Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying,“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel" (1 Kings 6:11-13).

Notice that the promise of God to Solomon with respect to the Temple was conditional. If they obeyed all the commandments in the Law of Moses, then God would remain with them and bless them. This was simply   an expansion of the promise of blessings/cursings that accompanied the giving of the Law to Moses in Deuteronomy 27-28. In addition to the promises given to Moses God had added the promise of an enduring royal dynasty in His covenant with David (2 Samuel 7). 

We must be careful not to apply these promises directly to ourselves today, for they were not given for us but for the people of Israel under the provisions of the Old Covenant. Why is this understanding important? 

If you go to a site like sermoncentral.com, you will find over two hundred sermons by pastors around the country, preaching on 2 Chronicles 7:14, a familiar parallel passage to our current passage, as a promise to claim for revival in America. In doing so they violate a cardinal rule of hermeneutics (i.e. proper biblical interpretation), namely, to be faithful to preach within the contextual boundaries of any given passage. 

The Bible is becoming something akin to a rabbit's foot with quaint Scriptures to quote, especially in Old English, and hidden "gems", like the prayer of Jabez, to claim, as if in doing these things we will obtain some special blessing from heaven. This seems to me more like divination and superstitution rather than biblical faith. 

Friends, we are not under the Old Covenant but the New. The promises given to us were not conditioned on works, as it was in Solomon's day, but on grace and faith, which are given to us as gifts from God. We do not claim the promises of the Old Covenant, like the one above in 1 Kings 6:11-13, because if we do, we put ourselves once again under the curse of the Law, by which anyone and everyone is cursed who fails to keep the whole Law (cf. Galatians 3:10).

Yet, we read these passages as examples of the importance of careful obedience to what God has commanded. While we are no longer under the Law of Moses, we are, nevetheless, under the greater Law of Christ, by which we are commanded to love one another, even as He has loved us (cf. John 13:34).

The entire building was completed in every detail by midautumn, in the month of Bul, during the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build the Temple. (1 Kings 6:38 NLT)

Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years to complete the construction. (1 Kings 7:1 NLT)

Do you find something interesting here? At the end of 1 Kings 6 we are told that it took seven years to build the Temple. But at the beginning of the very next chapter we are told that it took Solomon nearly double that time to complete the construction of his own palace. Also, the construction of Solomon's palace(s) is placed in-between the description of the Temple and the furnishings that were put into the Temple. Doesn't it make you wonder whether we have the first indication of Solomon losing sight of his priorities. Is he not exalting his own glory above that of the LORD's? Is it fitting that the Temple should appear simply like a chapel next to his more glorious palace? 

Yet, to view this another way, the biblical author may have put the detailed description of the Temple first to show how Solomon is prioritizing God's house over his own. The length of time may be irrelevant because God gave very specific commands with respect to the design of the Temple, so that it would have been wrong for Solomon to go beyond what God specified. Finally, only a relatively little space is given for the description of Solomon's palace(s). This may be to contrast this with the detailed description of the Temple, which was followed by even more detail with respect to the furnishings of the Temple and Solomon's dedication of the Temple. Thus, rather than diminishing the significance of the Temple, the small "aside" to describe Solomon's palaces may have even served to enhance its significance, which after all was not so much in the physical stones but in Solomon's faithfulness to God's Word (1 Kings 6:12-13).

Why do I write these two perspectives? I want us to understand that we should not to be too presumptuous in interpreting things that are not interpreted for us. This is true for matters like this, as well as other matters, like the interpretation of certain parables in the New Testament. There are numerous parables for which Jesus did not provide the meaning. We should be careful not to be too dogmatic about our interpretation of these (e.g. the Parable of the Prodigal Son). Remember, parables were told primarily to hide truth, not to reveal it, such that even the disciples required Jesus to explain the meaning to them (Mark 4:10-12, 34).

