What Splendor

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

WHAT SPLENDOR

1 Kings 7:9-22

 

9 All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and trimmed with a saw on their inner and outer faces. 10 The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight.   11 Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. 12 The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the LORD with its portico. 13 King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,   14 whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze. Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him. 15 He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits around, by line. 16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubits high. 17 A network of interwoven chains festooned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital. 18 He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars. He did the same for each capital. 19 The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high. 20 On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around. 21 He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.   22 The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

NIV

This is a lot of detail about the two bronze pillars that stood at the front of the Palace of Solomon. Why are we told all these details? What is important about these pillars to the spiritual benefit of the reader? We know that all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for correcting, rebuking, teaching, and training in righteousness, so that we are fully equipped for every good work, but how does this apply? We do wonder just what the new city of Jerusalem looks like and what kind of materials are used to make it. Will God just speak a whole city into existence? We know that Jesus told his disciples, which would include us, that he was going to prepare a place for us and that if he did go and prepare a place for us, he was coming back to take us there. It has been over two thousand years since he went to prepare this place, which could very well mean the new city of Jerusalem, and we would think it has to be done by now. We know it has a lot of gold, streams of water, trees, places to dwell, and the size of the city is fifteen hundred miles wide, long, and high. We envision a mountain for God has used mountains to visit his people; in fact, Jerusalem is built on Mt Moriah. We wonder if there will be pillars of bronze, or maybe of gold, all around, and large dressed stones, with many fine cedar rooms, or dwelling places in our Father’s house. We know Solomon employed the best tradesmen to construct his palace, yet there is none better than Jesus, as he prepared this place where we will be forever. Solomon was but a king, and Jesus is the King of kings, and the palace he has prepared is far superior to anything a man could build. Whatever man builds will fall away, perish in the course of time, no matter what material is used to build it. However, this place Jesus has prepared will last for eternity, and nothing within the city will perish, including all of us who Jesus comes back to get us and take us to that place. There we will have our inheritance, being a co-heir with Jesus. What a glorious day that will be, when we will see our Jesus. How magnificent it will be to walk and talk with him along on some street of gold and sit under a fruit tree, enjoying the never-perishing fruit with Jesus. Then to sit at the great banquet feast, with all the finest of foods, prepared perfectly for our enjoyment. Solomon’s palace, even with all its splendor, could never compare to the splendor of our new palace with Jesus.