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[0:00] Chapter 7, 1 Kings chapter 7 is where we are at, making our way through the book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 7.

[0:13] As you turn there, we will get ready to open up in prayer, but I've got to say, you know, preaching the historical works of Scripture really, really push you to study it, right?

[0:24] It just really kind of gets you in there, and there's so much that is challenging to me. It's challenging to us when we read it as well, because when we're looking at it, we're going, okay, well, I can see what it says, but then we don't say this in a light manner.

[0:39] When we read each part of Scripture, we need to ask the question, so what? You know, not in a bad way, but like, okay, so what do I need to do? What does this mean to me? How does this apply? And, you know, admittedly, there are portions of Scripture where the application is glaring, and it kind of lays it right there for us.

[0:57] And sometimes when we get into other portions of Scripture, we don't want to dig too deep, and we have to be careful. I know I'm kind of giving you a crash course on hermeneutics, right, pulling out Scripture here. We don't want to make everything a type, so we don't want what they do, typological interpretation of Scripture.

[1:14] And while there are many, many types, we don't want to get too caught up in that. Because some things are just facts, and they're stated there for us. But we want to take those facts, and we kind of want to see the truths that it contains in the application to our life.

[1:26] So I appreciate your patience. I knew, working on eight years ago now, but actually, that's how long we've done it here, that when I started Genesis 1-1, that eventually we'd come to days where it's like, man, these are difficult passages.

[1:42] And we haven't even got to the difficult ones yet. You know, I'm trusting the Lord gives the longevity of ministry. You guys don't run me off, and he doesn't call me home or call me away. And so I anticipate you eventually get to some really tough portions of Scripture when you're just preaching through Scripture.

[2:00] But we have the fullness of the Word. So thankful for your guys' patience as we look at that. And then just the challenge it is to study it together. But let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this night. Thank you, God, that we have the grand privilege of opening up the Word of God with one another.

[2:14] Lord, how encouraging it is to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. How refreshing midweek just to be prepared to continue to press on in our daily activities that you call us to do.

[2:27] But, Lord, we pray as we take time, we pause tonight, and we read Scripture together, and we would see the truth that it contains. Lord, those truths will take radical application in our lives for your glory.

[2:40] We pray for those working with the children in the back. We pray, God, that you be with the students and the teachers. Christ, be glorified. Be exalted among them. Help them to see the truths that you want to impart to their lives as well.

[2:55] We just ask in all things you be glorified. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. 1 Kings chapter 7. We'll read it in its entirety and kind of get into it, but let's kind of put it in its proper setting.

[3:09] Right? So, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, in the second month, on the second day, he begins to build the temple of the Lord. That's 1 Kings chapter 6, verse 1. So, in the fourth year of his reign, he begins to build, and he labors on the temple for seven years.

[3:24] He labels building the outside of the temple, and he's doing an astounding work. We see it here in 1 Kings 6. We see the parallel passage to it in 2 Chronicles chapter 2.

[3:36] There's this great building that is being built. It's not huge by today's standards, but, I mean, it's big. It's pretty large. It's like 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 45 feet tall.

[3:48] Now, it's in cubits in your scripture, but standard cubits, 18 inches, and we can kind of do the math from there. But it's magnificent. I mean, it is really one of the grand wonders of the ancient world, and it's that for a purpose.

[4:03] The construction, the provision, the gold, it's all inside of it. The artwork that is there. Everything that is just so magnificently built. But that's just the shell. We get into the seventh chapter.

[4:14] We kind of meet what goes on in his personal life, but then we see also the furnishing of the temple. So we'll focus tonight on the furnishing of the temple that is found for us here in 1 Kings 7.

[4:27] Again, there are parallel passages in 2 Chronicles chapter 3 and following. And I don't want to go back and read them too much when we're reading it together because in just a matter of months, we will be in the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, and we want to see it when it's there.

[4:42] There are things that the chronicler includes for us that the author of Kings does not include for us. Okay? But there are nothing just grand in scope.

[4:52] It's just there are more details given sometimes in certain areas. So 1 Kings chapter 7. Now, Solomon was building his own house 13 years, and he finished all his house.

[5:03] He built the house of the forest of Lebanon. Its length was 100 cubits, and its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. On four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars, it was paneled with cedar above the side chambers, which were on the 45 pillars, 15 in each row.

