And he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
Here the temple's outer shell is complete: Solomon roofs the building and lines it with cedar, and the record adds that he finished it. Two details matter — the word "finished," and the choice of cedar for every surface the eye would meet.
The word "finished" is the point. One writer sets it against builders who start without counting the cost.
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.
No builder can promise a finish without the materials in hand. Another writer applies that to the stones, and to God's foreknowledge of them.
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.
The Hebrew word behind "beams" points to the shape of the roof. One writer then compares that roof with the tabernacle — the tent that housed God's presence in the wilderness. (Older translations render the verse "covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.")
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 tabernacle was framed with acacia, a desert wood. One writer reads the change of material as a move from the desert to the Father's house.
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.
The same source explains what it is about cedar that carries this meaning:
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 cedar did not stop at the ceiling. One writer follows it down to the floor.
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.
The stones had no say in any of it — and that is the lesson one writer presses home:
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 house Solomon completed was not an end in itself.
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.
- Finished. What God builds is always perfectly finished. He never starts a house without the material to finish it.
- Foreknown. God knew every stone of the heavenly temple, chosen and precious, before a single one was laid.
- Cedar. The desert acacia of the tabernacle gives way to cedar. Cedar's sap kills the worm instead of feeding it — a picture of what cannot decay.
- Covered. Cedar over every wall, gold over the cedar, no bare stone in sight. No one dwells with God except on the ground of divine righteousness.
- All of God. The stones were hewn, moved, built in, covered with cedar and gilded — they did nothing. Salvation is all of God, from first to last.
And he built the floors against all the house, five cubits high; and they held to the house by the timbers of cedar.
A ring of rooms stood against the outside wall of Solomon's temple, in three storeys, each five cubits high and tied to the house by cedar beams. The detail looks like plain building work, yet it answers a question the tabernacle never raised: can anyone live where God lives?
The temple wall itself carried the chambers, and no beam cut into it:
The side chambers were in three stories, and each story grew one cubit wider: 5, 6, and 7 cubits. So the wall of the house stepped back at each story. That step left a ledge one cubit wide. The floor beams did not go into the wall; they rested on that ledge.
The height in this verse belongs to each storey of rooms:
The doorway for the stairs up to the second and third floors was on the right side (v.8). The text names no other door to the upper floors, so it seems there must have been a hallway on the three sides, connecting all the rooms. Each of the rooms was 5 cubits high (v.10), though their length is not given.
The way the beams rested carries meaning:
Nothing could separate the priests' homes from the house. They formed one whole with it and spoiled no part of it. The temple walls had ledges where the beams could be fastened without damaging the walls. So the priests' rooms fitted the house perfectly and took nothing from the soundness of the building. This is how we will dwell in glory. Our being there will not weaken the perfection of God's house; it will only add to it. "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God" (Rev. 21:3).
The wilderness tent could never have held such rooms:
All around the temple, except at its entrance, naturally, were the side chambers, dwellings of the priests. The tabernacle in the wilderness had nothing like this. There God could indeed stoop to live among a people in the flesh, but only on one condition: that He hid Himself in thick darkness. He could not let man come and live with Him. Under Solomon's glorious reign man does come to live with God, and it will be so for us when the Lord brings us into the Father's house. All of us who are children of God belong to this family of priests, whose home will be around its Head. And already the Father's house is open to our faith, so we may dwell there while still in this world.
A further contrast is noted in the flooring:
One more thing set the temple apart: chambers surrounded it, so the priests who served God could live around Him. Christ may be pointing to this when He says, "In my Father's house are many rooms." The tabernacle had no floor, and the priests walked on bare earth. In the temple a floor lifted them off the ground.
Second Chronicles describes the same temple, and what each book leaves out tells us something:
First Kings 6:5-10 mentions the chambers all around the house; 2 Chronicles leaves them out. Second Chronicles speaks of the veil (2 Chron. 3:14) and the bronze altar (2 Chron. 4:1), but the writer of 1 Kings mentions neither. This, with other small details, makes it plain that 1 Kings describes God's home and His close fellowship with His people. Second Chronicles however depicts the place where one can come near to God to worship Him.
Commentators differ on how these rooms relate to what Jesus promised. Some see them as a true but limited picture:
The temple pictures the Father's house in heaven. In the temple, however, only a limited number of rooms served the priests on duty at any one time. But the Lord Jesus says, "In my Father's house are many rooms" (Jn.14:2). So the temple is only a faint picture of the reality. The Lord is in effect saying there is room for all His redeemed people there. The word for "rooms" is better translated "abodes," permanent dwelling places.
Others read the Lord's words as a contrast with the temple chambers, not a copy of them:
In the earthly house there were small chambers for the priests and Levites (1 Chron. 28:11-13) as they came up to serve in their turns. The word translated "rooms" points back to these, but by way of contrast. The chambers of the temple were only for temporary use; the rooms Christ promises are dwellings for eternity. The first are earthly; the latter heavenly.
- Resting, not cutting. The beams rested on ledges where the wall stepped back. The house carried the chambers, and no beam cut into it.
- Joined, not damaging. The rooms formed one whole with the temple. Those who live in God's house add to its perfection instead of taking from it.
- Dwelling, not only visiting. In the tabernacle God lived among His people, hidden in thick darkness. In the temple priests lived all around Him, lifted off the bare earth by a floor.
- Recorded on purpose. Kings keeps the chambers and drops the veil and bronze altar. Its picture is God's home and His closeness to His people.
- Small now, eternal then. The temple rooms were small and used in turn. The Father's house holds permanent dwellings for all His people.