Context No. 2616 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 2:1-6: in context

1Now Solomon decided to build a house for the LORD’s name, and a house for his kingdom. 2Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them. 3Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me. 4Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of sweet spices, for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel. 5“The house which I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him?

Solomon sets out to build the temple, an enormous project, tens of thousands of laborers, cedar from Tyre, gold and fine work. And yet in the middle of announcing this grand undertaking, he says something startlingly humble. The house I build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain him? Who am I, that I should build him a house, except to burn incense before him?

Solomon holds two things together that we often split apart. He builds wholeheartedly, sparing no expense on a house meant to be magnificent, and at the same time he knows the whole project is, in a sense, beyond him: no building can house the God whom the universe cannot contain. Who am I? he asks, even as he commands an army of workmen. That is the right posture for any work done for God, to do it with everything we have, and to know that nothing we make can capture or contain him. The greatness of the effort and the humility of who am I belong together.

Do I do my work for God wholeheartedly and yet humbly, knowing that nothing I build can contain the God I am building it for?

Sources

2 Chronicles 2:5: The house which I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
2 Chronicles 2:6: who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain him? Who am I then?
1 Kings 8:27: will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you.