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2
Chronicles Chapter Three
2 Chronicles 3
Chapter Contents
The building of the temple.
There is a more particular account of the building of the
temple in 1 Kings 6. It must be in the place David had
prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine
direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and
to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to
render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search
the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and
obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be
begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple,
more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a
habitation of God through the Spirit.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 3
Verse 1
[1] Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at
Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in
the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Moriah — It was the belief of the ancient Jews, that the temple
was built on that very place, where Abraham offered up Issac.
Verse 3
[3] Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed
for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first
measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
Instructed — By David, and by the Spirit of
God.
The measure — According to he measure which was
first fixed.
Verse 4
[4] And the porch that was in the front of the house, the
length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the
height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
The height — This being a kind of turret to
the building.
Verse 5
[5] And the greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he
overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.
Greater house — The holy place, which was thrice
as large as the holy of holies.
Verse 9
[9] And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold.
And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
Nails — Each of the nails, screws, or pins, by which the
golden plates were fastened to the walls, weighed, or rather was worth, fifty
shekels, workmanship and all.
Upper chambers — Rather, the roof.
Verse 10
[10] And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of
image work, and overlaid them with gold.
Image work — Or, of moveable work, not fixed
to the mercy-seat, as the Mosaical cherubim, but in a moving posture. It seems,
they were designed to represent the angels, who attend the Divine Majesty.
Verse 13
[13] The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth
twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.
Inward — Heb. towards the house, that is, the most holy house.
Verse 14
[14] And he made the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson,
and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon.
The veil — The inner veil before the most holy place. This
denoted the darkness of that dispensation and the distance at which the
worshippers were kept. But at the death of Christ this veil was rent; for thro'
him we are brought nigh, and have boldness, or liberty, not only to look, but
to enter into the holiest.
Verse 17
[17] And he reared 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.
Jachin — That is, He shall establish.
Boaz — That is, In it is strength.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
03 Chapter 3
Verses 1-17
Verses 1-14
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem.
The surpassing beauty of the temple
I. That God did
not need this lavish expenditure of gold and gems and rich ornaments
II. Yet Divine
condescension accepted this offering of human gratitude.
III. The beauty and
costliness of the temple served to impress the mind of surrounding nations with
the feelings of the people of israel towards their great God.
IV. The adornment
of the temple a rebuke to mere utilitarian views. (Biblical Museum.)
And he began to build in
the second day of the second month.
Memorable days
Have we not all had memorable days?
1. The day when the boy left home.
2. The day when the young man finds his first friend in business, the
head that can direct him, the hand strong enough to give him assurance of
protection, the voice all strength and music that charmed his fears away, and
gave him consciousness of latent possibilities of his own.
3. The day when the young man got his first practical hold of life
and business, how much he made in his first little profit, the very first
sovereign he made by his own wits and energy. Do not let all days be alike;
save yourselves from so running one day into another as to drop the dignity,
the accent, the significance of special occasions. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Now these are the things
wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God.--
Life-building
The building of the temple is a striking example of life-building.
I. Solomon began
with instruction. “Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed”:
literally, “Now this is the ground-plan.” So many people are building without a
ground-plan. It would seem as if they were attempting to perform the
impossibility of building from the top; they have no foundations, no great
principles; there is a brick here, and a stone there, and a beam of wood
yonder, but there is no grand scheme. “Solomon was instructed.” Then Solomon
was not a born builder that is to say, a man who needed no instruction, no
hint, no apprenticeship, in these things. He was a man who began with
instruction. A man is none the worse for having his little book of instructions
in his pocket when he goes abroad. The book is not a large one in mere
superficies, but who can declare in arithmetical numbers its cubical contents?
Every line is a volume; every sentence is a time-bill; every proposition is a
philosophy. Even Solomon accepted instruction. It is never wise to be beyond a
hint, beyond the counsel of experience.
II. Solomon began
well: what wonder if he continue well? He said he would start life with the
dowry of wisdom. No accidents could happen to Solomon, because he started at
the right point; accepted the true definition of life, and walked in the light
of wisdom. If it happened that Solomon should ever trifle with that light,
conceal it, modify it, despise it, he would go to the devil. No matter if he
had built s thousand temples, he would land in perdition if he ceases to walk
in the ways of wisdom. No man can build himself up to heaven, however many
temples he may build; he must build up from within--in the matter of conviction,
principles, life, character, he must blossom into purity, he must fructify into
love.
