1 Kings 5:18

In verses 13-18 we watch the preparatory work on the temple being organised. Each man is employed according to his own ability. The wisdom of Solomon directs everything. His workers come to help Hiram's with the wood for building, carrying loads, cutting stones out of the mountain. The men of Gebal have their part in the work.

A coastal city of Phoenicia. Identified with Jebeil, the ancient Byblus, near the mouth of the river Adonis. Its inhabitants are called Giblites in Joshua 13:5. Some were workers in stone and helped in the work of the temple, 1 Kings 5:18, margin. Others were caulkers, Ezekiel 27:9.

As well as Solomon's and Hiram's builders, verse 18 speaks of the Gebalites quarrying stones. There were Gebalites connected with Edom, Ammon and Moab (Psalm 83:6-7). But the Gebalites (or Giblites) in our chapter are more likely those spoken of in Joshua 13:4-5, closer to the Sidonians and to Lebanon.

This cooperation of the Gentiles in building the temple is also prophetic, for the riches of the Gentiles are promised to Israel. Jews and Gentiles will unite to show His glory.

The nations beyond the land of Israel were called to join in this great work. They gave themselves to it with zeal and complete goodwill. So it will be when the millennial temple is built.

"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" (1 Kings 6:7). Stone placed upon stone, each fitted into its appointed place, and all these white marble stones were polished like a palace.

It was to be the temple of the God of peace, so no iron tool was to be heard in it. Quietness and silence both suit and help religious exercises. 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 (Psalm 74:4, 6). But it was built up in silence. Noise and violence often hinder, but never advance, the work of God.

Each stone represents the individual believer, once dead in trespasses and sins, but now made alive by the Spirit of the living God. So we are told to "look to the rock from which you were hewn" (Isaiah 51:1). The evangelist is God's quarryman, used by Him to break these stones out of the world in which they are embedded by nature. This is often hard work, needing great skill. Then comes the work of the pastor, leading them into a deeper experience of divine truth... Then these stones must be "polished like a palace." This is the work of the teacher. He opens up the mysteries of God and leads souls upward, onward, Godward, into closer conformity to Christ. The present world is God's workyard, in which there is fellowship of labour.