The Dedication of Solomon's Temple: A Sermon I Preached 07-03-05
(Image: Blues Piano)
I understand now why it didn't work.
In all honesty, my blues version of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" was a poor choice for an offertory meditation. And since I was just 13 years old, my keyboard chops were - to put it kindly - a little rough. Neither of these things concerned me, though; I was buoyed by a youthful confidence that registered somewhere around invincible.
The pastor had asked me to play, so my church debut seemed almost like a heavenly command performance. I'd prepped hard on this edgy arrangement of "What a Friend;" it gleamed with a coolness that nearly required sunglasses. There were lots of little bluesy slurs and behold, my left hand did groove greatly.
That morning, I looked up from the keys just once, and that was to see the offering plate crowd-surfing the room. Surely these people - undoubtedly amazed by my skill - would be moved to acts of deep generosity.
My meditation closed with a glissando slide down the keys and a bit of hammering on the low octaves. The sanctuary was enveloped by a stunned silence too intense to be spoiled by applause. I quietly left the piano and took my usual seat next to Mike, who - along with me - formed our entire youth group.
"Wow, that was cool!" he whispered. Having just set a new high watermark for church music, I nodded knowingly.
After the service, I arose to accept my accolades. These, however, only came from our churches' youth group, and both of us had already weighed in.
No one else was seeking me out for high-fives. In fact, instead they were looking past me and around me. I began to wonder if I'd done something wrong; that suspicion was about to be confirmed.
As I entered the foyer, I heard George and Dora busily chewing out the pastor. "That kind of music," Dora hissed as she waved her Bible, "doesn't belong in church!"
Dora saw me out of the corner of her eye, and spun around on her heels. She glared down at me and finished her rant with, "and you, young man! You should be ashamed of yourself!" George and Dora got into their big beige Oldsmobile and drove away.
The pastor told me not to worry and assured me I'd done a fine job, but in that sad moment, the blues went from an abstract idea to something a little more concrete.
I will tell you some things that didn't happen that morning: the glory of God did not descend upon us. We were not so overwhelmed by His presence that we couldn't stand. As far as I know, visitors did not fall to their knees and cry out, "surely the presence of God is among you!" None of that happened.
I can take some of the blame for that. I picked a poor arrangement, and played it badly. I lacked judgment and common sense, I lacked skill, I had no understanding of worship, no sensitivity. I was lacking in just about every area a musician could lack.
But...we're talking about a 13 year old kid. I've had some time to think about this by now; that was - what? - 10, 15 years ago?
Over the years, I've had some questions - for example, why hadn't an older musician discipled that kid? Why hadn't a Bible teacher opened the story of how David restored worship to Israel? Wait...why in a community of thousands, why was our congregation just a few dozen people, almost entirely retirement age Saints? Why did we only have a youth group of 2? Why was there no a children's ministry? Why were George and Dora free to run rough-shod and trample the pastor and level the Jr. High kid that pastor was starting to equip for the future?
Oh, Saint, when we begin to answer those questions, we start to comprehend the REAL reason that the presence of God didn't descend upon us.
As we look at our text today, we'll see a time and a place when God's glory DID come down upon His people.
When we step into the pillared chambers of 1 Kings 8, and tour the parallel passage in 1 Ch. 5, we find ourselves in one of the Grand Mysteries of Scripture. It's a passage so overwhelming in its scope that as we explore it, we can barely comprehend the images around us.
Let's pray: Lord, we recognize that You move in mysterious ways, but You have taught us in Your Word that You will manifest Yourself, will reveal Yourself, to Your people under certain conditions. From this astonishing account of the dedication of Solomon's Temple, open our eyes to the possibilities of how we might encounter You and dwell in Your presence. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
You'll find the account of the dedication of Solomon's temple on page 364 of the Red Bibles in the pew. That's 1st Kings chapter 8. In our reading, we'll be highlighting phrases, and I'll be borrowing from 2nd Chronicles chapter 5 to give us a few missing details.
INSERT PICTURE OF DIANE'S PARTY
You can look at a picture of a going away party we held for Diane Miller. The Church staff held it after she served here as Office Manager for 5 years. It's a colorful party. I made the world's best baby back ribs. There were tears. Not about the ribs.
But this picture leaves volumes unsaid about Ned and Diane Miller and their impact here at CHEF. It doesn't tell you that when we were looking for land as a church, Diane prayed and God revealed to her the land on Stony Point road on which we'll soon be building.
INSERT IMAGE OF LAND ON STONY POINT
The picture doesn't tell you that Diane was diagnosed with a rare heart condition, and displayed a character of gold as she went through it. It doesn't tell you that Ned has served as an elder and headed the pastoral selection committee through which the Lord supernaturally called me to come join you in ministry. It doesn't tell you God has called their son Josh to plant a church, and that Ned and Diane have chosen to follow him and help him build that ministry with their own hands. A great picture can leave volumes unsaid.
In the same way, when we look into God's Word at the dedication of Solomon's Temple, we see a snapshot, if a glorious one. But the panorama - the big picture - is simply staggering.
