In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Jehovah laid, in the month Zif;
This verse fixes a date: the foundation of the temple went down in Solomon's fourth year, in the month of Ziv. Why does Scripture record the month and the count of years, and what does the timing say about the God who would live in the house?
The chapter opens by counting the years since the exodus, and the month named here carries a meaning of its own:
The Holy Spirit in 1 Kings 6:1 dates the building of the Temple from Israel's deliverance from Egypt. In this way He stresses that the LORD was about to make His home among a people saved by sovereign grace. The work began in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, "in the month of Ziv, which is the second month." This month matches our May. Ziv means "splendour." Spring was in its glory, in nature and in more than nature. Israel was about to experience a glorious summer-time of blessing and prosperity.
Another writer measures the same span up to Israel's peak, and then looks past it:
All that time had to pass before Israel reached the height of their power and splendor. Sadly, it did not last very long. Yet it was a fulfillment of God's promise to Israel: He would take Israel out of Egypt and establish them in great blessing in the land of promise. The permanent fulfillment of this promise waits for the coming of the Messiah in power and glory. Then He will establish Israel in millennial blessing.
The foundation here was no modest footing. It was a vast stone platform, and it is still in the ground today:
It took seven years to finish the house. The temple stood on Mount Moriah. An immense foundation of great hewn and splendid stones made the platform for it. This great foundation is still there today, known as "Haram-esh-Sheref," and the Mosque of Omar now stands on it. One stone alone is thirty-eight feet and nine inches long. This great stone is the chief corner stone of the temple's massive wall. Fixed in its place three thousand years ago, it still stands sure and steadfast.
Seven years can look slow for so large a workforce. It depends on what the house was for:
The building took seven years to complete. This may seem a long time with so many workmen at work. But the great detail of the work called for painstaking labor, for the temple pictures the Father's house in glory.
The detail was worth the delay because every part of the building carries meaning:
If in a general way the temple is Christ, all its parts present Him in different characters. There is the ark with the law in its heart, the mercy-seat on the ark, the veil, and all the vessels of the holy place and of the court. Everything, right down to the walls and foundations of the building, speaks to us of Him.
The start and the finish fall in two different seasons, and one writer sees design in that:
The Temple was begun in the spring of Solomon's fourth year, and was finished in the autumn of seven years later. There was order in this. Leviticus 23 describes Israel's feasts. They fall in two main divisions. We may call them the spring feasts and the autumn feasts.
The autumn group still waits:
These await their fulfilment at the end of the age. Israel's tribes will yet hear the trumpet-blast that will call them back to the land of their fathers (Isaiah 27:13; Matthew 24:31). A solemn appreciation of the atoning sacrifice of Christ will be worked in their souls (Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 53:5). Then the joy and blessing of the Millennial Kingdom will follow in the goodness of God.
The account goes on to say that Solomon spent thirteen years on his own house. Commentators differ on the gap. Some read the seven years as a credit to him:
It had taken Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this how quickly he went to work. It took Herod forty-six years to build his temple (John 2:20). At the beginning of his career the service of the Lord came before everything else in the king's heart.
Others take the contrast as a quiet warning about drift:
How often we begin our own service in real dependence upon the Lord, with the full sense that we can do nothing apart from Him. Then, from one cause or another — even from delight in the work itself sometimes — we are drawn into dependence upon our own methods or our own energies. Or we lose sight of God's object because we are taken up with our own.
- Grace first. The date runs from the exodus, because God was making His home among a people already saved by sovereign grace.
- Splendour. The foundation went down in Ziv, the month of "splendour," with spring in its glory and Israel on the edge of a summer of blessing.
- Stone. The foundation was an immense platform of great hewn stones. Its corner stone has stood sure for three thousand years.
- Seven years. The pace was slow because the work was careful. Every part of the house speaks of Christ, and the whole pictures the Father's house in glory.
- Spring to autumn. The work started in spring and ended in autumn — and the autumn feasts still wait for their answer: trumpet, atonement, and the kingdom's joy.
and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished in all its parts, and according to all the fashion of it. So he was seven years in building it.
The chapter closes like a builder's record: a date, a total, and a note that nothing was left half-done. Two questions sit behind that plain report. Whose plan did Solomon follow, and what is a finished house still waiting for?
The house matched all its specifications. But the specifications were not Solomon's, and neither was the ground it stood on.
Everything Solomon did and made for the work he was called to followed the instructions he had been given. God Himself pointed out the site, and God gave the design and the way the building was to be made (1 Kings 6:38; 2 Chr. 3:3). Human hands put it up, but the building was divine. Human thoughts and human ideas must not push their way into the things of God.
The temple copied nothing outside itself. Rossier notes how hard people have worked to find sources for it anyway.
Look closely at the way the temple was built. Its dimensions match those of the tabernacle in a striking way, and beyond that you see the temple was built on no model except that one. We insist on this point, because men who so often dismiss the revelation of God without a second thought will go to great lengths to find out whether temples in Tyre, Assyria, Egypt or Babylon served more or less as models for Solomon's. In fact it served as its own model. Is this not worthy of the True Architect of the temple, who revealed all its details to David, just as He had earlier revealed those of the tabernacle to Moses? And here is what no purely human project could ever do: every one of these details had a divine meaning, to draw out our thoughts by faith to the Person and work of Christ.
Seven years sounds long until you set it beside other building projects — including Solomon's own next one.
It took Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this his promptness at this work. It took Herod forty-six years to build his temple (John 2:20). At the beginning of his career the service of the Lord came before everything else in the king's heart. His own house, certainly of less importance than the temple, cost him thirteen years of labour.
Others read the same two numbers as a warning, and as a mirror of how our own service drifts.
Solomon forgot the divine principle he had been given to record. We see it in the comment added to the statement that he was seven years building the Lord's house: "But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years" — nearly twice seven. How often we start our own service in real dependence on the Lord, with the full sense that we can do nothing apart from Him. Then, from one cause or another — sometimes even from delight in the work itself — we slip into leaning on our own methods or our own energy, or we lose sight of God's object because we are taken up with our own.
With so many workers, seven years can look slow. The detail of the plan accounts for it.
The building took seven years to complete. That may seem a long time when so many workmen were at work. But the great detail of the work called for painstaking labour, for the temple pictures the Father's house in glory.
Being finished was not the same as being full. The completed building lacked the one thing no builder could supply.
In the fourth year of his reign Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1). That was where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, the ground David had made ready. The building took seven years. At last it was finished and beautiful. One thing only was still missing: the symbol of God's presence, to be carried into the inner sanctuary, and the cloud of glory to fill the house — the sign that the Lord had taken possession of His temple.
- Plan. God gave the site, the design and the way of building. Human hands raised the house, but its origin was divine.
- Pattern. It copied no foreign temple. It stood as its own model, matching the tabernacle, because the same Architect gave both — and every detail carried a meaning pointing to Christ.
- Priority. Seven years for God's house, thirteen for his own. Commentators differ: some see Solomon's early promptness, others the start of a drift from God to self.
- Painstaking. The work took years because the detail was great. Nothing was skipped, and the house was finished in every part.
- Presence. A finished, beautiful house was still empty until the glory came to fill it. That cloud showed God had taken possession of the house made for Him.