[5:19] There were artistic window frames in three rows, and windows were opposite window in three ranks. All the doorways and the doorposts had squared artistic frames, and window was opposite window in three ranks.

[5:30] Then he made the hall of pillars. Its length was 50 cubits, and its width 30 cubits. And a porch was in front of them in pillars and a threshold in front of them. He made the hall of the throne where he was to judge, the hall of judgment.

[5:43] And it was paneled with cedar from floor to floor. His house where he was to live, the other court inward from the hall, was of the same workmanship. He also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had married.

[5:54] All these were of costly stones, of stone cut according to measure, solid with saws inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, so on the outside to the great court. And the foundation of costly stones, even large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits, and above were costly stones, stone cut according to measure, and cedar.

[6:12] So the great court all around had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beam, even as the inner court of the house of the Lord and the porch of the house. Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you a lot of detail in here, but just stay with me.

[6:23] We'll flesh out these details in just a minute, okay? Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was a widow's son from the tribe of Nathalia, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze, and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze.

[6:40] So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of both.

[6:50] He also made two capitals of molten bronze that sat on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted thread of chain work for the capitals, which were on the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital.

[7:09] So he made the pillars, and the two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals, which were on the top of the pomegranates, and so he did for the other capital. The capitals, which were on the top of the pillars in the porch, were of lily design, four cubits.

[7:23] There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection, which was beside the network, and the pomegranates numbered 200 in rows around both capitals.

[7:34] Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave, and he set up the right pillar and named it Yakin. If it has a J, that's kind of the Y sound, Yakin. And he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design, so the work of the pillars was finished.

[7:49] Now he made this sea of cast metal, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim, gourds went around encircling it at ten to a cubic, completely surrounding the sea, and gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest.

[8:07] It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. And the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a hand-breadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup.

[8:21] As a lily blossoms, it could hold two thousand baths. Then he made ten stands of bronze, and the length of each stand was four cubits, and its width was four cubits, and its height three cubits.

[8:34] This was the design of the stands. They had borders, even borders between the frames. And on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. And on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

[8:47] Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths on each side. Its opening inside the crown to the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half.

[9:04] And also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. The four wheels were underneath the border, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand, and the height of the wheels was a cubit and a half.

[9:15] The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand. Its support was part of the stand itself.

[9:27] On the top of the stand there was a circular form, half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders cherubim lines and palm trees according to the clear space on each with wreaths all around.

[9:43] And he made the ten stands like this. All of them had one casting, one measure, and one form. He made ten basins of bronze. One basin held forty baths. Each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin.

[9:56] Then he set the stands, five to the right side of the house and five to the left side of the house. And he set the sea, if cast a meadow, on the right side of the house, eastward toward the south. Now Hiram made the basins and the shovel and the bowls.

[10:08] So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the Lord. The two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals, which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls on the capitals, which were on the top of the pillars.

[10:21] And the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover two bowls of the capitals, which were on the top of the pillars. And the ten stands, with the ten basins on the stands, and one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea, and the pails and the shovels and the bowls, even all the utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord, were of polished bronze.

[10:40] In the plain of Jordan, the king cast them, and in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan, Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because there were too many, and the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained.

[10:51] Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the Lord, the golden altar and the golden table, on which was the bread of the presence, and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary of pure gold, and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans of pure gold, and the hinges both for the doors in the inner house, and the most holy place for the doors of the house that is of the nave of gold.

[11:17] Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

[11:30] Good passage, right? Now, let's see if we can kind of get into the truth of it. A lot of details in this passage, right? A lot of details when we're getting into it. We're looking at furnishing the temple. We meet a man named Hiram.

[11:42] Hiram is not the king of Tyre. He's just a man who has the same name as the king of Tyre, and he's from the same region. So we'll kind of get him in just a little bit. We'll pick him up. But we see here the temple shell has been built.

[11:55] It took seven years to complete the temple shell, and it's all there, and it's waiting. But the priestly service couldn't take place until it was furnished. And you had all these plans. Now, if we look at it, the plans follow, even the plans given to Moses on Mount Sinai, because these are the things that were in the tabernacle.

[12:13] If you remember, and you were with us Sunday night, we were looking at 1 Kings 6, the temple is twice the size of the tabernacle. Things seem to be in proportion. They seem to be moving forward that way, which is really good, because I believe in a God who is a consistent God, right?

