Journey Through Kings & Chronicles Part 2Sample

Intro

Nicole introduces this lesson with details about Israel’s Temple and worship system, including the roles of the clergy and musicians.

Temple Ritual & God’s Presence

Read the following verses and look for a common feature in them. Record your observations.

If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD.

Leviticus 1:3 (NIV)

Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Leviticus 1:5 (NIV)

And he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.

Leviticus 1:11 (NIV)

If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.

Leviticus 3:1 (NIV)

If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the LORD.

Leviticus 3:7 (NIV)

If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the LORD.

Leviticus 3:12 (NIV)

He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the LORD.

Leviticus 4:4 (NIV)

And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the LORD in front of the veil of the sanctuary.

Leviticus 4:6 (NIV)

Each passage has a reference to being “before the LORD.” We can become so distracted by the complexity and variety of Old Testament rituals that we lose sight of the most important thing about them—they were a covenant language that had its only value in relationship to God’s presence. Old Testament ritual is above all else an encounter with the Lord.

Moses’ Tabernacle & Solomon’s Temple

The construction of Solomon’s Temple was modeled after Moses’ tabernacle. Both the beginning of this process and its conclusion are focused on the presence of God. After the announcement that a sanctuary will be built, each leader meets with God, and each project concludes with God’s entrance into his dwelling. Some of the other similarities in the construction and opening process are tabled below.

Table quoted and adapted from: Andrew E. Hill, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 2003, pp. 418-419.

Why do you think the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles made such deliberate connections with the earlier tabernacle? What might these connections say about Solomon’s Temple?

Most importantly, these parallels reinforce continuity in God’s indwelling presence from one place to the next. All of the ritual that happens in these two complexes matters because of the presence of God. These parallels also remind the people, and us, that the ritual life of Solomon’s magnificent “modern” complex is the same “old time religion” that God asked of Moses in the book of Exodus. The blueprint has changed, but the underlying purpose and value of the “house” has not. Temple ritual has become a statelier event, but it’s still about a divine encounter and about God’s people serving “before the LORD.”

Does the Lord Really Dwell in his House?

Solomon appears to deny the presence of God in the Temple in his prayer of dedication:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

1 Kings 8:27 (ESV)

But in this same prayer Solomon suggests that:

I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.

1 Kings 8:13 (ESV)

What’s the basic issue when comparing these two passages (1 Kings 8:13, 8:27)?

You might think Solomon is contradicting himself. Instead, his comments are better understood as framing a complicated reality that it is represented in the Bible long before this dedication. The tension of God as both an eternal and historical presence runs throughout the Bible, and even into the tradition of Christian theology.

In the Old Testament, the dwelling of God in one physical house provides the ultimate test case for the way we think about an eternal and infinite God committing himself to specific moments and places in the human story.

This tension appears already in the Pentateuch. Some passages clearly suggest God dwells in the tabernacle:

You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.

Numbers 35:34 (ESV)

There is also a strong tendency to avoid language of God’s presence in books like Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. Because of shared aspects in their perspective on God and the way he relates to humanity, these books are sometimes known as the “Deuteronomic” literature, or the “Deuteronomistic history.”

While books like Leviticus or Exodus, or even Psalms, are happy to locate God in his dwelling place, these other “Deuteronomic” books avoid this language completely, as noted by Bible scholar Moshe Weinfeld:

There is not one example in the Deuteronomic literature of God’s dwelling in the temple or the building of a house for God. The temple is always the dwelling of his name, and the house is always built for his name.

So do Deuteronomy and Numbers contradict each other on this issue? Not exactly; much like Solomon’s prayer of dedication, they frame a complicated and mystical reality. God is too great for the Temple. We ought never lose sight of that. And yet somehow he dwells there anyway.

Source: Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 1972, p. 193.