Scripture Daily

Context No. 2864 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 6:11-22: in context

11The LORD’s word came to Solomon, saying, 12“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.” 14So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood. He covered the floor of the house with cypress boards. 16He built twenty cubits of the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place. 17In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. 18There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible. 19He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of the LORD’s covenant there. 20Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He covered the altar with cedar. 21So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. 22He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold.

In the middle of describing Solomon's temple, all cedar and pure gold, the account pauses for a word from the LORD. Concerning this house you are building, God says, if you will walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, then I will dwell among my people Israel and not forsake them. Then the description resumes: walls of carved cedar, no stone visible, the inner sanctuary overlaid with pure gold.

Notice what interrupts the gold. God speaks, and his condition has nothing to do with the building materials and everything to do with Solomon's obedience. What God cares about is not the splendor of the house but whether the king will walk with him. A temple of gold and cedar can become just a monument; God says the point is his presence, and his presence is tied to a life that walks in his ways, not to the grandeur of the structure that houses it.

Am I tempted to impress God with the grandeur of what I build for him, when what he actually asks is a life that walks in his ways?

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