Behold, I build a house unto the name of Jehovah my God to dedicate it to him, to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual arrangement [of the shewbread], and for the morning and evening burnt-offerings [and] on the sabbaths and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Jehovah our God. This is [an ordinance] for ever to Israel.
Solomon's message to Huram, king of Tyre, does more than order timber. Before any wood is cut, Solomon says why the house exists. It belongs to the name of the LORD, and it is built for a settled round of worship that Israel must keep.
Chronicles tells Solomon's reign with a purpose. One writer compares it with the account in Kings:
The object of Chronicles is not to record the king's responsibility and the ways in which he broke down. It is 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... David was kept from the desire of his heart to build a temple. That work was kept for Solomon. So the Spirit of God soon lets us know that the great purpose of Solomon's reign was the building of the LORD's house.
The verse names incense, bread, burnt offerings and set feasts. Each one pictures something.
He said this house would be dedicated to the Lord for the burning of sweet incense, which speaks of worship. It was for the continual showbread, which speaks of communion with God through the person of the Lord Jesus. It was for burnt offerings morning and evening, picturing the sacrifice of Christ as bringing glory to His God and Father. Such offerings were also for special occasions — Sabbaths, New Moons and set feasts, as seen in Leviticus 23:4.
Notice what is missing from Solomon's list. There is no mention of an offering for sin — and one commentator treats that silence as deliberate:
Here 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, with no reference to sin offerings. Sweet incense of fragrant spices, the symbol of praise, comes first. In Ezekiel 45, where the subject is the temple service during Christ's coming reign, whether for Israel or for the "prince" of the house of David, Christ's deputy on the earth, we find the sin offering, for all are in need of it. Here the thought is more general.
The same writer notes the place Solomon takes in this worship:
He presents himself as king and priest, with no mediator of his own. He offers pure incense himself, as the people's mediator, and it rises with the smoke of the burnt offering, a perfect, pleasing fragrance to God.
Solomon says this is ordained forever for Israel. That steady rhythm marks every stage of Israel's worship:
A third thing in the law of the burnt offering was that it must be perpetual, not occasional — a continual offering throughout their generations. This continual burnt offering, morning and night and all through the night, was a leading feature of Jewish worship. When Solomon set up his temple, he provided a continual burnt offering. When Ezra set up his temple, again they offered the continual burnt offering, even before the rebuilding. Why? Because the LORD claims that this should be the main feature of the worship of His people.
Solomon explains all this to a foreign king, and the man he is writing to supplies the workmen. Writers see something significant in that:
The Gentile has the privilege of having a little share in the building of that house. He has not the readiness and free giving of an Israelite, but he has a place there, and we may say a blessed place. And a more blessed place is yet to come. For that house is to be a house of prayer for all nations (Mark 11:17)... The Gentile's place was subordinate, but sharing in Israel's blessedness.
One writer warns against copying this splendour in Christian worship today:
I know there are many dear children of God who 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 else to match. But this is the Jewish way of honouring God, not the Christian one. What is proper to us is prayer and singing in the Spirit and in the understanding. Whatever the Holy Spirit does not mark, and whatever the Spirit does not take up to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ — whatever is not of faith now — is a total failure.
- Purpose. Solomon builds for the name of the LORD; Chronicles keeps God's purpose, not the king's failures, at the centre.
- Content. Incense pictures worship. The continual bread pictures communion with God through Christ. The morning and evening burnt offerings picture the sacrifice of Christ that brings glory to God.
- Character. Praise comes first, and Solomon names no sin offering. Here the temple is the place of worship, not of need.
- Constancy. The burnt offering was perpetual, not occasional. It returned when Ezra rebuilt, because God claims continual worship from His people.
- Reach. A foreign king shares in the work. It points on to a house of prayer for all nations — though its splendour is not the Christian pattern.
And the house that I will build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But who is able to build him a house, seeing the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house, except to burn sacrifice before him?
Solomon's letter to Hiram of Tyre is a business order for materials and workers. Then the king stops to admit that the house he is paying for could never hold God — so what is a temple for?
Solomon tells Hiram two things at once. The house will be great, and the house will still be far too small. One commentator traces both to the same fact: God's greatness.
Solomon told Hiram the temple will be great because the God of Israel is greater than all the idolatrous gods of the nations (v. 5). He also saw how unworthy he was to build a temple for One so great. The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. So the temple could not be a representation of Him. The only true representation of God is the Lord Jesus. Solomon was building the temple only as a place of sacrifice to God (v. 6).
The verse piles heaven on top of heaven. One writer draws out the picture.
What a vivid idea that expression gives us of how infinite God is! All created things are finite. The spaces they fill may look unlimited to us — heavens stretching beyond heavens, one after another, seemingly without end. Yet by their very nature they are limited. God is not like that; He is infinite.
Solomon does not drop the project. He redefines it. The house is not a container but a place of approach, and the offerings he lists set the tone.
Here the temple is the place where people come to God in worship. It is open not only to Israel, but also to the nations that Huram represents. In Solomon's mind the temple is so much the place of worship that he mentions only burnt offerings here, with no reference to sin offerings. Sweet incense of fragrant spices, the symbol of praise, comes first. … As for Solomon himself, he knows that he is only a weak human likeness of the King in God's plan. He asks who he is, that he should build God a house. Even so, he stands there to burn sacrifice before Him. He presents himself as king and priest.
Hiram — also spelled Huram — is the Gentile king of Tyre, supplying materials and workers. One writer weighs what his share in the work was worth.
The Gentile has the privilege of a small share in the building of that house. He does not have the readiness and free giving of an Israelite, but he has a place there — and we may say a blessed place. And a more blessed place is yet to come. For that house is to be a house of prayer for all nations (Mark 11:17).
Later generations made the temple itself the object of their pride. One commentator points out that Israel's own temple-builder had already ruled that out.
Exalting the temple in a superstitious way takes away from the glory of the One who gives it all its distinctive splendour. The Lord did stoop to make it holy and glorify it, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. But Solomon himself, at that great dedication, had admitted that heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him — much less the house he had just built!
Solomon's admission leaves a question hanging. Would God live with people on earth at all? One commentator answers with one word: grace.
For God to dwell with men on earth would take an astounding act of grace, because the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. He is infinite, without limits, and omnipresent, present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. Nothing can confine Him. Yet in a very real sense He lived in the temple, in the holiest place of all, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
That grace is what makes the verse move rather than merely humble. As one writer puts it, the wonder is not that God is beyond measure, but where He chooses to stop.
Who would have dared to hope for this? The One whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain would live with the poor and needy, to revive their contrite hearts and hold them up in their troubles.
- Great God — Solomon plans a great house for one reason. The God of Israel is greater than all the gods of the nations.
- Small builder — The heavens cannot hold God, so Solomon counts himself unworthy of the job. His house can never represent God. Only the Lord Jesus does that.
- Real purpose — The house cannot hold God, but people can come to Him there. Sacrifice, incense, praise — and praise comes first. The nations, represented by Hiram, have a place there too.
- Standing warning — Prizing the building above the One who gives it its splendour robs Him. Solomon's own words stand against anyone who makes the temple an idol.
- Answered wonder — The God no heaven can hold still chose to live in the darkness of the holy place. He chooses to live with the poor and contrite too. That is a paradox to rejoice in.