1 Kings 6

11–13 At some point during the building of the temple the word of the LORD came to Solomon, possibly in a dream or spoken through a prophet. The Lord told Solomon, in effect, that it was fine for him to build this temple but what really counted was his obedience to the Lord’s decrees, regulations and commands (verse 12). Only if Solomon obeyed would God’s promise to David be fulfilled through Solomon (2 Samuel 7:12–16; 1 Kings 2:1–4); only if Solomon obeyed would God come and live among the Israelites in this dwelling Solomon was building for Him (verse 13). Just building the temple—no matter how magnificent it might be—would not guarantee that God would dwell in it (see Leviticus 26:3,11–12). Obedience was what God wanted, not a house!

14–22 In these verses the writer turns to the interior of the temple. It was divided into inner and outer rooms (verse 29). The inner room, or inner sanctuary, was called the Most Holy Place (verse 16); the outer room was called the Holy Place (Exodus 26:33–34).

Inside the inner sanctuary (Most Holy Place) was placed the ark of the covenant (verse 19). The ark—a chest-like structure—symbolically represented the presence of God; it was His symbolic “throne” (see Exodus 25:10–22 and comment). It was over the ark that God chose to manifest His presence, His GLORY. Inside the ark were placed the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed; these commandments were sometimes called the Testimony (Exodus 25:16,21–22), and at other times they were called the word of the covenant (Exodus 34:27–28). Thus the ark was often called the “ark of the covenant"; the Ten Commandments were the covenant stipulations which God expected the Israelites to obey (see Exodus 19:5–6 and comment).

The rooms of the temple were made from the finest and costliest materials available; Solomon spared no expense. He knew the Lord was worthy of the very best (see Mark 14:3–9). Although such extravagance may seem unnecessary to us, Solomon’s heart was right; above all, he wanted to please his Lord.³¹

23–28 Solomon made a pair of cherubim, which were placed on either side of the ark in the Most Holy Place. Cherubim were winged figures who served as symbolic sentries guarding holy places (Genesis 3:24). In addition to these large cherubim, the ark had its own smaller cherubim attached to its cover (Exodus 25:17–22).

29–38 Here the writer describes the carvings along the walls of the inner and outer rooms. Some have suggested that the palm trees and flowers (verse 29) represent the Garden of Eden, from which mankind had been barred because of sin (Genesis 3:2224). Now God had provided a means of symbolically reentering the Garden through the sacrifices of ATONEMENT offered at the temple.

Surrounding the temple itself was an inner courtyard (verse 36), and beyond that was a large court (2 Chronicles 4:9). The entire temple complex took seven years to build³² (verse 38).

We should note an important difference between this temple and a Christian church building. The temple was not designed to have the worshipers inside; they were kept outside in the large court. A Christian church, however, is designed to have the worshipers inside, in intimate fellowship with God. This difference came about because Jesus Christ opened the way for ordinary worshipers to come into God’s presence—just as the Old Testament priests were authorized to do. Indeed, every believer in Christ has been made a priest with full rights to enter God’s sanctuary (1 Peter 2:4–5).