Dawn on a bare limestone hilltop: a round threshing floor of swept rock and a small altar of uncut stones, and staked out around them on the rock a long rectangle of taut cords on wooden pegs, the outline of a house, the Kidron valley in shadow behind.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 3

On the hill where the LORD had appeared to David, Solomon lays out a house of gold, with cherubim inside and two pillars at the door.

17 verses≈ 3 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1SolomonWisdom asked at Gibeon
2–5The templeBuilt on Mount MoriahChapter 3
6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselves
8–9Solomon's gloryThe queen of Sheba
10–16DivisionRehoboam to Asa
17–20JehoshaphatThe battle is God's
21–24Dark yearsJehoram to Joash
25–28Proud kingsAmaziah to Ahaz
29–32HezekiahDoors opened, Passover kept
33–35Manasseh to JosiahMercy and the Book found
36Exile and returnMay he go up

Temple Construction Begins

2 Chronicles 3:1

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Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard.

The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

Reflect

Where the LORD appeared

Solomon built the house on the very place where God had answered David’s sin with mercy: the threshing floor where the plague stopped and fire fell on David’s altar (1 Chronicles 21). The house of worship stood on the ground of forgiveness. Think of a place or a time when God met you in mercy. How does remembering it shape the way you worship Him now? Write it down.

The Temple’s Interior

The Cherubim

The dim Most Holy Place seen from behind and low down: two great gold-covered winged figures in long robes stand side by side, heads lost in shadow, wings spread level from wall to wall, facing a faint glow at the doorway.

In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of sculptured work, and he overlaid them with gold. The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the wall of the temple, and its other wing was five cubits long and touched the wing of the other cherub. The wing of the second cherub also measured five cubits and touched the wall of the temple, while its other wing measured five cubits and touched the wing of the first cherub. So the total wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main room.

0:33

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

The Veil and Pillars

In soft lamplight a great heavy curtain of blue, purple and crimson wool and white linen hangs from ceiling to floor across the doorway of the inner room, patterned with small woven winged figures, its folds still.

He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it.

Question

Quick question

Two great cherubim of gold filled the Most Holy Place, their wings reaching from wall to wall.

Which way did the two great cherubim face?

In front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits high, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.

At dawn, the top of one great bronze pillar of the temple porch catches the first sun: a lily-shaped capital wrapped in bronze lattice and chains and ringed with pomegranates, with Jerusalem’s roofs in haze far below.

He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

Then he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. The pillar on the south he named Jachin, and the pillar on the north he named Boaz.

Plan to scale in cubits · north at the top

The temple

The house Solomon built

The house was sixty cubits long and twenty wide by the old cubit, about 90 by 30 feet, with a porch across its whole width. At the back, the Most Holy Place was twenty cubits square, with the two cherubim reaching wall to wall and the veil hanging before it. Jachin stood on the south side of the porch and Boaz on the north.

Pray

He establishes, in Him is strength

Jachin probably means ‘He establishes’, and Boaz ‘in Him is strength’. Everyone who came to worship walked between those two names. Pray them over your own day: ask God to make firm what you cannot make firm, and to be your strength where you have none. Thank Him that the way into His presence is open.

You’ve experienced

2 Chronicles 3

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A verse to carry with you

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 Chronicles 3:1

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