Bible Reading Plan

Day 160 - Read 1 Kings 5-6

Solomon asked Hiram, king of Tyre, to command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for him to use in building the temple. They made a treaty, Hiram provided the timber as requested, and they experienced peace between them. Solomon began the building of the temple four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel were led out of Egypt. God emphasized His covenant with Solomon. The temple was large, and the plans were specific, according to God’s direction. The temple included the innermost part for the ark of the covenant and the altar. The temple took seven years to build.

Broadcast on:: 30 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hello and welcome to today's Bible reading. Today we're looking at 1 Kings 5 and 6. Solomon asked Hiram king of Tyre to command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for him to use in the building of the temple. They made a treaty, and Hiram provided the timber as requested, and they experienced peace between them. Solomon began the building of the temple 480 years after the people of Israel were led out of Egypt. God emphasized his covenant with Solomon. The temple was large, and the plans were specific according to God's direction. The temple included the innermost part for the ark of the covenant and the altar. The temple took seven years to build. Follow along with me as I begin to read 1 Kings 5 verse 1. Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father. For Hiram always loved David, and Solomon sent word to Hiram. You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord, his God, because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune, and so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, your son whom I will set on the throne in your place shall build the house for my name. Now therefore command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians. As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon he rejoiced greatly and said, "Blessed be the Lord this day who has given to David a wise son to be over his great people." And Hiram sent to Solomon saying, "I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar in cypress timber. My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it, and you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household." So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cores of wheat as food for his household, and twenty thousand cores of beaten wool. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year, and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel and the draft numbered thirty thousand men, and he sent them to Lebanon ten thousand a month on shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon in two months at home. Adonarum was in charge of the draft. Solomon also had seventy thousand burden bearers and eighty thousand stone cutters in the hill country. Besides, Solomon's thirty three hundred chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. At the king's command that quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stone. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebel did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house. Chapter six. In the four hundred and eighty-eighth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord, the house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house, and he made for the house windows with recessed frames. He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. The entrance of the lowest story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, concerning this house that you are building. If you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel. So Solomon built the house and finished it. He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. He built 20 cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an intersensuary as the most holy place. The house that is the nave in front of the intersensuary was 40 cubits long. The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar, no stone was seen. The intersensuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The intersensuary was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar, and Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across in front of the intersensuary and overlaid it with gold, and he overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the intersensuary he overlaid with gold. In the intersensuary he made two cherubim of olive wood. Each 10 cubits high, 5 cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and 5 cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub. It was 10 cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. The other cherub was measured 10 cubits. Both cherubim had the same measure in the same form. The height of one cherubim was 10 cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that the wing of one touched the wall and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. Their other wing touched each other in the middle of the house, and he overlaid the cherubim with gold. Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers in the inner and outer rooms. The floor of the house was overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms. For the entrance to the intersensuary he made doors of olive wood. The lentil and the door post were five-sided. He covered the two doors of olive wood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. So also he made for the entrance to the nave door posts of olive wood in the form of a square and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door he folded and the two leaves of the other door were folding. On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams. In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the month of ziv. And in the eleventh year in the month of bull which is the eighth month the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in