2 Chronicles 3:1-2 adds this information: "Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign." Ziv, also known as Iyar, is a springtime month on the Hebrew calendar. In the upcoming year of 2023 it begins on April 22 and ends on May 20, having 29 days total. So we see Solomon began building in the spring, as soon as the rainy winter season was over. It wasn't until the fourth year of his reign that he began the work and I presume this is because it took him that long to gather all the materials, artisans, and laborers needed for the project.
The significance of the temple site mustn't be overlooked. We first heard of Mount Moriah back in Genesis when the Lord said to Abraham, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love---Isaac---and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you." (Genesis 22:2) Of course the Lord never truly intended for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. When we studied the book of Genesis we discussed why the Lord said these words to Abraham and we talked about Abraham's belief that the Lord would raise Isaac right back up from the dead. If you'd like to look back at the portion of the study that covered Genesis 22 you can find it in the archives at the very bottom of the page on today's study under the 2019 posts for December 27 through December 31. We did a four part study on the subject.
When Abraham and Isaac were on Mount Moriah, the Lord provided a sacrifice (a ram that had gotten caught by its horns in a thicket) for the burnt offering. In gratitude and in a spirit of commemoration Abraham gave the location a second name: The Lord Will Provide. The place where the Lord provided an offering for atonement in place of Isaac is where the people will bring their sacrifices and offerings to the Lord at the temple. The mountainous region that makes up the area known as Moriah is believed to include the hill upon which Jesus Christ was crucified as an atonement offering for the sins of mankind. We know He was not crucified inside the walls of Jerusalem or inside the temple complex itself, but I have no trouble believing that the cross upon which He hung was on a hill that makes up the outer portion of Moriah. It makes sense that the place where Abraham told Isaac, "God Himself will provide the lamb," (Genesis 22:8) would be the place where "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29) was provided by God for our atonement.
In our text from 2 Chronicles 3 we find mention being made of Araunah. You may recall him from our study of 2 Samuel when in King David's day there was a threshing floor on a hill near Jerusalem that was owned by a man known as Araunah the Jebusite. This hill, and a large area of land surrounding it, was purchased by David from Araunah after he saw the angel of the Lord standing there in 2 Samuel 24. A plague was moving throughout the land and it was as the angel stood on the hill that the Lord commanded him to halt the plague. Then the Lord sent the prophet Gad to tell David to purchase the land from Araunah and build an altar on it. He paid fifty shekels of silver for the threshing floor itself and either on that day or at a later date paid six hundred shekels of gold for the surrounding land. The threshing floor and the land around it makes up the total acreage upon which Solomon builds the temple itself and the complex surrounding the temple.
David bought this land and accumulated many of the materials Solomon will use for the temple. The Lord gave David the instructions with which David drew up the blueprints for the temple and its surrounding complex. We will soon be learning more about how it looked on the outside and on the inside.
I'll be going out of town early tomorrow morning for a three-day vacation so we will have to pause our study of 1 Kings until Tuesday, October 11th. I won't be where my laptop and study materials are and it's really hard to write the Bible study away from home so we'll stop here for now and pick up with verse 2 on Tuesday morning. Have a blessed weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment