1 Kings 6:5–10

The account in 1 Kings 6 may help us to better understand the structure of the side chambers. These were in three stories too, and each one was a cubit wider than the one below: 5, 6, and 7 cubits. This means that the wall of the house stepped back at each story. Each step formed a resting place for the floor beams. The beams were not set into the wall. They rested on the one-cubit ledge that the stepped-back wall made.

The side chambers ran all around the temple, except of course at its entrance. They were the homes of the priests. There was nothing like this in the tabernacle in the wilderness. There God was surely willing to stoop down and live among an earthly people, but only on one condition: He would hide Himself in thick darkness. He could not let man come and live with Him. Man dwelling with God is what is realized here under Solomon's glorious reign, and it will be realized for us when the Lord brings us into the Father's house. Already that house is open to our faith, and we may dwell there while we are still in this world.

1 Kings 6:5-10 mentions the chambers all around the house, and 2 Chronicles leaves them out… This fact, with other small details, makes it plain that 1 Kings describes the dwelling place of God and His close fellowship with His people. Second Chronicles however depicts the place where one can come near to God to worship Him.

The priests' homes could not be separated from the house. They formed one whole with it, and they spoiled no part of it. The temple walls had offsets that held the beams fast without damaging the walls. In this way the priests' rooms fitted the house exactly, without harming the building in any way. This is how we shall dwell in glory. Our being there will not weaken the perfection of God's house; it will only add to it.

The side rooms are in three storeys. They grow larger as they rise, and they lead one into another from east to west, climbing higher and higher. This strongly suggests enlargement and progress in heavenly glory: higher heights, fuller likeness to God, and closer fellowship with Him. They move on from one room to the next until you reach the innermost room, the nearest to "the Holiest of all," the nearest to the displayed glory of God. Thus shall the saints have increasing capacity to enjoy and serve God in the countless ages of eternity to come.

In the temple there could only be a limited number of rooms for the priests who were serving there at any one time. But the Lord Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many mansions" (Jn.14:2). So the temple is only a faint picture of the reality. In effect the Lord is saying that there is room for all His redeemed people there. The word for "mansions" is better translated "abodes," permanent dwelling places. All believers will have their place there, for all are priests of God. In glory they will serve in the full capacity of priests, mainly by offering up spiritual sacrifices to God.

It was to be the temple of the God of peace, so no iron tool must be heard in it. Quiet and silence both suit and help acts of worship. God's work should be done with as much care and as little noise as possible. The temple was thrown down with axes and hammers; those who did it roared in the middle of the congregation (Ps. 74:4, 6); but it was built up in silence. Noise and violence often hinder, but never advance the work of God.

No one saw any trace of human tools while the temple was going up. It rose in silence; no one heard an axe or a hammer. It was the work of God; He prepared everything beforehand. The stones that made up the house had the same character as the foundation stones, also precious and prepared beforehand. It is the same with the church (1 Peter 2:4-5), in that its building up is not left to man's responsibility (1 Cor. 3:10-15).

Every stone was prepared beforehand and fitted into the place where it belonged. How beautifully it illustrates the fitting together of the house, His Church! He chooses and prepares the material and puts each in its proper place. What a contrast with man's methods in trying to increase "church membership"! ... But all the confusion, the wrong ideas and the evils that go with them cannot frustrate the purpose of the Lord. He is building His Church.

However, the temple itself does not exactly prefigure the Church. It is a type of the Father's house above where God dwells. The chambers or dwellings round about remind us of the words of our Lord: "In my Father's house are many rooms." ... But the temple is also prophetic of another temple which will yet stand on the earth when our Lord reigns.

Each stone stands for the individual believer, once dead in trespasses and sins, but now made alive by the Spirit of the living God. The evangelist is God's quarryman, used by Him to break these stones out of the world they are naturally embedded in. This is often hard work, and takes great skill. Then follows the work of the pastor, leading them into a deeper experience of God's truth. Then these stones must be "polished after the likeness of a palace." This is the work of the teacher, who opens up the mysteries of God and leads souls closer to Christ. The present world is God's workyard. The Lord Jesus uses not only the gifts of the Spirit, but also the trials and temptations that come on Christians. All things are under His skilful hand.

Perhaps the readiness of the stones is a picture of the saints when we all come "to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That is, when we are with Him in glory. There will be no sound of hammer or of axe in heaven; all the shaping and fitting will have been done.

The doorway for the stairs up to the second and third floors was on the right side (v.8). Scripture mentions no other door for the upstairs, so it seems there must have been a hallway on the three sides, connecting all the rooms.

