Building Big God Honouring Things

As you all know we have been working through the book of 1 Kings and the last couple weeks you would notice that Jon got the story of King David on his death bed securing the throne for Solomon. Jon got Solomon ordering the executions of Joab, Adonijah, and Shimei. Jon got Solomon standing before two bickering mothers and calling for a sword to cut the child in half. I got 1 Kings 6:14-22

1 Kings 6:14–22 NIV

So Solomon built the temple and completed it. He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen. He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

I got two chapters of that stuff. At first, as I read this I was thinking to myself that is a lot of logistical stuff, and a sermon should include something that we can all take away for our everyday lives. And so I read these passages over and over again, and I listened to them over and over again, and the more I read, the more interesting it became.

When we think of the logistics, the ingenuity and the resources that were poured into this particular event, the building of the temple which was described in 1 Kings 5-6, you can’t help but be amazed. I wanted to give a nod to some of the logistical issues that Solomon was confronted with. First Solomon knew he wanted to build a temple that God had told David not to build. Notably referred to in 1 Kings 5:3

1 Kings 5:3 NIV

“You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the Lord his God until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.

David had been given clear instructions to not build the temple. Referring to this issue again in 1 Chronicles 22:8 and 1 Chronicles 28:3 we are reminded that God told David not to build the temple because he “was a warrior” and had “shed blood”. That being said we see that Solomon did not have all the necessary resources he would require to build the temple. While Solomon had the ability to collect the stone and he had the fine metals, he needed help with the wood. At the first opportunity, Solomon makes an allegiance with someone who can help him with wood. In 1 Kings 5:11 we are told how this allegiance led to an exchange of goods that saw Solomon giving twenty thousand cors (or 125 000 bushels) of wheat and twenty thousand baths ( or 440 000 liters) of oil to Hiram each year. It has been suggested that this deal could have been for the rest of Hiram’s life.

This endeavour was so vast it involved 183,300 people, this is not including Hiram’s people who are not clearly numbered in the passage. However, Solomon did not stop the logistics with the people. Out of the 183,300 that had been recruited he sent 30,000 to Lebanon to help fell trees. Here again, Solomon shows his wisdom. Instead of making these men relocate he would only send 10,000 at a time giving them a work schedule of 1 month on 2 months off. Solomon was a wise king who thought about his people's lives beyond their service to their country. As we continue to look at these numbers, out of 183,300 people there were 3,300 supervisors which breaks the numbers down to roughly 1 supervisor being in charge of roughly 55 people (well to be exact 54.54545454545455 people). One of the more amazing feats in this endeavour was that neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built. That meant that everything had to be cut to the exact size and then put into place. Reading on we start to see the in-depth design of everything and how purposeful things were.

Continuing to read this account you can’t help but hear the poetry in what is being described. Everything was purposeful and perfect by design. Take for example 1 Kings 6:27

1 Kings 6:27 NIV

He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

Without going into too much detail the reader begins to see a pattern. Everything was painstakingly planned. Everything was divinely designed. Everything was visually poetic. This beautiful temple, built out of the finest materials and then overlaid in gold was something that David could only dream about.

One of the reasons this is in the Bible is so we can stand in awe of this temple, but there is something more. Something about how we can build big and God honouring things. Wouldn’t you like to know how to do this? Wouldn’t you like to know how to build big and God honouring things? You know in our society we spend so much of our lives doing something less… like chasing after girls or boys in our young years, or pursuing ultimate financial satisfaction, or pursuing the next supposedly greatest machinery for our farms when what we have might be just as good. Some spend so much time in a lineup when there is a new release of the newest iPhones just to be disappointed by the new designs, but they had to have that new iPhone even though their current one is only 6 months old. Others spend hours on video games trying to get good enough to compete at the pro levels, that’s right there are pro levels in video games, all the while they don’t realize life is passing them by outside. Or you are someone who does spend your time outside but you are so focused on developing that curveball, or that changeup, or that slider that you are only focused on, me myself and I.

So here it is! Here’s how you build big, God honouring things.

1 Kings 5: 1-12

1 Kings 5:1–12 NIV

When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David. Solomon sent back this message to Hiram: “You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the Lord his God until the Lord put his enemies under his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my father David, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’ “So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians.” When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and juniper logs. My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.” In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted, and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths, of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

This got me thinking. When you read 1 Kings 5-6 you notice something very specific, you notice David almost being present in the shadows while the building of this temple is underway. Clearly, this is not because David is present, no he is very much deceased, but you notice that the things that David did before he died were very purposeful. Without David’s relationship with Hiram before David died Soloman wouldn’t have been able to arrange with Hiram to obtain the timber from Lebanon as easily as he did. I am not saying that Solomon wouldn’t have been able to form a relationship with Hiram without David doing the leg work, but the fact that David had already had that relationship seems quite strategic. Working and planning for what was to come David had done some, if not all of the leg work in preparation for his son, Solomon, to build the temple.

