1 Kings 6 – 480 years after leaving Egypt, 4
years into Solomon’s reign, they start on the Temple. It was 60 by 20 cubits,
30 cubits high [or 90’ by 30’ and 45’ high]. It’s interesting how exact the
biblical account is on the dimensions. It is similarly precise when it
describes the Ark Noah was told to build [450’ by 75’ by 45’] and the Ark or
Covenant Box that was built to contain the “words” or “commandments” of God
[45” by 27” by 27”]. The stone used was finished with precision at the quarry, some
distance from the site of the Temple.
No hammer or tool of any kind was used on stone at the Temple because of
the noise it would create. There
were three stories to it, each one wider than the one beneath.
Then it says,
“Now
the word of the Lord came to Solomon, ‘Concerning this house that you are
building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my
commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you,
which I made to your father David.
I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my
people Israel” (6:11-13).
The inner
sanctuary is for the Ark of the Covenant to be kept in. The interior of the inner sanctuary was
30’ by 30’ by 30’, overlaid with gold, “in order that the whole house might be
perfect; even the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid
with gold” (6:21-22).
Inside the
sanctuary the cherubim were made of olivewood, each 15’ high and each wing was
7 and ½ feet long. The wings
touched the walls. The cherubim
were also overlaid with gold (6:28). The walls were carved with cherubim, palm
trees and open flowers. In the
fourth year, the foundation was done. In the eleventh year, it was all done.
Ephesians 3 - Paul introduces
this and the following chapters of his letter with the phrase, “I, Paul, a
prisoner of Christ.” He
describes himself as one claimed by the Lord for a purpose, and the purpose is
to bring God’s message of redemption to the Gentiles, a message which
eliminates the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles and which at the
same time reconciles both to God.
It is Paul’s task to bring to light the plan of God’s salvation which
has been hidden from ages past, “so
that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to
the principalities and authorities in the heavens” (3:10). Somehow, the church proclaims a plan or
a reality, which must be made known to all creation, including the spiritual
hierarchies the Jews pictured as populating the heavens.
Paul is
preaching about the “inscrutable riches of Christ” (3:8), which is being
offered in his teaching as an apostle.
Paul prays here my favorite
prayer in the whole New Testament:
“Out
of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your
hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through
faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints
have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;
until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are
filled with the utter fullness of God” (3:16-18, Jerusalem
Bible translation – the best, I think).
We who
are delivered from our bondage like the Israelites must go through a desert
time, a time of transition and drama, during which we may often be tempted to
give up or go back to what seemed comfortable and familiar, even though it was
slavery to us. We must derive power from the presence
of God and for us Christians that presence is experienced by allowing Christ to
“dwell in our hearts through faith”; this trust in Christ and reliance upon him
is a real power in us, not a power to aggrandize us in any human way, but a
power to help us become rooted in God’s love.
Rooted there we will have strength beyond
anything we might imagine to comprehend the infinite love of God, which is made
known to us and made palpable to us in Christ’s life and continued presence in
us. This power is often neglected
by those who try to instruct us in the gospel life. It is a transforming power that can give us a much greater
degree of freedom from the spirit of the age in which we live. We need not despair over the weakness
of our nature and bemoan the fact that we sometimes yearn for the security
provided by remaining trapped in the realm of our appetites. Christians
should be continually encouraged to understand the very real power Christ
offers them to overcome these temptations and really experience a degree of
freedom from the bondage of sin. This is the testimony of Friends and the faith
in which ALL of their “testimonies” are rooted.
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