DETAILS MATTER TO GOD
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Opening Prayer
Loving Father, I am amazed that you chose to love and redeem me. Help me to stand firm in my faith and give you all that I am.
Read 2 CHRONICLES 3
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2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 3
1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.
2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
3 The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard).
4 The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
5 He paneled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.
6 He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim.
7 He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple-twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold.
9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.
10 In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold.
11 The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub.
12 Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub.
13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.
14 He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.
15 In the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits long, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.
16 He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains.
17 He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
Reflect
Do you relate best to the ‘big picture’ of things, or are you a detail-oriented person?
Although the responsibility for building the temple lay with Solomon, the design had already been determined. All the details had been given by the Lord to David. Solomon was simply responsible for executing them faithfully. The site and structure had already been decided. The location on Mount Moriah was full of significance, being where Abraham had nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac, before God provided a ram in his place. In the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, construction began. Perhaps even Solomon was daunted by the proposed scale of the building and wanted to source all the materials in advance to ensure that the project would run smoothly from its inception.
It would be for this building that Solomon would be most remembered in subsequent generations. This would be his legacy. The work began with the foundation, upon which a magnificent edifice began to emerge. For the only time in its existence, the Most Holy Place was visible to those other than the high priest. No doubt, the story of its lavish construction would have been passed down through the generations. It was a windowless room at the center of the temple. Within it were two cherubim, standing side by side, whose joint wingspan stretched the length of the Most Holy Place. Under them, the ark of the covenant would later be placed, the focal point of worship.
Recently, we spent three wonderful months in Rome, exploring the extraordinary building projects both of the imperial age and the later Renaissance. The scale and lavishness were overwhelming. Eventually, we suffered from the excess of Rome and were glad of the simplicity of the Scottish church, which allowed us to shift our focus from grandeur to the God who stooped to come to us in Jesus Christ.
Apply
Since the cross, there is now no barrier to going into the Most Holy Place, so do so now.
Closing prayer
I praise you, Lord God, that you not only always have the big picture in mind, but you are also mindful of the smallest of details.
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