In 1 Chronicles 22:5, we see David being concerned that his son will not be prepared to build the temple. Because of this he tells us,

1 Chronicles 22:5 NIV

David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So David made extensive preparations before his death.

Subsequently, in the following verses we see not only what David did in preparation for his son to build a temple but we also see why David couldn’t build the temple himself. Defending Israel’s territories and being a man of war affected his ability to build the temple. This is demonstrated when God said in 1 Chronicles 22:8-10

1 Chronicles 22:8–10 NIV

But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’

What is incredible is that this plan had been in place before Solomon was even born, we see God saying “you will have a son” and God names him Solomon. If we were to carry on reading this chapter we would see that David has taken great “pains”, as he describes it, to provide for the temple of God. In preparation for the day of Solomon taking over as king after his death, David goes on to collect:

100,000 talents (3,750 tons) of Gold

1,000,000 talents (37,500 tons) of Silver

Quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed

Wood, but not just any wood, they used cedar from Sidon

David also collected Stone

And to further his preparation for Solomon, David makes sure to have workers skilled in every kind of work:

Stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and those who work in gold, silver, bronze and iron.

The amazing thing is that David knew that he would never get to see the temple built, but he worked tirelessly to make sure his son would succeed. Because of this effort, we see the success of David’s preparation in the work that Solomon carries out. Additionally, we see that David’s poetic heart is captured in the imagery of the designs within the temple. Reading this text further, we see a dad who recognizes that he will never be able to see the end product but knows that he can pass on the necessary resources for his son to succeed. We also see a son who humbles himself to learn from his father to be able to succeed after his father is gone.

In the time that David took to teach his son and prepare him for the moment that was to come one can’t help but look at David and realize that he had put in as much time as he could. You see this moment being played out in 1 Kings 2 and 1 Chronicles 22 where David calls Solomon to him to instruct him and encourage Solomon before David dies. Sometimes we build big God honouring things by standing on the shoulders of those who came before, sometimes we do this by preparing the ground for those who are to come. I know there are some in our congregation who have been on the farms their parents have owned since the day they were born. In fact, that farm might have been in their family for generations before they were even born. Those parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents invested the time for those who would come after them not knowing what the future would hold for their homestead that they have been breaking ground on for years. Likewise, I think about parents who have invested years in taking their children to 6 a.m. hockey practices they poured time into their child’s ambitions not knowing what was in that child’s future, without any expectation of that child becoming the next #99 the great one.

For those of us who are parents think of those late-night conversations you have had with your spouse about “if we die where do our kids go? If the person, or persons, we want to raise our kids are 22 hours away, who do we want to be an emergency caregiver?” As you think about the well-being of your children you make decisions that benefit your children. You make decisions that potentially carry on benefiting your child well past your own death. These are the things that a child doesn’t see, but they are things a parent must think of. A parent is responsible for blazing a trail in front of their child so that child has the best chance that they can have to be successful. This doesn’t mean providing gold, bronze, and silver for your child’s success (well not always), some parents are not in the place to provide a monetary boost to their children’s success. However we are all in a place to build and prepare in preparation of our children's successes. Sometimes this is simply gathering people around us who we know will help raise our children up in the right way. We also gather other parents around us whose children can influence our children positively. We gather people around our children who, if we pass on from this life, can speak into our children's lives a positive message about the Gospel.

But this isn’t just about parenting, it is about life in the church, this is why when we dedicate a child or get baptized in front of a congregation, we do it at a church where we have found a family. Further, we call those we love to join us on that Sunday to also be a witness on that day of the covenant we are making between us and God. When everyone stands in recognition of the commitment we just personally made or the commitment we made in raising our children up in the family of Jesus Christ, everyone there is also committing to come alongside us and our children and help keep us on a path with Jesus. If you were thinking before that none of this applies to you, but you have been baptized, and you do belong to a church or this church, then you are mistaken all of this applies to you. When you commit your life to Jesus Christ you are called to contribute to helping teach, correct, rebuke and walk alongside all those who are part of your church family. This responsibility of preparing the way for the successes of other Christians within our church, no matter their age, also falls on you. They are your family too.

We are reminded a few times in the Bible to train, start, or teach our children in the way they should go. Proverbs 22:6 says

Proverbs 22:6 NIV

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Ephesians 6: 1-4 says a little more on the matter

Ephesians 6:1–4 NASB95

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Like a family things won’t always be perfectly smooth, we won’t always agree with the directions taken, but like David, we must continuously and with great pain continue to build and prepare for others around us to have successes in Christ, even when we are no longer here to share in those triumphs. Ultimately, this is what we are called to do “to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that (Jesus) commanded us.” Matthew 28 19-20. In the end, our successes aren’t about the grandeur of what we’ve built, David never saw the temple. Solomon only stood on his fathers shoulders. It’s not about the project it’s about our faithfulness. We build big God honouring things by being faithful.

Lets pray