III. Solomon’s
instructions were sufficient. Sometimes we wish that we had a rehearsal of
life, and that we might come back and begin at the beginning, and walk in the
light of experience. There is something better than experience, and that is
revelation. The Christian claims that the whole map or chart of life is to be
found in the Book of God; and co it is. So there need be no pensive desire for
a trial-trip in the ways of life.
IV. Solomon had a
definite purpose in view: he was building a temple. Definiteness of purpose
economise time, enables strength to issue in the noblest accomplishments. A man
will have good reason to know what he is doing if he pay attention to
Providence. There need not be so much darkness in the ways of life as is often
supposed. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 6
And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty.
Cost and beauty in Christian worship
The author of the history of the Jewish Church uses these words
concerning the temple of Solomon: “As in the Grecian tragedies we see always in
the background the gate of Mycenae, so in the story of the people of Israel we
have always in view the temple of Solomon. There is hardly any Jewish reign
that is not in some way connected with its construction or its changes. In
front of the great Church of the Escuriel in Spain--in the eyes of Spaniards
itself a likeness of the temple--overlooking the court called by them the Court
of the Kings are six colossal statues of the kings of Judah who bore the chief
part in the temple of Jerusalem--David, the proposer; Solomon, the founder;
Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, Manasseh, the successive purifiers and
restorers. The idea there so impressively graven in stone runs through all the
subsequent history of the chosen people. Why was this temple built and what was
the motive, especially of its enormous costliness and its unrivalled beauty?
Solomon did not build and “garnish the house with precious stones and with gold
of the gold of Parvaim” because he was ambitious as a king and a conqueror to
outshine his neighbours or to immortalise himself, but because he was bidden to
do so. The temple was not an exhibition of wealth or cleverness, or superiority
on the part of man, its builder; it was man’s education in cost and sacrifice
and unsparing labour on the part of God, its designer. There is just one
principle that runs through all the teaching of the two Testaments concerning
what men do for their Maker, and that is that God does not want, and cannot
otherwise than lightly esteem, that which costs us nothing, and that the value
of any service or sacrifice which we render for His sake is that, whatever may
be its intrinsic meanness or meagreness, it is as from us our very best. This
will let us see the insufficiency of the average explanations that are given of
the motives that prompt to the enriching and beautifying of our sanctuaries
to-day, such as--
1. Such things are necessitated by the inevitable rivalries of the
day. It would be said that this is a time, especially in England and on the
continent of Europe, of restorations. And what one Church has done, another
cannot afford to be behind in doing also. The spirit of the age is the spirit
of competition, and competition which is the life of trade is the life of
religion too. If this is a very pitiful motive to be alleged for any such work,
it is not an altogether surprising one. That competitive temper has so much to
do with explaining our personal and social expenditures that it is not
unnatural to seek in it the clue to expenditures that are sacred. Think for a
moment how much money is spent for dress, for the furnishing and decoration of
houses. Now, then, what is it that is sad about all this? its cost? No, but
what is too often and too plainly its motive. If our banquets were always the
symbols of our eagerness to please, of our desire to give of our best to those
whom we love and honour, then their cost and splendour would only so much the
more ennoble them. But it is because, too often, our dress, our houses, our
entertainments, our equipages, are only so many means by which we strive to
outshine and eclipse our neighbour that such expenditure becomes so largely not
only the wasteful, but the truly contemptible thing that it is. And yet it is
no wonder that so long as we allow such motives to influence us in things
secular, we should infer or impute them concerning things that are sacred.
2. When changes are made in our social customs, in our habits of
expenditure, and even in our modes of worship, we are often told that they are
necessitated because we must “keep up with the times,” and those who are wedded
by very sacred associations to things ancient, are often wounded in their
tenderest feelings by being told that they must give up the old in order not to
be behind the age. Well, the spirit of the nineteenth century, whatever else
may be said of it, is not an infallible spirit, and in many respects it would
be better if some of us were behind the age rather than so eagerly and
unthinkingly in accord with it. But however this may be, the “spirit of the
age” can never be the guide for the principles of worship or the law of
sacrifice. Such cost and beauty is helpful to the instinct of worship and
devotion. This motive is a perfectly valid and intelligible one. But the one
sufficient motive for cost, and beauty, and even lavish outlay in the building
and adornment of the house of God, is the consecrating to Him the best and
costliest that human hands can bring. This is the very essence of the Cross of
Christ. The power of the Cross over men lies in this, that it is the gift to
men, by God, of His very best--“His well-beloved Son.” (Bp. H.
C. Potter.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》