BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Who built Israel’s first temple in Jerusalem? If you asked the authors of Samuel and Kings, they’d say King Solomon. He imported the wood, assembled the workers, and oversaw the whole construction project. From the first foundation stone laid, to the last golden bowl placed by the altar, Solomon oversaw everything. But if you asked the author of Chronicles, he would tell you David did the heavy lifting on the temple project.

In today’s reading, we learn that David gave his son, Solomon, a generous head start on the temple’s construction. He recruited stonecutters, stockpiled iron and bronze, set aside gold and silver from the royal treasury, mustered priests and Levites to staff the building when it was completed, and rallied all the leaders of Israel to support the project. All Solomon had to do was put the building blocks together.

The chronicler also tells us why David couldn’t build the temple himself. He shed too much blood during his many wars. Though David’s military campaigns disqualified him from building Yahweh’s sacred house, his victories brought security and rest for Solomon’s reign. So Solomon, whose name means “peace,” builds the temple instead.

For the chronicler, the royal priest and the glorious temple are a match made in Heaven. By having David play a large role in its construction, he can point to a future day when a better king and a more glorious temple will arrive together.

Reflection Questions

• Compare David’s speech to Solomon (1 Chron. 22:6-13) with Yahweh’s speech to Joshua in Joshua 1:1-9. What similarities do you notice? What do these hyperlinks reveal about the kind of leader David wants Solomon to become?
• According to 1 Chronicles 23, what jobs did the Levites have in the temple? How is this different from their tabernacle duties in Numbers 3-4? What similarities do you notice between these two passages?