2 Chronicles 3:8-17: a reflection

8He made the most holy place. Its length, according to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. 9The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He overlaid the upper rooms with gold. 10In the most holy place he made two cherubim by carving, and they overlaid them with gold. 11The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long: the wing of the one was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub. 12The wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits, joining to the wing of the other cherub. 13The wings of these cherubim spread themselves out twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house. 14He made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and ornamented it with cherubim. 15Also he made before the house two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. 16He made chains in the inner sanctuary, and put them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains. 17He set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

This is a builder's inventory, gold by the talent, cherubim, a veil of blue and purple and crimson, two great bronze pillars. It can read as tedious detail, but notice the sheer lavishness. Six hundred talents of gold overlay the inner sanctuary alone. Nothing is spared. The care and cost say something plain: God is worth the very best they could give.

And notice the two pillars at the entrance, which Solomon took the trouble to name. The one on the right he called Jachin, which means he establishes; the one on the left Boaz, in him is strength. Whoever came to worship passed between two standing sermons: God establishes, and in him is strength. A whole theology was built into the doorway, so that the architecture itself preached before a word was said.

There is something here about how we treat what is God's. It is easy to give God our leftovers, the cheap and the convenient. This temple was built on the opposite instinct: give him the best, and let even the structure declare who he is. You are not building a temple, but the question still lands. What are you giving God, your best or your leftovers? And do the things you build with your life, your habits, your home, quietly preach that he establishes and that in him is strength?

Lord, you are worth my best, not my leftovers. Let the things I build with my life preach what those pillars declared: that you establish, and that in you is strength.