EVERYONE HAS A PART
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Opening Prayer
Father, turn my thoughts to you as I read your Word today. Give me renewed vision to live for you today.
Read 2 CHRONICLES 2
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2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 2
1 Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself.
2 He conscripted seventy thousand men as carriers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and thirty-six hundred as foremen over them.
3 Solomon sent this message to Hiram king of Tyre: “Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in.
4 Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on Sabbaths and New Moons and at the appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.
5 “The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.
6 But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?
7 “Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled craftsmen, whom my father David provided.
8 “Send me also cedar, pine and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your men are skilled in cutting timber there. My men will work with yours
9 to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent.
10 I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.”
11 Hiram king of Tyre replied by letter to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you their king.”
12 And Hiram added: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who will build a temple for the LORD and a palace for himself.
13 “I am sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill,
14 whose mother was from Dan and whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, and with purple and blue and crimson yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my Lord, David your father.
15 “Now let my Lord send his servants the wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised,
16 and we will cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them in rafts by sea down to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.”
17 Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600.
18 He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working.
Reflect
Do you ever feel unappreciated for the mundane but necessary tasks you perform for others?
Interestingly, two building projects, a temple and a palace, are authorized simultaneously. Perhaps Solomon saw economies of scale in undertaking the works together. However, there was also the danger of seeing both projects as equally important. In any event, the temple would be completed in seven years and the palace in fourteen! Here, though, the focus is only on the temple and the worship of God’s people.
Large-scale projects require partnerships and planning. They also need resources and expertise. Friendships were renewed, and trading relationships were established with neighbors from Tyre—a win-win situation. Solomon’s father, David, had worked well in the past with Hiram, and Solomon built on that goodwill. It would be a labor-intensive project, and to ensure its completion, conscription (mentioned at the beginning and end of the chapter) was introduced. Significantly, and sadly, it was initially applied only to foreigners residing in the land. Their role would be manual and menial, and there may have been scant regard for health and welfare concerns. Too often behind the grand showpieces in cities around the world, we find there are those who are exploited, the voiceless and the vulnerable.
At the center of the chapter was the vision that undergirded the temple project. It needed to be of a scale that reflected the greatness of the God who would be worshipped within it. No expense was to be spared. Only the best would do. However, God is not only great but also gracious, and if the means of construction take a high toll on human labor, then the vision is flawed from the start. The building will always take precedence over the people it is meant to help. Sadly, this proved to be the case in the centuries that followed.
Apply
Go out of your way to express appreciation for someone’s gift that is not often noticed.
Closing prayer
Lord God, help me to see and value the gifts others bring to serve you. Help me to encourage their use for your glory.
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