Therefore, let us be discerning as we study the Scriptures. Let us not add to it or take anything from it but honor it by giving careful attention to every word and context. Let us be careful not to read into the text or else extract verses from its context to support our theologial biases. As Paul warned in 1 Corinthians 4:6, "Do not go beyond what is written." I was disappointed that we skipped over this verse in the current preaching series, for I believe it is one of the critical verses, if not the most critical verse, that closes Paul's discussion on the divisiveness in the Corinthian church. It sums up both the problem and the solution, both for the leaders as well as the members:

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. (1 Corinthians 4:6 NIV)

In other words, if we remain true to the Bible, staying within the boundaries of its teachings, not pursuing this person or that person, nor this experience or that technique, then we "will not be puffed up" in pitting one person or idea or experience over against another, because we will all be submitted to the Word of God. Paul takes four chapters to describe the problem and gives the solution in a verse. It would be a tragedy for us to have studied the problem so deeply without recognizing Paul's concluding resolution. And he gives the solution very plainly. If you do X, then you will not be Y. If you stay within the boundaries of the Scriptures, just as we as leaders (i.e. Paul and Apollos) try to do, then you will not be jealous, quarreling and proud. 

Once again, my friends, I encourage some and admonish others, let us be faithful to the Scriptures!

Temple that Solomon built was amazingly detailed, beautiful, and quite expensive.  It took 7 years to complete it.  Many valuable materials and a good number of people were employed.  But no matter how beautiful and majestic it may have looked, the temple that our Lord Jesus built with His body by humbly being hung on the tree cannot be compared with anything in the world.  Now we are His temple where the Holy Spirit finds its dwelling place.  How beautiful Solomon's palace may have looked, it is not worth comparing with the mansion that Jesus has promised to prepare for us in heaven.  How charming Solomon's appearance may have looked, the body that we will be transformed to is beyond our imagination because we'll have spiritual body that suffers no more.  This is the hope that we have in Christ.  After we finish our race here on earth....  He is risen!!!!!!!!

It took 7 years for Solomon to build the temple. This temple was later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

The place of worship is no longer important, it is the person of worship! He could not even be destroyed by death on a cross.

Praise the LORD, Hallelujah, HE has RISEN!!!!

I second Fernando's question about the different floors and stairwells.  As an AFA Mason, we learn that there were different "chambers" of King Solomon's temple, but I've always took that to mean 3 distinct and seperate floors.  We specifically refer to the ground floor, the middle chamber, and the inner chamber (or Holy of Holies).  During some of the other passage work, reference is made to the winding stairwells.  It's been a long time since I learned those passages, but I thought they referred to movement between the chambers, again, making reference to the fact that there was more than 1 floor.

Yujin responds... The evidence does not seem to support a three-story structure for the Temple proper. it was not like, for instance, a traditional three-story townhome. However, as I indicated to Fernando, there appeared to be rooms built along the outer walls that rose three stories and were accessed by a stairwell. Here are the relevant Scriptures:

The complex was three stories high, the bottom floor being 71/2 feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the top floor 101/2 feet wide. The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on ledges built out from the wall. So the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves. The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the Temple. There were winding stairs going up to the second floor, and another flight of stairs between the second and third floors. As already stated, he built a complex of rooms on three sides of the building, attached to the Temple walls by cedar timbers. Each story of the complex was 71/2 feet high. (1 Kings 6:6, 8, 10 NLT)

Can you bring light to the meaning of Chapter 6

⁸ The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. ⁹ So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks.

Were the stairways only during the construction of the temple? or for maintenance?

Yujin responds... As I recall, there were no floors per se to the temple proper, that is the three main chambers, namely, the outer court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. However, it appears that there were rooms along the outer rim of the temple, which were connected by a stairway.

I was surprised the temple was so small. I don't recall the size of the second. It was about as wide as football's end zone, also I don't recall there being anything more than a ground floor. Is there ever a mention of the second and third floor again?

Yujin responds...Great question, Fernando! There is no second floor to the Temple (any version) and there were two: Solomon's Temple and then temple built by the post-exilic community under Ezra. Now, in Jesus' day Herod the Great greatly enlarged the latter Temple. However, the Temple was not an incredibly large structure. It was modeled after the Tabernacle, which was like a mobile Temple, which was not too large, so that it could be easily moved as God led the people through the wilderness. Now, there was no second floor but the height is unspecified so uncertain.