[12:29] It doesn't change halfway through. Go, oh, that's what we used to do back there. Let's do things here. So we see some similarities between the furnishings of the tabernacle and the furnishings of the temple. We see them on a grander scale when we get into the temple for sure.

[12:42] We're not going to take the time tonight, but I want you to understand, because more than likely when we get into the book of 2 Chronicles, we pay a little bit more attention to every piece and not as much detail as we see here, but every piece is kind of broken down.

[12:56] Every part and every portion of the tabernacle and then later the temple really has its fullness in Christ, right? Everything points to the Savior. It not only reveals the glory of God, but everything there, and it's important to understand that, that when Jesus stands on Temple Mount and he's at the temple teaching in the courtyard and Jesus says that I am the well, I am the water of life, he is more than likely standing beside one of these large basins or bowls of water, right, where water was so important to temple worship.

[13:28] When Jesus says that I am the bread, the bread of the presence that was in the temple and the tabernacle that sat on these gold tables, five on each side of the temple, there was one in the tabernacle, was seen as a perpetual offering to the Lord and it was holy.

[13:43] And so Jesus is saying this, I am the perpetual eternal offering to a holy God and I'm wholly set apart for him. It's not just bread to be eaten, right? I am what everything points to.

[13:55] I am the fulfillment of all this, right? The altar, the bronze altar points to the sacrifice over and over and over again. It is on Temple Mount that Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

[14:06] Well, what was in the temple? Candles, right? That stayed lit 24 hours a day because it needed that light to, because there were very, very, very few windows.

[14:16] There were no windows in the tabernacle, but there were very few windows in the temple. So the people knew exactly what he was talking about. So these things have a purpose. They really have a reason.

[14:28] God is not just saying do this because I want you to do it, not to do this, but they're pointing to the greater fulfillment who is Christ. He's not only our high priest. He's also our temple.

[14:40] He's the one we come to the way of worship. He is our access to the Father, right? He is the propitiation seat. He is, or the mercy seat. He is all of these things to us.

[14:52] And we know that. But when we're going back and we're looking at the historical writings here and we see the furnishing of the temple, there's also some things we can learn from this. The first thing that we notice here is this personal concern.

[15:04] For some reason, the author of the book of Kings, and we're not 100% sure who it is, some think it may be Jeremiah, some think it could be others. The writing seemed to lend itself to Jeremiah, kind of interjects this temple construction.

[15:19] Now, this is not found that way in the book of Chronicles. Okay, actually, when you open up the book of Chronicles, which is post-Babylonian captivity, now stay with me, everything, I don't know if you've caught this or not, but you measure things in the history of the nation of Israel based upon their captivities or their failures, right?

[15:35] You have the coming out of Egypt, so you have the Exodus event. You have the Babylonian captivity, and you have the coming out of the Babylonian captivity, and that's another benchmark. So you see these things, right? So Chronicles is written after captivity, which means it's seen in a different light.

[15:51] It is more than likely written by Ezra, who was a scribe, or those of the school of Ezra. And we have this here because it's testifying to how we got to where we're at.

[16:02] So the author of Chronicles doesn't spend much time the way the author of Kings does. This is pre-captivity when books of 1 and 2 Kings being one book, if it's written by Jeremiah, you know Jerusalem falls during the prophecy of Jeremiah.

[16:17] He's called the weeping prophet for a reason. The nation is not doing too well. They have revolted. They have not, you know, the northern tribes have already fallen.

[16:29] The southern tribes are about to fall. God is bringing disciplinary action. Jeremiah is one of those crying out in the wilderness going, hey, we need to repent, we need to repent, we need to repent. All right, we see that. If Jeremiah is the author, we assume he's probably written about that time.

[16:43] Jeremiah gives us a little bit more insight. How did we get there? How do we get to the place that God's disciplining us? And right here in the middle of this narrative, because we're wanting to read it in its setting, right, of building the temple, in case we get too caught up in it, we need to remember, right, we're kind of looking back even with the author, we know what happens to Solomon.

[17:06] It's only going to take a few chapters before we find that Solomon begins to forsake the Lord. There's some grand things that take place, but as is the testimony of all those, there are hints to it before it happens.

