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2 Chronicles Chapter Three

 

2 Chronicles 3

Chapter Contents

The building of the temple.

There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in 1 Kings 6. It must be in the place David had prepared not only which he had purchased but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand believe and obey his word that our work and our way may be made plain and that all may be begun continued and ended in him. Beholding God in Christ his true Temple more glorious than that of Solomon's may we become a spiritual house a habitation of God through the Spirit.

── Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on 2 Chronicles

 

2 Chronicles 3

Verse 1

[1] Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah where the LORD appeared unto David his father in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Moriah — It was the belief of the ancient Jews that the temple was built on that very place where Abraham offered up Issac.

Verse 3

[3] Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits and the breadth twenty cubits.

Instructed — By David and by the Spirit of God.

The measure — According to he measure which was first fixed.

Verse 4

[4] And the porch that was in the front of the house the length of it was according to the breadth of the house twenty cubits and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

The height — This being a kind of turret to the building.

Verse 5

[5] And the greater house he cieled with fir tree which he overlaid with fine gold and set thereon palm trees and chains.

Greater house — The holy place which was thrice as large as the holy of holies.

Verse 9

[9] And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

Nails — Each of the nails screws or pins by which the golden plates were fastened to the walls weighed or rather was worth fifty shekels workmanship and all.

Upper chambers — Rather the roof.

Verse 10

[10] And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work and overlaid them with gold.

Image work — Or of moveable work not fixed to the mercy-seat as the Mosaical cherubim but in a moving posture. It seems they were designed to represent the angels who attend the Divine Majesty.

Verse 13

[13] The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet and their faces were inward.

Inward — Heb. towards the house that is the most holy house.

Verse 14

[14] And he made the vail of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen and wrought cherubims thereon.

The veil — The inner veil before the most holy place. This denoted the darkness of that dispensation and the distance at which the worshippers were kept. But at the death of Christ this veil was rent; for thro' him we are brought nigh and have boldness or liberty not only to look but to enter into the holiest.

Verse 17

[17] And he reared up the pillars before the temple one on the right hand and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin and the name of that on the left Boaz.

Jachin — That is He shall establish.

Boaz — That is In it is strength.

── John WesleyExplanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles

 

03 Chapter 3

 

Verses 1-17


Verses 1-14

2 Chronicles 3:1-14

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem.

The surpassing beauty of the temple

I. That God did not need this lavish expenditure of gold and gems and rich ornaments

II. Yet Divine condescension accepted this offering of human gratitude.

III. The beauty and costliness of the temple served to impress the mind of surrounding nations with the feelings of the people of israel towards their great God.

IV. The adornment of the temple a rebuke to mere utilitarian views. (Biblical Museum.)

And he began to build in the second day of the second month.

Memorable days

Have we not all had memorable days?

1. The day when the boy left home.

2. The day when the young man finds his first friend in business the head that can direct him the hand strong enough to give him assurance of protection the voice all strength and music that charmed his fears away and gave him consciousness of latent possibilities of his own.

3. The day when the young man got his first practical hold of life and business how much he made in his first little profit the very first sovereign he made by his own wits and energy. Do not let all days be alike; save yourselves from so running one day into another as to drop the dignity the accent the significance of special occasions. (J. Parker D. D.)

Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God.--

Life-building

The building of the temple is a striking example of life-building.

I. Solomon began with instruction. “Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed”: literally “Now this is the ground-plan.” So many people are building without a ground-plan. It would seem as if they were attempting to perform the impossibility of building from the top; they have no foundations no great principles; there is a brick here and a stone there and a beam of wood yonder but there is no grand scheme. “Solomon was instructed.” Then Solomon was not a born builder that is to say a man who needed no instruction no hint no apprenticeship in these things. He was a man who began with instruction. A man is none the worse for having his little book of instructions in his pocket when he goes abroad. The book is not a large one in mere superficies but who can declare in arithmetical numbers its cubical contents? Every line is a volume; every sentence is a time-bill; every proposition is a philosophy. Even Solomon accepted instruction. It is never wise to be beyond a hint beyond the counsel of experience.

II. Solomon began well: what wonder if he continue well? He said he would start life with the dowry of wisdom. No accidents could happen to Solomon because he started at the right point; accepted the true definition of life and walked in the light of wisdom. If it happened that Solomon should ever trifle with that light conceal it modify it despise it he would go to the devil. No matter if he had built s thousand temples he would land in perdition if he ceases to walk in the ways of wisdom. No man can build himself up to heaven however many temples he may build; he must build up from within--in the matter of conviction principles life character he must blossom into purity he must fructify into love.

