BEYOND CALCULATION
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Opening Prayer
Lord, use your Word to inspire and equip me to share your good news with those around me today.
Read 2 CHRONICLES 4:1—5:1
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 4
1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.
2 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.
3 Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it-ten to a cubit. The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.
4 The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.
5 It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.
6 He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing.
7 He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.
8 He made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.
9 He made the courtyard of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze.
10 He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.
11 He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:
12 the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;
13 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);
14 the stands with their basins;
15 the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;
16 the pots, shovels, meat forks and all related articles. All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of polished bronze.
17 The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.
18 All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze was not determined.
19 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;
20 the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;
21 the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold);
22 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 5
1 When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated-the silver and gold and all the furnishings-and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.
Reflect
‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! / Bow down before him, his glory proclaim.’1
The temple, like the tabernacle before it, was full of symbolism to teach the people how to worship God. Each part had its place. Everything mattered. There was no clutter. However, more important was how the things within it were used. The temple would prove a dramatic setting for the worship of the living God: from the entrance, into the Holy Place, and, beyond that, to the wonder and mystery of the Most Holy Place.
Drawing near to God involved sacrifice at the large altar and cleansing at the ornately carved basin (the sea), for God is a holy God. We still draw near to God, through Christ’s death on the cross, recognizing our need for forgiveness. Beyond these were the lampstands, lighting up the Holy Place and reinforcing their calling to be light, and the tables around which fellowship could be enjoyed. This was to be the holy ground at the heart of the nation.
What we often overlook, however, is how beautiful it must have been, not just in terms of its public face but in the parts only seen by the audience of one. We sometimes forget how much we need beauty in our lives and how important it is for the nurturing of our souls. Beauty is a central and vital part of life, and we impoverish ourselves if we are content with the functional and utilitarian alone. Solomon, in employing Huram2 from Tyre, who was the best craftsman that could be found, ensured that the temple would be a supreme object of beauty. Such was Solomon’s devotion to God: he wasn’t ruled by the bottom line but by the desire to make the best. However, the nation soon discovered that when our hearts are wrong, even the most beautiful can become ugly. Today, through transformed lives, we need to bring beauty back to the heart of life.
Apply
May Christ renew us day by day, so that others can see his beauty through us.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, please make my life pleasing to you, but also help it to be winsome in ways that draw others to you.
1 ‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’, John Monsell, 1811—75 2 Huram is another name for Hiram.
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