Scripture Daily

Context No. 806 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 2:7-12: in context

7“Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. 8“Send me also cedar trees, cypress trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. Behold, my servants will be with your servants, 9even to prepare timber in abundance for me; for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful. 10Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.” 11Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them.” 12Huram continued, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who would build a house for the LORD and a house for his kingdom.

Solomon is the wisest and wealthiest king Israel will ever have, and he is about to build the temple, the great work of his reign. And the first thing he does is admit what he cannot do by himself. He writes to Hiram, the king of Tyre, and asks for help. Send me a man skilled in gold and silver and bronze and iron, in purple and crimson and blue, who knows how to engrave, to work alongside my own craftsmen. Send me cedar and cypress from Lebanon, because your servants know how to cut timber and mine do not. In return I will send workers and provide food for them. The richest king around cannot raise the house of God without borrowing the skill and the materials of a foreign kingdom.

There is a quiet humility in it. Solomon does not pretend Israel has every gift it needs; he knows the finest woodsmen and metalworkers of the region are Hiram's, not his, and he is not too proud to say so and ask. And the collaboration bears an unexpected fruit: Hiram, a pagan king, writes back blessing the God of Israel, the maker of heaven and earth, for giving David so wise a son. The greatest project of Solomon's life gets built because he was willing to name what he lacked and receive it from someone else's hand. Even the temple was not a solo achievement. It went up on borrowed skill, humbly requested.

Even Solomon could not build the temple without asking a foreign king for the skill and materials he did not have. What am I trying to build alone, too proud to name what I lack and ask someone else to supply it?

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