and Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place at Gibeon; for there was God's tent of meeting which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness.
Solomon's first act as king is a journey. He and the whole assembly leave Jerusalem for Gibeon, because the tent Moses built in the wilderness still stood there. Why was Israel's oldest sanctuary on a hill outside the capital? And why does a king worship at a "high place," when Scripture elsewhere treats high places as a scandal?
Gibeon already had a history before the tent of meeting arrived there.
Gibeon was a great city, one of the royal cities (Joshua 10:2). Later Gibeon belonged to the tribe of Benjamin and became a priest-city. It was about two hours from Jerusalem. After Saul destroyed Nob, the tabernacle moved to Gibeon, and it stayed there until Solomon built the house of the LORD. David had brought the ark from Kirjath-jearim, not far from Gibeon, to the tent he had pitched for it in Jerusalem. But the tabernacle stayed at Gibeon, and so did the bronze altar that Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made. The high place at Gibeon means the raised ground on which the tabernacle and the altar stood. At first the same spot was a Canaanite place for idol worship.
The tent's wandering began long before Saul. It had rested at Shiloh first.
The tabernacle stayed at Shiloh until the Philistines came and took the ark, as recorded in 1 Samuel 4:11. Then it was at Nob in the days of Saul, then at Jerusalem, at Gibeon in the beginning of Solomon's reign (2 Chronicles 1:3). It never got back to this first resting-place.
The phrase "high place" later becomes shorthand for idolatry. Here it does not, and the timing is the reason.
Scripture raises no objection to this high place at the time. It speaks instead of the high position given to the tabernacle. But once Solomon had built the temple, there was no more reason for the tabernacle. Instead, the ark and all the tabernacle furniture came into the temple. This showed that all the truths of the tabernacle were now gathered into the temple, the place God had chosen. After this, worship in the high places was disobedience to God.
The same point becomes a rule about God's patience. What He bears with before He acts, He does not approve once He has acted.
Until the temple is built, the people worship on the high places. That worship is earthly and fleshly, even when they come to the true God. God bears with it. Solomon himself goes there, and God hears him there. The temple is not built. If it had been, it should have been the only centre of service and worship. God may bear with a thing until His power acts. That is quite another thing from approving it after His power has acted. We must remember that Solomon went to Gibeon because the tabernacle and the bronze altar were there.
The tent stood at Gibeon, but the ark stayed in Jerusalem. That split has a meaning.
The bronze altar that was made by Bezalel was in its proper place in front of the tabernacle, and Solomon and Israel met the Lord there. The altar pictured his meeting the Lord in grace, because of the worth of the sacrifice placed on it. But it was inconsistent that the ark was not present. The ark speaks of Christ as the Sustainer of the throne of God, and so of absolute authority. Grace and authority should always be together. God bore with this inconsistency until the temple was built.
Commentators differ over how much blame this deserves. One writer sees Solomon falling short of his father: "Solomon did not rise to the height of David's faith. He did not present himself before the ark; he went before the altar at Gibeon" (The Bible Treasury).
Chronicles tells this scene without the fault that marks it elsewhere.
Here the scene is proper, if I may put it that way, and Gibeon is no longer "the great high place." Instead, it is the place where the tent of meeting of God was, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. There is not a shadow of anything to discredit it! Solomon sacrifices on the altar, the sign of atonement, where the people could meet their God. True, the place was only temporary, while they waited for the temple to be built. But in Chronicles Solomon comes to Gibeon with his people to open the reign of peace, which God could bring in on the basis of sacrifice.
- Sacrifice first. Solomon's reign opens at an altar, not with policy. God brings in the reign of peace "on the basis of sacrifice."
- Together. He does not go alone — the whole assembly goes up, so the nation begins where its king begins.
- Provisional. Moses' tent at Gibeon was real but temporary. It had wandered from Shiloh to Nob to Gibeon, and it never returned home.
