act of service to the God who had chosen him.

Standard
Arts, Bible, Christianity, Culture, History

Hope is a long-term investment now

Jerusalem, spring 587 BC

(2 Kings 25:1–3; Jeremiah 32; 33; 37:17–21; 39:15–18; 52:4–6)

THERE is something surreal about this ‘siege’ which has started again. The Babylonian camp, marked by fluttering flags and the smoke for ever rising from the mess tents, can be seen clearly from the walls of Jerusalem.

Against those walls the invader’s engineers are building huge ramps of rock and earth. Up them soldiers will climb, manoeuvring their huge battering-rams shielded by canopies from the hail of rocks and arrows which will be launched from the ramparts by desperate defenders. The scene is predictable, a re-run of countless others which have been played out against different scenery.

And yet the city is not so much besieged as blockaded. From tall wooden watchtowers around it, Babylonian guards warn off any daring traders who would try to make megabucks by selling fresh food. Nothing is allowed in, and food supplies are running low. Starvation is Nebuchadnezzar’s strongest weapon; weak people cannot fight, however well-fortified is their city.

But individuals can come and go, none the less. No doubt they manage to smuggle past the guards a few precious loaves or fresh vegetables from the country villages, although many outlying settlements have also been devastated by the invaders, much as if a swarm of locusts had swept across the region. In that sense, life goes on as normal.

One man who has made use of it is Jeremiah, the pro-Babylonian prophetic adviser to King Zedekiah. Although under permanent house arrest in the barrack area, he is allowed to have visitors. One has been his cousin Hanamel from the village of Anathoth, and the two have just completed a deal to transfer the deeds of family land to Jeremiah in accordance with Judah’s strict inheritance laws.

The prophet is jubilant. This, he claims, is a sign from Yahweh that one day, in this place, fields will once again be bought and sold, and the fortunes of the people will be revived. On that day God will raise up a righteous leader from the royal line of David.

But for those whose hopes of another reprieve from suffering are rising, he adds, ‘But not yet. The city will be destroyed first.’ Prophetic hope is clearly a long-term investment with no short-term interest payments.

Standard