INSERT IMAGE 1 OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
Randy has been walking us through this material in past weeks; to review all that, I'll need to paint with a very broad and a very quick brush.
Buckle up.
David. Youngest, red-headed son of Jesse. Watched the family sheep pen - lest you picture him with untold acres of livestock, David's brothers later called them "those few sheep."
INSERT IMAGE OF DAVID WITH SHEEP
God gives Samuel the prophet a word: He is to anoint one of Jesse's boys the next king. When Samuel visits Jesse's home and meets the sons, no one even bothers to call David into the house! He's made zero impression on everyone....except God. In Heaven, David has won the attention of Almighty.
Something about that ruddy youth, watching those few sheep by the sycamores touched the heart of God. We can infer from the text that he made stringed musical instruments out of wood - called lutes (the predecessor of the guitar).
INSERT IMAGES OF GUITARS 1 and 2...
...and wrote songs and sang them to God while watching and protecting the sheep.
This is remarkable: David's songs of praise reached from the dusty valleys of Bethlehem, Israel, all the way to the golden courts of Heaven. God didn't just hear music - He heard the praises of a noble soul. God found - pounding inside of David's chest - something He longed for in people. He found in that freckled faced runt of the family, what he described as: "a man after His own heart."
Fast forward. Over a rocky 30 years. David indeed takes the throne of Israel. His first concern as the King? That Israel is not a worshiping nation. The Ark of the Covenant - the visible sign of God's presence - has been in storage for decades. There is no music, there are no songs of praise.
David retrieves the Ark. Builds a worship tent - like the one Moses had in the wilderness - right in the heart of Jerusalem. Gathers together the Levitical musicians and teaches luthiers to build instruments. Teaches the people of Israel...what? Teaches them very praise songs he'd written in the sheep pen, and while hiding in caves, and while trusting God in the midst of the 30 years of turmoil he's weathered. These songs have became the songbook of Israel. They are our book of Psalms, the largest book in the Bible, dead center where you can't miss them. Quoted by the New Testament writers more than another other Scripture. David's lyrics set to music, preserved by the hand of God to survive - thrive - through 3 millennia and translated into almost every language on the planet.
This is the David, once a shepherd of a few sheep, now the shepherd of a great nation, who deeply wants to build God a Temple. A Palace of Praise - a throne of thanksgiving...but God tells him no.
God does several things, though: he promises that David's house will last forever and the Messiah will be born of his lineage. He promises that Solomon will actually build a temple, and finally, he gives David the detailed architectural plans for that Temple.
David spends the rest of his life collecting all the wood, and the gold and the silver, and the tapestries, and the marble that will be needed for construction of this glorious building.
INSERT IMAGE 2 OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
King David dies, and Solomon does ascend to the throne of Israel. The building begins in Solomon's 4th year as King. 100,000 general laborers put this project together under the direction of 330 foremen. At various sites, 80,000 stonecutters meticulously prepared the giant blocks to be put in place. And after 7 years of construction, in the 7th month of 960 BC, the final touches are completed on this glorious place of worship.
It may have been called Solomon's temple, but I doubt that anyone in Israel had much doubt about who's vision that masterpiece really was. This was for God's glory, but it was certainly David's moment, though he was dead...it was the culmination of a lifetime of David adoring His God. It was the Man after God's Own Heart exploding his passion into the Next Generation.
That brings us up to the passage we're about to read. Due to the breadth of the chapters involved, I've taken the liberty of highlighting key phrases from the text, but I encourage you to pour over the entire Biblical narrative. Though it's lengthy and detailed, it's also very powerful.
I Kg. 8 1Then King Solomon summoned...the ark of the LORD'S covenant. 3...the priests took...the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. ...King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel...gathered before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted. 6The priests then brought the ark of the LORD'S covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place...
2 Ch. 5 11The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. 12All the Levites who were musicians stood...playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. 13The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang:
"He is good; his love endures forever."
Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, 14and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
Solomon gathered Israel together - maybe 2 million strong? Two thirds the population of Iowa - into Jerusalem at the newly constructed temple. He placed the Ark of the Covenant before them all and had hundreds of priests sacrificed sheep and ox without number.
The percussionists and guitarists - apparently hundreds of them - all the Levites who were musicians - played, and a brass section of 120 took their place, too.
Do you wonder what they sang? I find only one Psalm that fits the description in the text: Psalm 136. Scholars say that this Psalm is the best example anywhere of Hebrew congregational praise. It's an antiphonal. We opened with a Chris Tomlin version of it this morning: "Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King...(His love endures forever)."
Psalm 136
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
This choral piece continues for 26 stanzas! It traces the history of Israel and the goodness of God, and each phrase repeats, "His love endures forever." This phrase - according to the text - was the Great Overarching Theme of the Dedication. Over the course of the week-long event, Israel and sung and heard that line repeatedly.