- Divided. Altar at Gibeon, ark at Jerusalem. Grace and authority stood apart, and God carried that inconsistency until the temple joined them.
- Borne with, then binding. God bore with the high place while no temple stood. Once He gave the temple, the same act became disobedience.
But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjath-jearim to the [place] that David had prepared for it; for he had spread a tent for it at Jerusalem.
Solomon began his reign at Gibeon, where the tent Moses made still stood with its bronze altar. But the ark was not there: David had moved it to Jerusalem, and Israel's worship now had two centres.
Kiriath-jearim sheltered the ark for years. One writer notes a link between that town and Gibeon:
During Saul's reign, where was the ark of God? Certainly in obscurity (1 Chron. 13:3), but kept safely in Kiriath-jearim, one of the four cities of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:17). When David reigned, where was the tabernacle pitched? At Gibeon! So in those very critical times the Gibeonites deserve credit. One of their cities proved a safe resting place for the ark, and another held the tabernacle.
David could have returned the ark to the old tabernacle. He did not. One commentator explains why:
David knew the tabernacle stood abandoned, so he never dreamed of putting the ark there. That would have meant putting things back on the ruined ground of the law. The outward routine had fallen far short of God's glory. The king takes the lead, since priesthood had failed. The ark takes its place in the seat of royal power. In the same way Christ the deliverer in grace will one day order everything in Zion, and from there the rod of His power will go out.
Each place held only part of what worship needed:
In this in-between period the bronze altar, the tent, and the vessels of service stood at Gibeon, no longer connected with the ark. You could approach the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice which was the only way into the sanctuary. You could approach the altar at Gibeon, but that led only to the holy place, which stood completely empty. The priests had been unfaithful, and the link between the altar and the ark seemed lost forever.
Why would anyone prefer Gibeon's altar to the ark? One writer answers by describing how each one looked:
The ark is not at all the public link with God in the way the great altar is. The great altar stood in the court. The great altar stood in front of every eye. The great altar was the place of offerings. The ark was, by comparison, a small thing, and it was unseen. It sat on purpose behind the curtain veils. It was a matter simply and purely for faith, as far as that could be for an Israelite. He was sure that this was the place where the Lord's glory was most at stake. That is what drew king David. Not so much king Solomon.
Commentators differ on how much blame Solomon carries here. In 1 Kings, Gibeon is "the great high place." Chronicles leaves that out:
In verses 2 to 6 we have the scene at Gibeon, but without the flaws that spoil its beauty in 1 Kings 3:1-4. In our passage the "only" that marks a fault has disappeared... Here the scene is legitimate, if I may put it that way, and Gibeon is no longer "the great high place"... Solomon sacrifices on the altar, the sign of atonement, where the people could meet their God. Was there anything to criticise in that? Not at all.
Gibeon was not the end of Solomon's story. One writer follows him from there:
Having received these blessings, Solomon leaves Gibeon and comes to Jerusalem. There he "stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord." That is the act of a submissive heart that understands the mind of God, and the first display of the wisdom he has just received. He leaves the forms to take hold of the reality... The altar of Gibeon is no longer enough for him.
The divided arrangement did not last. In the end neither site won:
For years there had been two centres of interest, the tabernacle with the altar at Gibeon, and the ark in the city of David. From then on there was to be only one. Gibeon did not simply yield first place to Zion. Both places stepped back, as it were, in favour of Mount Moriah.
- Divided. The ark sat in David's tent in Jerusalem. The tent Moses made and its altar stood at Gibeon. Worship had two homes.
- Deliberate. David refused to return the ark to the old tabernacle. That system was finished, so he placed the ark where royal power sat.
- Defective. Zion had God's throne without the sacrifice; Gibeon had the altar in front of an empty holy place. Half is not enough.
- Discerning. The altar was public and large. The ark was hidden and small. David's faith went after the ark, and commentators differ over Solomon's choice.
- Done. Solomon came back from Gibeon to stand before the ark, and at the temple both centres gave way to one.