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| Image: The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, by Edward Poynter (1890) See full resolution here |
Have you ever wondered why God didn’t allow king David to build the Temple because he was a man of war who had blood on his hands? King Solomon was allowed to build the Temple because he was a man of peace. Being a man of peace enabled king Solomon and the Temple he built to prefigure Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace (see: Isaiah 9:6), and the church he would build.
When Jesus teaches that we are to be perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect and that, like him, we are to be loving and kind to both the just and the unjust, to both the good and the evil (see: Matthew 5:43-48), he is revealing to us far more than that which was revealed, to those who lived during Old Testament times, through Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms (although hints of this fuller revelation can be found in the Old Testament).
Solomon and the Temple are the pinnacle of the Old Testament revelation and religion, and they prefigure (or, point to) the coming of Christ and his church. Jesus Christ gives us the full and final revelation of God, and his church is full and final religion.
“The Lord’s method in dispensing the covenant of mercy was to clarify his teaching more and more the closer the day of full revelation approached. That is why, in the beginning, when the first promise was made to Adam, there was no more than a glow, so to speak, of a few small sparks. After that the light gradually grew and intensified day by day, until the Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), putting every cloud to flight, fully illumined the world.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1541 Edition (p. 446)
Nathan the prophet tells king David that his son will build the temple and that his kingdom will be established forever
“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16).
David a man of war; Solomon a man of peace
Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God: But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever (1 Chronicles 22:6-10).
Construction of the Temple completed. God’s promises and warnings
“And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, 2That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
“But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil” (1 Kings 9:1-9).
1 Kings chapters 9-10 records the completion of the Temple as well as the incredible wealth and wisdom of king Solomon, which was so fabulous that the queen of Sheba heard of his fame and traveled to visit Solomon and prove him with hard questions (see: 1 Kings 10:1-13).
This brief period was the pinnacle of the entire Old Testament religion. It was all uphill to this point and it’s all downhill after this point, until Jesus comes into the world in order to fulfill all that was spoken of him in the writings of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (see: Luke 24:36-49).
By 1 Kings chapter 11 king Solomon had disobeyed the Lord and his downfall had begun (see 1 Kings 11:1 and following).
King Rehoboam makes cheap imitations to replace Solomon’s golden shields
“So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 10Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house” (2 Chronicles 12:9-10).
The Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
“And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire” (2 Kings 25:8-9).
Jesus speaks of the Temple as his body
The Temple that existed during Jesus day was the second Temple, construction of which began when the Jews returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon around 516 BC. This Temple underwent extensive renovations during the reign of Herod the Great from 20-10 BC and was referred to as Herod’s Temple. This second Temple was a poor imitation of the first Temple, Solomon’s, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians more than 500 years before Christ was born.
“Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:18-22).
Jesus foretells the destruction of the second Temple
“And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he [Jesus] said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Luke 21:5-6).
The second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD
“The Roman legions surrounded the city and began to slowly squeeze the life out of the Jewish stronghold. By the year 70, the attackers had breached Jerusalem's outer walls and began a systematic ransacking of the city. The assault culminated in the burning and destruction of the Temple that served as the center of Judaism.
“In victory, the Romans slaughtered thousands. Of those sparred from death: thousands more were enslaved and sent to toil in the mines of Egypt, others were dispersed to arenas throughout the Empire to be butchered for the amusement of the public. The Temple's sacred relics were taken to Rome where they were displayed in celebration of the victory.” (The Romans Destroy the Temple at Jerusalem, 70 AD, EyeWitness to History (2005)
The Church as the body of Christ
“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another (Romans 12:4-5).
“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
“And that he might reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Ephesians 2:16)
“And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:17).
The Church as the Temple
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
“To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).
Jesus mentions Solomon, twice
It's interesting that Jesus mentions Solomon, his wealth, and his wisdom. By doing so he is pointing to Solomon and his early reign, before his fall into sin, as the pinnacle of the entire Old Testament. He also mentions the queen of Sheba.
“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 7:28-30).
“The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:41-42).
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