There came a moment in this time of praise - when Scripture says the worshipers sang as with ONE VOICE. Their voices and instruments echoed in this pavilion - this place of David's vision and Solomon's obedience. This temple built for the glory of God with a labor force the size of Cedar Rapids over a course of 7 years. As that last note hung in the air, "His love endures forever!"
As 2 million people huddled together in the wonder of that moment, God Himself descended upon them. He settled upon that place in the form of a cloud - as He had hundreds of years before at Sinai. Hebrew scholars call this the "Shekinah Glory" of God, and to this day, the Rabbis speak of His sweet fragrance in that place. In that holy moment, the priests ceased their sacrifices. The Levites set down their instruments. And all of Israel fell to the ground in stunned amazement and worshiped their God.
King Solomon then took the pulpit. I'd like to set up Randy's sermons like this, by the way.
Solomon took a moment to explain what had just happened and reminded Israel that God was too big to fit into any temple. He reviewed their history, the reign of His father David and he warned Israel to be faithful to Yahweh.
Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifices on the altar, and the Glory of the Lord filled the place again. The priests and Solomon responded with another 160,000 sacrifices.
Other than the giving of the law at Sinai, scholars agree that the dedication is the most significant event in Israel's history. Since God revealed His pleasure and His glory to entire nation, we might look at a few characteristics of this worship event:
1. It was the passionate vision of one man - an imperfect man. The standard of a leader is a difficult thing - but if I were serving under a king who abused his royal role, was an adulterer and a murderer, I might be inclined to refuse his leadership. And in the case of David, I would be dead wrong and in direct rebellion against God. David was imperfect, but his leadership was from the hand of God.
2. There was unity. When the people declared God's glory AS WITH ONE VOICE, this was when His Shekinah Glory fell upon them. Never underestimate God's smile upon our unity - I didn't say uniformity, by the way. Our differences can become rich harmonies. God smiles on this and does great things.
3. It was extravagant. "Extravagant" may be an understatement. In fact, if - conservatively - you suppose that the number of "uncountable" sacrifices is twice the "countable" number of the sacrifices given after Solomon's message, you'll count 420,000 animals being offered up to God at that dedication. Estimating that every sacrificial ritual required 10 minutes, to perform, this process would require 7000 hours. To fit into the 7 days that Scripture says this dedication took, my math tells me that it would take 800 hundred priests performing sacrificial duties on 12 hour shifts, serving 24 hours a day!
Have you ever wondered what kind of an economic impact this might have had on Israel? I have. At the current market value of beef and lamb on the hoof, that would be just under $150 million dollars. Some of you will ponder the value of a difference between an ancient agricultural society and today. An ox was a man's John Deere tractor.
However, God blessed Solomon's reign with the greatest wealth and prosperity Israel ever knew - Scripture tells us that Solomon became the wealthiest person on the earth. His generousity to God was outpaced by God's generousity right back to him. God hasn't changed, Saint. Are you extravagant in your praise...or are you holding back? Your time, your talent, your treasure - you can't outgive God.
4. It was loud, long, emotional and repetitious. This seems to have met with God's approval. Hmm. I wonder what would have happened if Solomon had passed out comment cards after the Dedication and said, "we hope your encounter with the Almighty this week was a pleasant one. Please tell us what you enjoyed and what you'd like to see improved next time." People have all sorts of ideas, and are usually right about twice a day - but even a broken clock can do that. Let's find out what God wants.
5. It was cross-generational. This was more than David impacting the life of Israel for the next generation. Israel gathered - seniors, parents, teens and tiny-whinies - to worship God. It pleased the Lord, and perhaps we have something to learn from this.
CLOSING...
We can learn a lot about God from the Old Testament, but the greatest lesson we'll ever learn about Him comes from Jesus, who is God Himself dwelling in Human form.
Jesus is the Great Temple (Jn. 2:19).
We can learn about sacrifices that could temporarily take away sins, and restore a relationship with God for a season, but the greatest sacrifice is Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection. The single sacrifice that takes away all our sins and makes us friends with God forever.
Jesus is the Great Sacrifice (Hb. 9:28).
We can learn about the work of High Priests who stood between God and man and offered sacrifices, but there is only One who could offer Himself and then live forever to plead our case before God.
Jesus is the Great High Priest (Hb. 4:14)
We can learn about God's dwelling place with man in the Old testament, but it's only in Jesus that God Himself comes and takes up his home in the human heart. If you're a Christian, you're not ON holy ground - you ARE holy ground. You have an outer court, a holy place and the holy of holies within you. Your heart has become the dwelling place of the Most High. You can worship Your Master anywhere, anytime because
Jesus is worthy of our praise, and He's made his home within us (Jn. 14:23).
I don't have time this morning to tell this story as I'd like - or cast a vision for what our declaration of God's praise should be. I can, though, ask us this:
If under the old covenant: it was possible for a building of stone, the blood of animals and the singing of David's prayers to usher in the presence of God...if that was possible...
Then what might happen when human temples, washed by the Blood of the Son of God, gather in unity?
What might happen when they thunder the glories of their King as with one voice?
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 2:4-5)
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