2 Chronicles 2:1–3

We find everything here reported, but not in a way that shows his faults. We know very well that these horses, and above all the multiplying of his wives, became a great snare to Solomon. But the aim of Chronicles is not so much to record the king's responsibility and the ways he broke down. Its aim is to bear witness that he was the witness of God's purpose. In Kings, as I have already shown, the question is responsibility. In Chronicles, it is divine counsel. That is the difference between the two books… David was kept back from the desire of his heart to build a temple, which was reserved for Solomon. So the Spirit of God soon lets us know that the great point for which Solomon reigns was the building of the LORD's house.

The Lord had foretold this to David. He worked on Solomon's heart to make him determine to build both a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself. David is also a picture of Christ. But God did not let him build the temple, because David pictures Christ as a Man of war, bringing the world into subjection to Him during the Tribulation. The temple belongs to Christ's reign of peace; therefore Solomon was its builder.

Solomon tells Hiram of his plans, plans that were in no way the fruit of his own will. He had resolved to build the house of the Lord because God had decreed it, telling David His will beforehand. Such is the true character of the decision of faith. Faith decides because God has determined. Often we know the will of God beforehand. Instead of saying "I have determined" to do it, we look for excuses and good reasons to avoid it. Or at least we avoid putting our whole heart into it. At other times our resolutions have no motive except our own self-will. They lead us to bitter disappointments.

It had taken Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this his promptness at the work. It took Herod forty-six years to build his temple. At the beginning of his career, the service of the Lord came before everything else in the king's heart. His own house, certainly less important than the temple, cost him thirteen years of labour.

To my mind it is rather the house of Solomon that pictures the church in connection with Christ. The temple pictures the Father's house on high, where we are brought to dwell.

Here Solomon explains to Huram the meaning of building the temple. He does it in a different way than the book of Kings does… The temple is the place where people come to God in worship. It is open not only to Israel, but also to the nations whom Huram represents. In Solomon's mind the temple is so much the place of worship that he mentions only burnt offerings here, and says nothing of sin offerings. Sweet incense of fragrant spices, the symbol of praise, comes first.

I know many dear children of God think it is for the glory of God to have grand and imposing architecture, and music of the finest quality to please the ear, and everything to match. But this is really the Jewish way of honouring God, not the Christian one. What belongs to us instead is prayer and singing in the Spirit and in the understanding. Whatever the Holy Spirit does not mark, and does not take up directly to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ — whatever is not of faith now — is a total failure.

The aim of Chronicles is not to record the king's responsibility and the ways he broke down. It is to bear witness that he was the witness of God's purpose. In Kings, as I have already shown, we have the question of responsibility; in Chronicles, the question of God's counsel. That is the difference between the two books. They are not a mere repetition of each other... David was held back from the desire of his heart to build a temple, and that work was kept for Solomon. So the Spirit of God soon lets us know that the great purpose for which Solomon reigns was the building of the LORD's house.

This may seem a large number of men to find work for, especially when only two buildings were involved. But the size and the fine detail of these buildings needed such numbers. We may think that building methods today would not need so many men. The work then, though, was all done by hand, which is much slower and harder than building today. 70,000 of these Gentiles were to carry burdens. That included carrying timber from Joppa to Jerusalem, and carrying stone from the quarries to the site of the temple and Solomon's house. 80,000 worked as stone-cutters in the mountains. Of course, these worked in shifts. The remaining 3,600 were supervisors of the work.

The men who carry burdens, the stone cutters and the overseers are taken only from the Canaanites living among Israel, whom the people had failed to drive out (2 Chron. 2:1-2; 17-18; 2 Chron. 8:7-9): "But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work." So this glorious reign brings about a state of things that had never existed before, because the people had been unfaithful. All their old mixing with the Canaanites is gone. From now on the LORD's people are a free people who cannot be made servants. Meanwhile the foreigners whom unfaithful Israel had not wiped out of their land in the past are the only ones held in service, while the nations, who hold the riches of the earth and are represented by the king of Tyre, are accepted as fellow workers in this great task.

Where these quarries stand, how the workmen cut the stones out, and the proof that they finished and dressed the stones before moving them, may throw light on the words of Scripture: "When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built."

Under Solomon we see this remarkable joining of Jew and Gentile in the work. In the same way it is Christ Jesus, risen and glorified, whom Solomon pictured, who builds the temple of God. He has reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God in one body by the cross, and He employs those who are His own, called out from both, in His service.

We see in 1 Chronicles 22:4 that the nations beyond the land of Israel were called to join in this great work, and that they gave themselves to it with zeal and complete good will. So it will be when the millennial temple is built.

We know very well that Solomon's horses, and above all his many wives, became a great snare to him. But Chronicles does not set out to record the king's responsibility and the ways he broke down. It sets out to bear witness that he was the witness of God's purpose. In Kings we have the question of responsibility; in Chronicles, of divine counsel. That is the difference between the two books. They are not a mere repetition of each other.

He had resolved to build the house of the Lord because God had so decreed, communicating His will beforehand to David. Such is the true character of the decision of faith. Faith decides because God has determined. This point is important. Often we know the will of God beforehand. Instead of saying "I have determined" to do it, we look for excuses and good reasons to avoid it. At the very least, we avoid putting our whole heart into it.

King of Tyre, who loved David and was a friend of Solomon. By his servants he supplied both timber and stone for the temple and the palaces of Solomon... He is called Huram in 2 Chronicles 2:3-12.

Of his own free will he had come to offer his services to Solomon's father, and his carpenters had built him a house. The same willing spirit led him to send his servants to David's son, because he had always loved his father. How could he fail to be welcomed by the king of glory when he had always loved the king of grace?

All that had been prepared during the reign of grace is brought to adorn the house of the Lord under the reign of glory. The entire plan came from David, and not from Solomon — even less from Hiram, as rationalists would suppose. The first reign prepared the glory of the second. A suffering, rejected Christ precedes a glorious Christ. What David had done looked smaller than the work of Solomon, and the materials looked less than the glorious workmanship. But in reality David's work was the necessary basis of what pictures the whole of the millennial blessing.

So it will be in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus by and by. He, the head of Israel, will make use of the Gentiles. The Gentiles, represented here by the king of Tyre, will bring all their means, their wealth, their glory. They will bring it in allegiance to the King of kings and Lord of lords. But it would be a great mistake to confuse the character of that day with the principle of this one. I know many dear children of God think grand, imposing architecture honours God. They think the same of the finest music to please the ear... But this is really the Jewish way of honouring God, not the Christian one.