[17:22] And the author shows us that Solomon had some grand personal concerns too. He took seven years building the temple. He took 13 years building his own palace. Now, granite, most of the material for the construction of the temple or the resources and the gold and the silver and all that and the bronze had been provided in advance.

[17:43] David had set that aside, right? He had made these kind of agreements with Tyre, the king of Tyre and Hiram who provides the timber, but the stones still had to be cut. They still had to be moved.

[17:54] All this stuff still had to be done during the reign of Solomon. Same thing with his house. He spends almost twice as long building his personal residence as he does the temple.

[18:05] That's a grand matter of personal concern. Now, we read of all these structures, the forest of Lebanon or the fortress of Lebanon is not built in Lebanon. It's named that because the timbers, so many timbers were used that came from the forest of Lebanon.

[18:21] This could be called the fortress of Lebanon. It's got so much timber in it. In comparison, his royal residence is massive compared to the temple.

[18:32] And it's right down the hill from it. Okay, he has, there's three structures that are all joined by steps. And you go from one, there's a hall of judgment which has got all the pillars in it. And there's this kind of judgment seat place where his throne is at that there are steps that go up each side to his judgment.

[18:48] He's got this ivory throne. It's got the lines on each side of the steps. You know, a real cool picture. And then there's kind of his house. And on the back of his house, kind of like the Holy of Holies, there's his wife's house.

[18:58] It's built there. And so there's all this structure that is being built. So when we notice, we open up 2 Chronicles, this is one thing that I'll give you. When you go into 2 Chronicles, you read this, that when the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, she is amazed at his residence.

[19:17] It says that she stood in awe of the steps that ascended to his throne, of the pillars. We read nothing of her wonder and amazement at the temple. Now, granted, she wouldn't have been given access to going to the temple.

[19:33] But is the temple not to be a testimony to the world of God's presence among them? The temple was to be that testimonial thing that God was present.

[19:44] And unfortunately, what happened, when the Queen of Sheba comes and she wants to see the wisdom of Solomon, she is more overwhelmed with where Solomon lives than where the name of the Lord dwells. And that's a dangerous thing because we see the personal concern here.

[19:59] I'm not saying that Solomon was wrong in building his house. I'm not saying that because we want to be careful not to cast those stones. But we can see how this could begin to pull your attention and it could begin to cause a divided interest.

[20:14] When you're so concerned and wrapped up in doing personal matters, it's really hard to focus on the things of the Lord. And he had a grand place of residence.

[20:25] He really did. If you ever see a rendering of it or a drawing of it, it's amazing what he did. But to me, it's telling that the one thing that made the royalty from around the world be awestruck was not the temple of the Lord, but rather the residence of the king.

[20:42] So the king began to exceed, his presence began to exceed the presence of God. Personal concern is a very dangerous thing. This is what Jesus says when we look at the parable of the souls, right?

[20:54] You get caught up in the joys and the pleasures and the concerns of this life. You know, when those people, when Jesus is going along the road and they cry out to him and say, Master, we want to follow you wherever you go.

[21:04] He says, oh, that's good. And the one says, but first let me go back and bury my father. And we think it's kind of hard when he says, let the dead bury the dead. You follow me. Well, that makes no sense. I mean, he's telling more than likely his dad wasn't even dead yet. And what the man was saying was let me live to see my father die.

[21:17] And once my dad dies, and then I can make this, you know, nice clean divide and I will follow you. Jesus says, you can't do that. You have to put your hand on the plow and push forward. The other man says, well, let me go back and tell my family by it.

[21:28] Jesus says, well, don't do that. You look forward, right? Be committed to following the Savior. We read it. We say, oh, that's just as harsh. But yet we see the danger also.

[21:40] We see the danger because the seeds for Solomon's rebellion start here because of the personal concern. He built a fortress not only for himself but also for Pharaoh's daughter who was his wife.

[21:55] So now we leave personal concern. We also see this prepared craftsman which is so astounding. God always has his man or woman. God always. God never calls us to do something or to put our hand to a work that he has not already provided the resources and the people to do.

[22:12] This is why even in the church world we say, well, we think God's calling us to do this. Maybe he's calling us to baby ministry. I don't know. But so we think God's calling us to do this. The one thing that I am certain of is that God never calls a church to do what he hasn't already put in place to accomplish inside that church.