III. Solomon’s instructions were sufficient. Sometimes we wish that we had a rehearsal of life and that we might come back and begin at the beginning and walk in the light of experience. There is something better than experience and that is revelation. The Christian claims that the whole map or chart of life is to be found in the Book of God; and co it is. So there need be no pensive desire for a trial-trip in the ways of life.

IV. Solomon had a definite purpose in view: he was building a temple. Definiteness of purpose economise time enables strength to issue in the noblest accomplishments. A man will have good reason to know what he is doing if he pay attention to Providence. There need not be so much darkness in the ways of life as is often supposed. (J. Parker D. D.)


Verse 6

2 Chronicles 3:6

And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty.

Cost and beauty in Christian worship

The author of the history of the Jewish Church uses these words concerning the temple of Solomon: “As in the Grecian tragedies we see always in the background the gate of Mycenae so in the story of the people of Israel we have always in view the temple of Solomon. There is hardly any Jewish reign that is not in some way connected with its construction or its changes. In front of the great Church of the Escuriel in Spain--in the eyes of Spaniards itself a likeness of the temple--overlooking the court called by them the Court of the Kings are six colossal statues of the kings of Judah who bore the chief part in the temple of Jerusalem--David the proposer; Solomon the founder; Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Josiah Manasseh the successive purifiers and restorers. The idea there so impressively graven in stone runs through all the subsequent history of the chosen people. Why was this temple built and what was the motive especially of its enormous costliness and its unrivalled beauty? Solomon did not build and “garnish the house with precious stones and with gold of the gold of Parvaim” because he was ambitious as a king and a conqueror to outshine his neighbours or to immortalise himself but because he was bidden to do so. The temple was not an exhibition of wealth or cleverness or superiority on the part of man its builder; it was man’s education in cost and sacrifice and unsparing labour on the part of God its designer. There is just one principle that runs through all the teaching of the two Testaments concerning what men do for their Maker and that is that God does not want and cannot otherwise than lightly esteem that which costs us nothing and that the value of any service or sacrifice which we render for His sake is that whatever may be its intrinsic meanness or meagreness it is as from us our very best. This will let us see the insufficiency of the average explanations that are given of the motives that prompt to the enriching and beautifying of our sanctuaries to-day such as--

1. Such things are necessitated by the inevitable rivalries of the day. It would be said that this is a time especially in England and on the continent of Europe of restorations. And what one Church has done another cannot afford to be behind in doing also. The spirit of the age is the spirit of competition and competition which is the life of trade is the life of religion too. If this is a very pitiful motive to be alleged for any such work it is not an altogether surprising one. That competitive temper has so much to do with explaining our personal and social expenditures that it is not unnatural to seek in it the clue to expenditures that are sacred. Think for a moment how much money is spent for dress for the furnishing and decoration of houses. Now then what is it that is sad about all this? its cost? No but what is too often and too plainly its motive. If our banquets were always the symbols of our eagerness to please of our desire to give of our best to those whom we love and honour then their cost and splendour would only so much the more ennoble them. But it is because too often our dress our houses our entertainments our equipages are only so many means by which we strive to outshine and eclipse our neighbour that such expenditure becomes so largely not only the wasteful but the truly contemptible thing that it is. And yet it is no wonder that so long as we allow such motives to influence us in things secular we should infer or impute them concerning things that are sacred.

2. When changes are made in our social customs in our habits of expenditure and even in our modes of worship we are often told that they are necessitated because we must “keep up with the times ” and those who are wedded by very sacred associations to things ancient are often wounded in their tenderest feelings by being told that they must give up the old in order not to be behind the age. Well the spirit of the nineteenth century whatever else may be said of it is not an infallible spirit and in many respects it would be better if some of us were behind the age rather than so eagerly and unthinkingly in accord with it. But however this may be the “spirit of the age” can never be the guide for the principles of worship or the law of sacrifice. Such cost and beauty is helpful to the instinct of worship and devotion. This motive is a perfectly valid and intelligible one. But the one sufficient motive for cost and beauty and even lavish outlay in the building and adornment of the house of God is the consecrating to Him the best and costliest that human hands can bring. This is the very essence of the Cross of Christ. The power of the Cross over men lies in this that it is the gift to men by God of His very best--“His well-beloved Son.” (Bp. H. C. Potter.)

──The Biblical Illustrator