2
Chronicles 2 reminds me of a story. When I was a kid, my neighbor
built a huge pool. My good friend and I spent hours, helping dig out
an area that would be the bottom of the pool. We helped smooth the
sand and stretch the liner and strained to get the retaining wall
set. We nervously watched the pool being filled with water and
checked for leaks. What a great pool! The following summer, they
moved and the new people had a very young son. All we could do was
look at the crystal clear water shimmer from outside the fence. We
were not invited to swim in the pool we built. The magnificent
building known simply as “Solomon’s Temple” was built by
workers from everywhere with material from the entire region as part
of God’s plan. The chapter begins, “Solomon
gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the Lord and a royal
palace for himself…he conscripted seventy thousand men as carriers
and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and thirty-six
hundred as foremen over them“.
Later we are told, “Solomon
took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel…and they were
found to be 153,600“.
I believe it is clear much of the work on the temple was done by
Gentiles because God intended the Temple to draw people to the one
true God. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 11 after entering the
rebuilt temple and tossing out the corrupt men that defiled the
Temple saying “Is
it not written, ‘My
house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’?
But you have made it a ‘den
of thieves’.”
Are you looking at God from the other side of the fence?
Next
we read the correspondence between the contractor and his main
supplier. Solomon wrote to Hiram king of Tyre: “Send
me cedar logs as you did for my father David…I am about to build a
temple for the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to Him“.
Solomon adds, “The
temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater
than all other gods. But who is able to build a temple for him,
since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who
then am I to build a temple for Him?”
Solomon recognized his own limitations. “Send
me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and
iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the
art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled
craftsmen“.
Solomon also began to order supplies, “Send
me also cedar, pine and algum logs from Lebanon… provide me with
plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and
magnificent“.
And Hiram responds like any businessman that just got a huge order,
“Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth!“.
Hiram,
then set out the terms, “I
am sending you Huram-Abi…a man of great skill…He is experienced
in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He
will work with your craftsmen…Now let my Lord send his servants the
wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised, and we will
cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them in
rafts by sea down to Joppa“.
In my experience there are lots of people that use religion speak to
gain an advantage. I believe in our work life we are to live out our
faith with integrity. We honor God when we treat people with respect
and “Let
your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ be ‘No.‘”
(Matt 5:37).
You are the Temple of His Holy Spirit, are you inviting to your
co-workers? Let the light of His Spirit shine in you.