[22:32] That's a good way of saying God never calls a church to do something that he hasn't already put somebody inside the church that can fulfill that ministry. Because God has a way of providing his people.

[22:44] When Moses is given the plans for the tabernacle, the tabernacle is very detailed when he's on Mount Sinai and he has this, right, he has these plans, these detailed plans. Remember Moses is hanging out up there for 40 days and 40 nights and he's getting these plans and God's writing them out for him.

[22:57] God calls by name the craftsman that's down at the bottom of the hill and says, go get this man and he'll build these things for you, right? So Moses goes down the hill, he has these plans, all these intricate carvings that need to be done and he goes down the hill and he gets that man and his helper and they build it.

[23:11] It's amazing, God had him right there in the camp. Now all of a sudden, we take it, Solomon is wise but he's also wise enough to know what he cannot do and he's got to construct this. When he approaches Hiram, the king of Tyre, not this Hiram, when we read it in 2 Chronicles, he approaches, Hiram looks at him and goes, and I got the right man for the job, I'll send him to you.

[23:31] Some translations refer to him as Hiram Abi but that's Hiram, the craftsman and it's astounding. We've looked at this how God always has the right people and God uses a variety of people.

[23:42] This man, again pay attention to this in scripture, was the widow's son. How many of those do we see, right? The people that the world would consider to be an outcast in scripture yet God uses them, right?

[23:52] Because the livelihood flows through the father. Here's a widow's son and she is from the tribe of Naphtali but her husband was from Tyre so he was much like Timothy in the New Testament.

[24:05] Remember Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father and therefore Paul had him circumcised so that he wouldn't be a hindrance. So here's your Timothy in the Old Testament but this is the man God has prepared because he is skilled.

[24:16] His father who was not of Jewish descent, his father had been an excellent metal worker. He had done all these wonderful things. When we read Chronicles we see that Hiram, this man, is also skilled in silver and gold so just about everything built in the temple comes from his hands.

[24:31] And God had him already waiting. And he's sitting there and it says so Solomon took Hiram from Tyre and brought him there and he made everything.

[24:44] It's astounding. We see this labor of this individual. Right now I know Solomon gets some credit for it too because it says so Solomon made so Solomon made and that's good we want it because he's king but the way Solomon made it is he gave the plans to Hiram and Hiram was out here in the clay of this region and was casting all these things.

[25:04] It is remarkable. The details. When we read these and I'm even astounded at the fact that God includes the details. Have you ever thought about that? When we read these portions of Scripture like why is this here?

[25:16] God is recognizing the abilities of that individual and recording it in his word. Because when you take your giftedness and God uses it for his glory he does not neglect to recognize that.

[25:33] God had gifted this individual not to lead in worship. There's worship leaders that we read of later. Musicians, right? There's not that. He had not gifted him to be a priest.

[25:44] He had not gifted him to do. But he had gifted him to work with his hands to cast bronze to do all this other stuff and now he found this avenue and God had used that individual because that's how he had been gifted.

[25:59] That's all we know about Hiram is that he's the man who works. He's the craftsman. But without him we don't have this furnishing. And so when people come and they say look I just want the Lord to use me and I just want the Lord to do.

[26:12] The one thing that I always say back and I know people come and they just want me to tell them what to do. The one thing to always say is I want to know what you're passionate about and I want to know how God's gifted you and that's what he wants you to do. Because he wants to redeem that giftedness that he's already put inside of you for his glory.

[26:30] And whatever makes you excited I'd rather you be passionate using your giftedness to serve the Lord than to be drudgingly doing something the church needs to be done. That's just because I've done it.

[26:43] I've done both sides of that. Right? I've been on both spectrums. And if I'm excited about it you don't have to ask me to do it. And if I'm excited about it I can worship while I'm doing it.

[26:54] I mean I think if here I'm out here you know he was never allowed once he completes his job he can never again go inside the temple. He's not a priest. But he got to worship while he was doing his work.

[27:12] We say stay in your lane. Right? He stayed in his lane and he did a fantastic job. Look at the prepared craftsmen. Some of us are those people God's prepared to do something.