It seems there was only one entrance door from the galleries on each side of the Temple. So you passed from one room into the next, right through to the innermost (1 Kings 6:8; Ezekiel 41:11)... I would suggest that the rooms reached by the stairs were for the priests and Levites. They served in the Temple day and night, shift by shift, so that they could wait on God continually.

All around the temple, except at the entrance of course, were the side rooms where the priests lived. There was nothing like this in the tabernacle in the wilderness. There God could indeed stoop to live among an earthly people, but only on condition that He hid Himself in thick darkness, and He could not let man come and live with Him. Here, under Solomon's glorious reign, man does come to dwell with God, and that will be true for us when the Lord brings us into the Father's house.

The temple walls had ledges where the builders could rest the beams without cutting into the walls. So the priests' rooms fitted the house exactly, and took nothing away from the soundness of the building. This is how we shall live in glory. Our being there will not weaken the perfection of God's house; it will only add to it.

The temple pictures the Father's house in heaven. But the temple held only a limited number of rooms, used by the priests who were serving there at any given time. The Lord Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many mansions" (John 14:2). So the picture is only a faint one compared with the reality... The word for "mansions" is better translated "abodes," permanent dwelling places. All believers will have their place there, for all are priests of God.

The side rooms stand in three floors, growing larger as they rise, leading one into another from east to west, and climbing higher and higher. This strongly suggests enlargement and progress in heavenly glory, greater heights, fuller likeness to God and fellowship with Him... There is also a movement from east to west, from one room into the next, until you reach the innermost room, the one nearest "the Holiest of all," nearest to the visible glory of God. So the saints will have a growing capacity to enjoy and serve God through the countless ages of eternity to come.

The Temple rooms were built in three floors, and winding stairs led up to the higher ones. The lowest rooms were five cubits wide, the middle six cubits, and the third seven cubits. Is this meant to suggest continual progress in the Father's house above?

In 1 Kings the priests' dwellings form part of the house. 2 Chronicles 3:9 mentions them only in passing, and says nothing about how they connect to the temple. In 1 Kings the two most important parts of the Jewish system, the altar and the veil, are missing altogether, while Chronicles mentions them. Without them no one could approach God... So we can conclude that Kings presents the temple as a dwelling-place and Chronicles as a place of approach.

Though they were long in building, both the temple and the house of Solomon were eventually finished. The work was not in vain, as is sometimes the case with those who have not first counted the cost, but what God builds is always perfectly finished.

Yes, he would be a foolish builder who began to build and did not know whether he had materials to finish. And what a blessing to remember that God is the great master builder. He foreknew every stone, chosen and precious, that is built and shall be built in the heavenly temple.

These vault-beams, as the Hebrew word informs us (gebim, from gab, an arch), were semi-circular, so forming a dome for the covering. The vault-beams and the ceiling boards were of cedar, both for the Holy and Most Holy house... These domed roofs, covered with cedar and cypress, match the heavenly character of the Temple. They stand in contrast with the acacia wood and flat badger-skin covering of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness pictures the Church of God on earth. The Temple pictures the redeemed, called with a heavenly calling and perfected in heavenly glory.

The temple inside was panelled with beams and boards of cedar. The tabernacle was built of acacia boards (Ex. 26:15). Acacia is a hard, desert wood and speaks of humanity in temporary circumstances of desert experience. Those boards picture believers as they are seen even now "in Christ," for they were covered with gold. But the cedar of the temple is an unusually enduring wood. It speaks of believers in glory, in the Father's house. They too are clothed with gold, the symbol of divine glory, and they reflect the beauty of Christ for eternity, not only on earth.

Cedar, because it does not decay, is an emblem of the incorruptible resurrection body. A piece of worm-eaten cedar was never seen. The sap of the cedar is death to the worm; so that, instead of the worm destroying the cedar, the cedar destroys the worm.

The innermost sanctuary, as well as the holy place, was covered with cedar wood. In the Word cedar represents majesty and height, durability and firmness. No part of the walls within was left uncovered. Nowhere did the stone appear. But the cedar wood itself, and even the planks of cypress of which the floor was made, were entirely covered with gold. In the Word gold always represents divine righteousness and glory... Man cannot dwell with God except according to divine righteousness.

You observe all was done to these stones. Not one bit did they do. They were hewn, they were drawn out, they were built into the temple, they were covered with cedar. The pure gold was put upon them. It is so with the poor sinner. Salvation from beginning to end is all of God.

The days of Solomon were unique in the history of Israel and of the world; and the house that he built to the name of Jehovah was also unique. It was all a bright foreshadowing of days of glory and blessing yet to be brought in by the Lord Jesus.