This account details how Solomon built the temple. It certainly was a costly endeavor….even the nails were made of gold. Gold nails? Seriously?
I’m not so sure that gold nails would be better than iron nails, I think iron would be stronger. But this building wasn’t held together by nails like modern buildings anyway. The nails were probably more decorative. And the purpose of this building is to “house” the Creator, so it has to ornate above all other criteria.
I was using as I read this morning about the cost of this building, and time it took to build it. When you look at those two items and compare it to the square footage of the building it seems like a long time and way too much money. Two of these places would have fit into our gym…except they would be twice as tall. Actually, laying on their side I think two would fit into the gym….
What does this tell me about God? An enormous fortune went into building the temple, and God was already content in the tabernacle (huge tent) that was made by Moses. Wouldn’t the money have been better spent by developing the farmland, or building infrastructure, or by educating or feeding people? Actually, no. It wouldn’t have been. Let me explain:
All knowledge comes from God. All harvests come from God, as well as victory in battle and job skills, and every other thing you can imagine. In fact, In James it says “every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights”. God is the source and provider of all things. So, David and Solomon could have used their money to “boost” what God was already responsible for…but instead they chose to honor Him, and in return He poured out a blessing on Solomon that was more extravagant than anything the world has seen since. There’s nothing foolish or shortsighted about using your worldly wealth to gain an eternal friend. I think this is the lesson behind the quote from Jim Elliot “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. It’s also taught to us in Scripture, in Matthew 13:45-46, where the merchant sells everything he has to acquire the pearl of great price. In Solomon’s day, the thing of greatest value was God’s presence and His favor. In our day, nothing has changed…except that God is even more available to us than He was to the Israelites.
There is nothing foolish about giving your very best to the one who has power to bring good or harm to you. It’s not unwise to be extravagant in the way you worship, serve or support the ministry. I believe God is pleased when we honor Him in this way.
There are those who will say “that money could be used for something else, something more practical..” and I agree that it could be used for other things…helping with heating bills, making care packages and distributing them, or supporting a missionary in a foreign land. Sure, it could be used for other things….but common sense tells me that God’s favor is more important (and more valuable) than all of my resources, even if they were multiplied by 1000. So before I shake my head in disapproval of the 23 tons of gold used to overlay the ornate imported wood carving that took years to finish….I should consider that God approved of this building. God gave David the blueprints for this whole thing, and apparently in great detail. If Solomon did anything, it was to continue to listen to God and add more detail and intricacy to design. God wanted this building to look like this, and He knew that it would take two fortunes to do it…and that was okay with Him.
It’s hard to conceive of the beauty and majesty of this structure. I am certain that there was nothing else like it in the world when it was completed. It’s distressing to know that the Babylonians (Turkey and Iraq) destroyed the building after Israel sinned. They likely carried off the gold and precious stones to their own coffers, and burned the ornate carvings. A beautiful marvel of the ancient world will be lost because God’s people didn’t obey Him, and worship Him only.
Some people want to rebuild the temple today… and they may get it done before the second coming. But it’s pointless to build it now. The new temple of God is with His people, and within His people. The temple used to be the place we went in order to meet with God, but these days we bring the presence with us when we enter.
All of that to say this: I think there is a place within wise stewardship to spend extravagantly on places that specifically exalt the Lord. The expenditure should make sense, knowing what we now know from the New Testament. It doesn’t do any good to bring a large sacrifice to God while we fail to meet our obligations as parents, children and neighbors. The very best that we can do is to redirect the time and money that we were going to spend on ourselves to the Lord’s work. That alone, my friends, could be more talent and resource than the church has had to manage in a long time.
Faithfully,
PR