[27:24] I was looking going down the hallway Brother Sidney Gibson some of you know Brother Sidney he was an interim pastor here he ordained me or he licensed me in the ministry ordained me in the ministry I think a lot of Brother Sidney he used to tell me he said God calls some people to plow the fields he said he calls me to pick up the rocks before the plow comes to plow the fields.

[27:44] And he spent a lifetime in ministry being the guy content just to pick up the rocks out of the field before the plow got there. It's a hard thing to do but it's a wonderful thing to do because somebody has to do it right? I remember one summer all I did my dad made me pick up rocks out of the field all summer long that's not a fun job but somebody has to do it.

[28:03] We see this prepared craftsmen. The third thing that we see and we kind of if we're not careful we'll miss it is this prominent confession. I mean it's this prominent confession right?

[28:13] And again it makes us scratch our heads going man how could Solomon just forsake this? how could he not see it? We'll do it even more later when he dedicates the temple and he prays and the Shekinah glory of God falls.

[28:25] If we don't remember that he builds something grander than this that's kind of testifying to his own greatness in just a moment but there's this prominent confession. We read of these all these furnishings and again every one of them have a purpose.

[28:39] There's a physical purpose there's something they need to do we'll get to that in just a moment but there's also a pictorial purpose there's something that's pointing to that's greater than them but the one thing that we can't miss kind of the one elephant in the room are the 50 plus foot 45 to 52 foot columns right?

[28:57] There's these two bronze columns and they're not holding anything up if you read it in scripture they are self-supporting columns who aren't holding up anything. I remember reading one time this engineer and I can't remember this was a long time ago he was an architect slash engineer guy that was building a structure and he was building one of the grand temples of the ancient world of like Roman Catholicism and he was building this great work and the leaders of the established church kept saying you need a pillar to support the roof you need a pillar to support the roof you need a pillar to support the roof he said no I don't need a pillar it was a domed roof and they kept telling him you need a pillar you need a pillar and he said no I don't need it I believe in my work and he kept saying it's going to fall without a pillar he said okay I'll build you a pillar so he built this real nice pillar in the middle of it and they said thank you so much for doing that now we have confidence it wasn't until maybe about 100 years later that somebody finally went to the top and realized the pillar wasn't touching the roof he kept like a 3 inch gap up there just to prove to himself that they didn't need a pillar he made the church leaders happy because he put a pillar there and he spent their money but he knew they didn't need it he just did it to appease them right these pillars aren't holding the temple up we read the text they're self supporting they're just standing there so while we have such large pillars if we do the measurements based upon the base and then each of them has two capitals you caught me reading there's these capitals of chains there's capitals of pomegranates there's all these capitals right one's tulip shaped one's not and there are 5 cubits and 5 cubits and then you have 18 cubits and then you have this base so you get your measurement if you do it it's around 45 to 52 feet just standing there for everybody to see bronze

[30:41] I mean that's a lot of bronze they don't even weigh the bronze but then they do something amazing and they name them Yankin and Boaz those names mean something okay they name them intentionally now Hebrew writing you read from right to left I'm going to do it like this so you read right to left not left to right correct so if you have a Hebrew Greek Bible I have some in the office but they're Greek to me I don't understand so if I open it up to you you read right to left not left to right so they name the right one and then they name the left one okay so Yankin if we look at its literal interpretation it means he will establish he establishes and the one on the left means in strength or in his strength so if we're reading it he will establish it in his strength and it's a grand testimony that the nation is not built upon the strength of man but God will establish the nation in his own strength as they remain faithful to him these two huge bronze pillars that are given this grand confession that God establishes his people in his own strength not upon their strength not upon their it is God that does it the sad thing is is that when

[32:16] King Nebuchadnezzar came in with Nebuchadnezzar his leader right so when King Nebuchadnezzar came in he's got all these men and they ransacked Jerusalem they besieged Jerusalem and Jerusalem falls the first thing they tear down is those pillars and they began to pillage the temple they want to go and they want everything but they tear down those pillars now the confession is that God will establish it in his strength but history shows us is that they just looked past that confession and said we want to do it our own way it was right there in front of them saying that if we're faithful and if we're obedient then God will establish it in his strength they knew the names of them right it's recorded Eakin and Boaz but they didn't want God to establish it they didn't want any strength they tried to do things in their own strength they tried to do things in their own way they tried to do it in their own means they tried to do it by their own efforts and they wanted to make a name for themselves and all they did was get the pillars torn down and it crumbled because unless

