This is the story of the high points of King Solomon’s reign, before everything went downhill. Solomon’s life like a fairy tale, with God showing up and asking him, “What do you want? Wisdom? Riches? Glory? Just name it, it’s yours.” Solomon asked for wisdom to rule the people God had given him; God gave him immeasurable wealth and honor in addition to the greatest wisdom humankind has ever known.
Too bad he didn’t use it. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Honestly, given the choices of wisdom, riches, or fame, I’m not sure which I would choose. Wisdom is the obvious “right” choice, but it would be fabulous to be debt free and be able to give generously and travel and buy yarn whenever I wanted to, and fame would give me a change to speak to more people about the word of God. Of course, the other gifts would be useless without the wisdom to administer them properly. Oh, to have the choice!
Back to Solomon...God gives him the task of building a permanent temple, as He is ready to dwell in a permanent structure. Solomon begins building the Temple 480 years after the Exodus. Israel has been waiting for this for a long time. The Temple is made of stone, lined with cedar, and then covered with gold. It must have been beautiful to see, and it would have been filled with wonderful fragrances of cedar and incense as well. Solomon has workers make the tools and utensils for the temple, for the priests need wash basins, candlesticks, tables for bread and incense, a new altar for sacrifices; most of these things are made of gold, bronze, or silver. Many times the Bible tells us that so much metal was used that the amount could not be measured.
Finally, it is ready, and Solomon dedicates the Temple with proper pomp, circumstance, and speeches on the grace, mercy and favor of God. There was also a warning. “If Israel ever forgets God and gets sent into exile...” Foreshadowing, anyone?
This is the high point of Solomon’s reign; the glory of God fills the temple and lights the fires for the altar. One of my favorite hymns has the line, “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” This describes what has happened to Solomon and the Temple on this day. However...
The double edged-sword of being so greatly blessed is that God will hold him--and the nation of Israel--accountable. It reminds me of something I heard in a movie about great power coming with great responsibility. God appears to Solomon after the dedication of the Temple and says, “Great party! Keep up the good work and I will bless you beyond even your wildest dreams. But if you screw up and lead the people to follow idols, I will wipe you and the kingdom of Israel off the map.” Israel had heard this sort of thing before. 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 400 years of judges both good and bad, and two kings later, they have a permanent Temple. Maybe now they’ll listen.
Maybe.
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