1 Kings 6:1

The Holy Spirit in 1 Kings 6:1 dates the building of the Temple from Israel's deliverance from Egypt. In this way He shows that the Lord was about to make His home among a people saved by sovereign grace. Solomon started the work in the fourth year of his reign, "in the month of Ziv, which is the second month." This month lines up with May. Ziv means "splendour." Spring was in its glory, physically and otherwise.

Four hundred and eighty years have passed since the exodus from Egypt; the Lord's purpose in delivering His people has been reached. What Israel had sung on the shore of the Red Sea is at last realised: "You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established" (Ex. 15:17). The two things named there are pictured by David and by Solomon. To prepare is not the same as to build. It was David who had prepared everything for the construction of the temple (1 Chr. 22:14)... Solomon built. The Saviour "prepares"; the Lord "establishes by His hands." God prepared the materials for His dwelling with men and for carrying out all His purposes. They are the fruit of the sufferings and rejection of the true David.

David could not build this house. There had to be peace first (v. 3), before the Lord could make His lasting home among His people. As long as they wandered in the desert, the Lord joined Himself to them in the tabernacle, sharing their life as pilgrims and travellers. Then followed the wars of Canaan under Joshua and the judges; these had not ceased until the reign of David. God cannot dwell in rest where there is war... It is the same, spiritually, for the Church. When the "good news of peace" is announced, the house of God, the holy temple in the Lord, is built up. That work goes on until the full rest of glory.

The building of Solomon's temple runs on the line of God's intentions for His people. He had redeemed them so that they might live wholly to Himself and prepare a home for Him (Ex. 15:2). But during the ninety-three years in which they served His enemies and theirs, they were not living to Him. This was not His purpose for them — and as a result, He could not reckon these sad years in His calendar.

In Acts 13:20 the older English version reads that God gave them judges for about 450 years, until Samuel the prophet. That does not agree with the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1. But Acts 13 has a different reading, and editors of the Greek New Testament have adopted it. They did so for reasons that have nothing to do with chronology. It reads, "...he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges." So the 450 years are not applied to the length of the judges' rule.

Israel needed all that time to reach the height of their power and splendour. Sadly, it did not last very long. Yet it fulfilled God's promise to take Israel out of Egypt and establish them in great blessing in the land of promise. The permanent fulfilment of this promise awaits the coming of the Messiah in power and glory.