So Solomon built the house and finished it.
This one short sentence closes the account of the building work. It comes straight after God's warning to Solomon in the verses just before. Two questions press on it: whose house was this really, and what does it mean that a man "finished" a dwelling for God?
A house built to God's pattern
One writer compares the temple with the tabernacle — the tent of worship from Moses' day — and rejects the idea that Solomon copied the great temples of the nations around him:
H. L. RossierLook carefully at the way the temple was built. Beyond the striking likeness between its dimensions and those of the tabernacle, you see that it was built on no model other than that one. We stress this because men who disbelieve God's revelation without a second thought will go to great lengths to work out whether the temples of Tyre, Assyria, Egypt or Babylon served more or less as models for Solomon's. In fact it served as its own model. Is this not worthy of the True Architect of the temple? He revealed all its details to David, just as He had earlier revealed the tabernacle's details to Moses.
Finished, because God was behind it
The word "finished" carries weight. A work a man starts may stall. This one did not, and both houses carry a meaning beyond themselves:
Leslie M. GrantBoth the temple and the house of Solomon took a long time to build, but in the end both were finished. The work was not wasted, as it sometimes is for those who did not first count the cost. What God builds is always perfectly finished. The temple pictures the Father's house in glory, while Solomon's house is a picture of the Church in her condition and circumstances on earth, where God's order is to be maintained among His saints.
The pace of the work shows what mattered most to the king. Compare it with the time he spent on his own house:
H. L. RossierIt had taken Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this his promptness at this work. It took Herod forty-six years to build his temple. At the start 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.
A word spoken while the walls went up
While the work went on, God attached a condition to His own presence there. The whole nation's standing hung on one man's obedience:
H. L. RossierResponsibility fell on Solomon himself in connection with the building of the house. Like so many others, he failed, and so brought ruin on his kingdom. "If you will walk in my statutes … I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel." The only condition God set for not forsaking His people was the king's faithfulness. All His blessing depended on Solomon meeting that condition.
What has changed for those in Christ
One writer contrasts that arrangement with the way God dwells with His people now:
Leslie M. GrantWhile the temple was still going up, God spoke to Solomon. He told him seriously that God's dwelling in the temple would depend on Solomon's obedience: keeping God's statutes, carrying out God's judgments and keeping His commandments. How different this is from the Church of God, which is now established as "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21-22). God's presence in the Church does not depend on our obedience. It rests on the lasting value of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus — a divine work, with no condition of man's work involved at all.
A finished house can still be emptied
Finishing the building was not the end. The condition God set was never met:
Leslie M. GrantNeither Solomon himself, nor his family, nor his subjects met the conditions God set down. So in the end God withdrew from the temple. Ezekiel records the glory departing in stages. God did bear long with Israel's disobedience. But in the end, as the Lord Jesus said, "See, your house is left to you desolate." That was settled in a solemn way when the Lord Jesus, the Son over God's house, was rejected and crucified. What could the temple be without its Lord?
The builder Solomon only pictured
Solomon's finished house points past itself to another builder:
An Outline of Sound WordsAs the one loved by the Lord, Solomon was chosen to sit on his father's throne and to build the house of the Lord. He was also a figure of Him who is Son over God's house. Even now we see God's beloved Son sitting on His throne, waiting for the time when He will sit on His own throne. He too is the One who will build the temple of the Lord.
Summary
- Pattern — Solomon copied no foreign temple. The design came from God through David, just as the tabernacle's came to Moses.
- Priority — the Lord's house took seven years, his own thirteen. At this point in his life, the Lord's service came first.
- Promise — while the work went on, God tied His dwelling among Israel to the king's obedience. Every blessing rested on one man.
- Failure — Solomon and his people never met the condition, and the glory departed. A finished building is nothing without its Lord.
- Permanence — the Son over God's house builds a temple that rests on the lasting value of His own sacrifice, not on our obedience.