[33:20] God builds the house the house fails so anything built by man will not last so we have this prominent confession the last thing we have that is paid that is given a lot of attention in the king's account is this deal with water there's a lot of water so we see the provision for cleanliness so the pillars are confession then we get to the water there's these provisions for cleanliness and this is our last thing Hiram builds this sea of iron sea of bronze cast this sea it's on the twelve oxen Josephus the Jewish historian writing about this it's astounding how Josephus looks at all the historical right now he's not a Christian he's a historian right he is a secular historian of the Roman Empire writing the history of the Jewish people so we don't look at it scripture we just look and he records all these things too Josephus says that Solomon sinned by putting the allowing the oxen to be put in there because it tells us in the book of Exodus that there should be no image of any kind of animal that they should just worship

[34:28] I don't know if that's the case or not but it's just kind of one of those things you look at and say oh well I'm wondering why they were there because when we get the Exodus encouragement Exodus 20 I believe it is they should not cast any kind of animal and should not be an image of any kind of animal in their worship yet we meet these 12 oxen and they're facing towards every direction of the wind so to say in all four directions of the compass but what overwhelms us is this big cast see 30 to 40,000 gallons of water is what it holds no not 34 I'm sorry 11 to 12,000 gallons of water I was converting something else so about 11 to 12,000 gallons of water is what this holds that's a lot of water in a land that's plagued by droughts in a land that's plagued by judgments for that in the middle of this temple if we do the math literally and we're given whole numbers in scripture for guys that are math guys it's not me when he gives the diameter across and he gives the circumference he doesn't necessarily do the diameter times pi but it's a good whole number okay but the equivalent of 100 baths is about 11 to 12 thousand gallons of water water was so important to worship because the priest needed to be clean cleanliness is next to godliness is not in scripture okay that's not a biblical verse but cleanliness was the command in worship for the priest to faithfully serve in the temple they had to wash their hands and they had to wash their feet so as not be defiled when they would go into the presence of god they had to change clothes when they got into the temple remember that they had temple garments they had regular garments they would come in they would take this off and they would put on clothing that would not make them sweat so that they would not be impure you remember when the high priest went into the holy of holies once a year he wore this this garment that had the bells going across the bottom so that the bells would jingle and he would also walk in with a rope tied around his ankle history tells us so that if the bells quit jingling they knew he went in an unpure manner before a holy god and he died and they would pull him out by the rope because nobody could go in and get him so it was a reality right you had to be clean to worship a holy god and so god provides more than enough water for all the priests to be clean he does it with this this construction of this great large bowl and it's sitting here holding all this water but it's this perpetual reminder again that when we go before god we must go with clean hands and clean feet and clean feet and jesus in the upper room washes the feet of his disciples it is worth telling that every time in scripture that we read of cleanliness in the water that it is a reference when the water cleanses us it is a picture of the word of god cleansing us so we are cleansed by the word right so jesus says you have been cleansed by the word which i spoke to you he who has bathed only needs to wash his feet because as we pass through this world we get impure but yet here we see that god provides more than ample enough for cleanliness but then we meet these other things right after that what he's building is carts right like six foot by six foot square carts and he builds ten of them there's five on each side and there's a big jar and that's for 340 gallons is what most people think of water in each jar on these carts and they have the wheels like chariot wheels on them and you can pull them around now the carts are there because you need to clean the sacrifice too so when you get this big bronze altar and an animal comes in i don't know how many of you ever done any kind of butchering you know it's not very clean again god wants cleanliness so he provides all these carts with all this water so that you can clean the sacrifices to god too and it's also means to clean up the temple because i've often said it temple mounts a very messy place i mean think about the day of passover where they're killing all those animals killing all those sheep that is a messy form of worship

[38:31]  but god provides again means to clean why because he's holy pure god and this is all a testimony to his purity right it isn't just saying well we got to make sure that we live in a clean environment it's not just that it's god reminding them that we go before him in in cleanliness and holiness and and he's providing it right this is why you have this big bowl of water this is why you have these carts with all these pictures is because god is providing the means for cleansing again christ is the means for cleansing we have the means to go before god with clean hands clean feet and to be clean as we worship him in sincerity and truth we see all of this in first king seven when we look at the furnishing of the temple okay all right thank you so