It’s interesting to think about Israel’s first three kings. King Saul was the first monarch over the twelve independent Israelite tribes. They asked God for a king to lead them into battle as they continued to drive enemies out of the Promised Land.

King Saul was effective in military leadership, but he violated religious laws. He was headstrong, and even superstitious, and the priesthood and national worship faltered during his reign. The Prophet Samuel was the faith leader and God used him to anoint the next king, David son of Jesse.

King David inherited a strong army with powerful commanders from King Saul. David was an intelligent leader who learned quickly and gained the fierce loyalty of his men. He was also a man of strong, independent faith who loved God with all his heart. With God’s help David captured Jerusalem and made it Israel’s capitol city. His military continued to carry out successful campaigns until Israel finally defeated all of their enemies. The heads of all the surrounding nations respected King David.

David reorganized the priesthood and elevated worship to new heights. He brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem where he intended to build a new temple. He led his people in celebrating and praising God, as they had never done before. He also gained great wealth for himself and his nation through winning wars and forming alliances.

King Solomon inherited a peaceful nation, and the wealth and international good will his father had accumulated. He was an intelligent man who learned all that his father could teach him. He was the first king of Israel to really live like a king from the day he ascended the throne.

King Solomon Builds His Palace

It took Solomon seven years to build the temple, and it took him thirteen years to build his palace compound. The temple was a single structure, but the palace included living quarters for the king as well as a throne hall and the Hall of Justice. Simultaneously, he built a palace for his Egyptian wife.

It’s mind boggling to think of the effort required to build these structures using manpower and basic machinery such as levers and weighted lifts. Solomon’s palace was called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon in honor of the timber and skilled labor that King Hiram of Lebanon supplied to him. Tens of thousands of men were perpetually employed in logging the cedar and juniper trees in Lebanon, floating them down the coast to Israel and then hauling them overland and uphill to Jerusalem where they were sawn and shaped for the buildings.

Metal workers fashioned tools, nails, latches and hinges. There were forges blazing night and day.

Meanwhile, stonecutters and masons quarried massive limestone blocks from the hills of Judea for the foundations and walls of both the temple and Solomon’s palace. The largest stone that has been excavated in the site of the ancient western wall of the temple in Jerusalem is a single rectangular block that weighs over 300 tons. It rests on foundation stones and is so large that no one today knows how it was moved and installed at the site. Three thousand years later it is still solidly set in place.

Excavating the Temple Mount Today

If you go to Jerusalem today you can walk past the exposed part of the western retaining wall of the ancient temple and enter a tunnel to see excavation of the wall that lies underground. Beyond the western wall are the remains of the temple that have yet to be excavated. And they may never be excavated because above that site is the Muslim Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem. There is a fear of the collapse of streets and buildings above the site and Palestinian authorities generally oppose all Israeli explorations of the Temple Mount.

Muslims have occupied the top of the Temple Mount since the seventh century and they call it Qubbat al-Sakhrah, or the Dome of the Rock. It’s the third holiest religious site in Islam. The compound has various monuments, and a mosque as well as the Shrine of the Rock. Inside the Shrine of the Rock is a large stone that both Jews and Muslims revere as the place where Abraham prepared to offer his son as a sacrifice to God. Jews believe the son was Isaac; Muslims believe the son was Ishmael.

Jerusalem and all of the holy lands are so full of ancient ruins and artifacts that it’s possible to dig anywhere and uncover them. When my husband and I visited Israel in 2019 we saw hundreds of pieces of ancient pottery, broken tiles, and even Roman glass scattered across the ground. The land is scores of feet deep in layers of ancient history.

Furnishing the Temple

King Solomon put one man in charge of crafting the furnishings for the temple. He was Huram, the son of an Israelite woman from Naphtali and a Lebanese father from Tyre. Huram designed the giant bronze pillars at the entrance to the temple, along with their spectacular capitals decorated with pomegranates and lilies.

Huram also designed the massive bronze sea used for washing during the sacrificial rituals. He created ten smaller basins on bronze carts, five for the north and five for the south sides of the temple. There was so much bronze in all of these items that King Solomon didn’t even try to account for it. Huram created the models and Solomon had them cast them cast in bronze in the clay along the Jordan River.

Solomon also ordered the crafting of all of the gold implements and furnishings for the Holy Place and Holiest Place inside the temple. In the end, the temple was a treasure trove of gold, silver, bronze and polished stones.

Treasures of the Bible

The treasures created by the ancient Israelites have been lost over time. Legends abound about what became of the valuable and holy items in the temple and there are places in the world that claim to possess some of them. But the true value of such things lies in their association with the presence of God. If someone could find the Lost Ark now, or any other item from the temple, it would have no power in itself. The Lord is not in those things anymore.

As we continue to read our Bibles we will see how the concept of the temple grows from a single place on earth to being located in the hearts of God’s children through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The beauty of the temple Solomon built is that it’s a picture of God’s home in heaven above, as well as the interior of every believer’s heart when the Lord comes to dwell there.

Here’s yesterday’s video about Solomon’s temple, in case you want to look at it again and see the furnishings Huram built.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiF-wObznds