CHAPTER 7

(1005-992 B.C.)

SOLOMONS PALACE

¹But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. (As the Temple was built first, likewise, it will be built first in the coming Kingdom Age, and then the government buildings will be constructed. The Temple must be first, because the Worship of God, of which the Temple is a type, is the singular most important thing there is [Ezek., Chpts. 40-48].)

²He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits (150 feet), and the breadth thereof fifty cubits (75 feet), and the height thereof thirty cubits (45 feet), upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

³And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row.

⁴And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.

⁵And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.

⁶And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits (75 feet), and the breadth thereof thirty cubits (45 feet): and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them (this was, no doubt, a covered colonnade; it had a roof but no sides; in fact, the pillars were its only walls).

⁷Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.

⁸And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaohs daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch (this would seem to have been the private residence of the queen, not the harem where all the wives and concubines were gathered).

⁹All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.

¹⁰And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits (15 feet), and stones of eight cubits (12 feet; the foundations of the palaces, consequently, were much less than those of the Temple platform, with some of those stones measuring some 24 feet).

¹¹And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.

¹²And the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the House of the LORD, and for the porch of the house.

HIRAM OF TYRE

¹³And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre (even though this man bore the same name, this Hiram was not the king of Tyre; he was a metalworker, and had charge of all the castings of pillars, the Brazen Sea, and many other things used in the Temple furnishings).

¹⁴He was a widows son of the Tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass (in a sense, Hiram, as addressed here, is a Type of the Holy Spirit; as well, the brass [copper] is a type of humanity; it can be shined to a high gloss, but, at the same time, it can tarnish very easily): and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass (typical of the Holy Spirit). And he came to king Solomon and wrought all his work (the Holy Spirit is attempting to make the Child of God what the Lord Jesus wants, not necessarily what we want).

¹⁵For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece (27 feet): and a line of twelve cubits (18 feet) did compass either of them about (in a sense, these pillars are types of the Child of God; Jesus said, Him who overcomes will I make a pillar in the Temple of My God [Rev. 3:12]; as the Temple was a Type of Christ, and the pillars a type of the Child of God, Jesus no doubt had these pillars in mind when He made the statement concerning the overcoming Christian).

¹⁶And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits (7 feet), and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:

¹⁷And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter (the chain work represents the umbilical cord, so to speak, between Christ and the Believer).

¹⁸And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates (a type of the Fruit of the Spirit): and so did he for the other chapiter.

¹⁹And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work (typifies purity) in the porch, four cubits (6 feet).

²⁰And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

²¹And he set up the pillars in the porch of the Temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin (the name means he shall establish): and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz (means in it is strength).

²²And upon the top of the pillar was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished. (The reason this much description is given of the pillars is because, and as stated, they typify the Child of God in relationship to Christ. The pillars sat in front of the Temple, but actually they did not hold up anything. They stood alone facing the east. When the sun would come up each morning over Mount Olivet, its first rays would strike the highly polished pillars, which was a sight to behold.

Pillars normally serve as a support; however, these are for ornamentation only. The idea is this:

The Lord really doesnt need us. In a sense, we are ornamentation; however, through His Love and Grace, He gives us the most prominent position in His Kingdom. But we must remember, the reflection of our glory, of which these pillars were types, is strictly from Christ. It is none of us and all of Him.)

SACRED VESSELS

²³And he made a Molten Sea (the Brazen Laver), ten cubits (15 feet) from the one brim to the other: it was found all about, and his height was five cubits (7 feet): and a line of thirty cubits (45 feet) did compass it round about.

²⁴And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

²⁵It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward (the twelve oxen symbolized the Government of God, which will encompass the Earth during the time of the Kingdom Age; that Government will be the strongest the world has ever known, hence typified by the oxen; as well, it will be the same all over the world, hence all four points of the compass being named).

²⁶And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies (symbolizing the fact that this Government of God will be pure, the only pure Government that has ever existed): it contained two thousand baths.

²⁷And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits (6 feet) was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits (4 feet) the height of it.

²⁸And the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:

²⁹And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and Cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work.

³⁰And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.

³¹And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, four square, not round.

³²And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit (it must be remembered, the Lord designed all of this in totality; none of it, not even the tiniest amount, was the work of a human being; it was all of God).

³³And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.

³⁴And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.

³⁵And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same.

³⁶For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved Cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.

³⁷After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.

³⁸Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.

³⁹And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south. (The entirety of this huge apparatus weighed 25 to 30 tons. It would have held well over 15,000 gallons of water, and, with the water, would have weighed over 100 tons. There were ten small lavers that were supposed to contain roughly 300 gallons of water each, with these lavers weighing about 2 tons each. Jewish writers say that the water was changed daily, so as to always be pure for use in the ceremonial worship.

At the front of the Tabernacle in the wilderness there was but one laver; in the Temple of Solomon there were eleven. These magnificent vessels of polished brass, highly ornamented, foreshadowed the purity, the glory, the grace, the sufficiency, the perfection, and the power of the government which Immanuel will establish in the future Millennial Earth.

In this Chapter, the Holy Spirit designedly omits any mention of the great Brazen Altar, for here attention is drawn to the King Himself, and not to the subject of access to Him!)

HIRAM

⁴⁰And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the House of the LORD:

⁴¹The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars;

⁴²And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;

⁴³And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;

⁴⁴And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

⁴⁵And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the House of the LORD, were of bright brass (copper).

THE CASTING OF THE VESSELS

⁴⁶In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan. (All of these brass fixtures had consisted of ornamentation in heathen temples, etc., which David had taken as spoils after particular battles. They are types of you and me being taken out of the world by our Heavenly David.

All of these vessels were then cast into a furnace and melted, typifying the fact that all the old identity of the new Believer which he had when he was in the world must be totally lost. It can only be melted down in the furnace of affliction. It is then cast into a mold and made into vessels in the service of the Lord, all typifying the consecration and making of the Believer by the Holy Spirit.)

⁴⁷And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out. (The spiritual meaning has to do with what we were before conversion. Ever how so great we thought we were, the Holy Spirit tells us here that, in the Eyes of God, all we were didnt matter. It is rather what He will make of us.)

FURNISHINGS OF GOLD IN THE TEMPLE

⁴⁸And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the House of the LORD: the Altar of gold (the Altar of Incense), and the Table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,

⁴⁹And the Candlesticks (Lampstands) of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the Oracle (Holy of Holies), with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold (there was only one golden Lampstand in the Tabernacle, but here there are ten, five on each side; as well, there were ten Tables of Shewbread, five on each side [II Chron. 4:8]; all of these, including the Altar of Incense, were in the Holy Place, which was immediately in front of the Holy of Holies; in fact, as it regards the main structure of the Temple, there were only two rooms, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies),

⁵⁰And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the Inner House, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the House, to wit, of the Temple.

⁵¹So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the House of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the House of the LORD. (It seems that all the precious metal that David had prepared was not absorbed in the construction of the Temple. There would seem to have been a considerable overplus, which was stored in the Temple treasury.)