Day 103

Building the Temple

Read: 1 Kings 6-7

In the days when Israel traveled through the wilderness, the center of worship was the tabernacle, which had been built according to God’s instructions and was also portable. It had been David’s desire to build a more permanent temple, but God said that Solomon should build it instead. The temple was now built in the same form as the tabernacle, only with all the dimensions twice as great.

A cubit is about 18 inches long, the approximate length from a man’s elbow to his fingertips. The inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was shaped in the form of a cube, the height, length and width being equal. Although there was a huge labor force of drafted Israelites and of the men of the king of Tyre, it took 7 years to complete the temple. Interestingly, it took 13 years to finish Solomon’s palace.

The Bible makes it clear that worship in the temple was a temporary arrangement. In John 4, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that true worship would take place neither at the Samaritan temple nor at the temple in Jerusalem but that true worship is in spirit and in truth. The Bible also teaches that the church (not the building but the people) is God’s temple and that each of our bodies is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we should treat our bodies accordingly.

PRAYER
Father, help us to worship you from the heart, not only when we are in the church sanctuary but everywhere, and to treat our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.