1 Kings 5:9

He responded favourably to Solomon's request, willing to provide cedar and cypress logs for him. Hiram's servants would cut them down. Then they would float them along the sea-coast in rafts (or what we may call "booms") to the port in Israel closest to Jerusalem. There the rafts would be broken up, and the logs carried by land to Jerusalem (vs. 8-9). He accepted Solomon's word too that he would provide food for Hiram's household.

And after all, what is Hiram's service in comparison to what Solomon does for him? Sometimes what we do for the Lord looks like something. The cedars of Lebanon and all the effort of moving them were no small thing. But Solomon uses many other materials to build the temple besides Hiram's cedars and cypresses. The great costly stones and the gold that covered everything mattered more to the foundation and the glory of the building than the products of Lebanon. Still, Solomon accomplishes Hiram's desire because Hiram accomplishes his (vv. 9, 10), and Hiram's desire is the feeding of his house. The Lord could do without us, but He does not want to. He knows well that using us in His service gives joy to our hearts and blesses them — but we cannot do without Him. It is He who gives life, nourishment, strength, and growth. The food of Hiram's country, the wheat his merchants traded in, came from Palestine (Ezek. 27:17). It is the Lord's land that supplies what we need to live. So Hiram depended on Solomon for this: "providing food for my household" (v. 9).

One might own cedar trees and cypresses and still die of hunger. Certainly one does not die of hunger when one places them into the service of Solomon!

So there was only one way for every tree used in building the temple. The axe, the axe; stroke after stroke, until the lofty tree lies flat and dead, cut off from every root of nature. And then down, down, down the slopes of Lebanon, right down into the water. It must go into the water at the foot of Lebanon before it can come out of the water at Joppa. And it must go into the water, and come out of the water, before it can go up to Jerusalem's temple. There was no overland route for a single tree.

Saul of Tarsus was not only a great sinner — he calls himself "the foremost of sinners." He was also the loftiest Pharisee that ever waved his head on the moral Lebanon of man. He was a cedar tree of the cedar trees, a fir tree of the fir trees, "a Hebrew of Hebrews." Then the word of God entered his soul. When Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" the lofty cedar fell flat on the ground. What a felling! The trees went into the water at the foot of Lebanon and came out at Joppa. In the same way, Saul was buried with Christ in death, and the new man Paul was raised out of death, possessing the new life, one with the risen Christ.

We note also that the temple was to be built on the threshing floor of a Gentile. Hiram, king of Tyre, another Gentile, worked closely with both David and Solomon in the great work (1 Kings 5). So Israel's God had Gentiles before His mind, to share the blessedness of His presence on earth among His people. "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa. 56:7). Just a hint in advance of the largeness and universality of God's grace in this gospel day.

This friendliness between Solomon and Hiram pictures the peace established between Israel and the Gentile nations in the millennium. Gentiles will come to Israel's light and the wealth of the Gentiles will come to Israel (Isa. 60:3-5). God knew how to turn Hiram's heart toward Solomon. He knows how to change the hearts of other Gentiles too, from hatred to friendliness toward Israel, as He will in the latter days.