"6 Then David sent for his son Solomon and instructed him to
build a Temple for the Lord, the God
of Israel. 7 “My son, I
wanted to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord my God,” David told him. 8 “But the Lord said to me, ‘You have killed many men in the battles
you have fought. And since you have shed so much blood in my sight, you will
not be the one to build a Temple to honor my name. 9 But you
will have a son who will be a man of peace. I will give him peace with his
enemies in all the surrounding lands. His name will be Solomon, and I will give
peace and quiet to Israel during his reign. 10 He is the
one who will build a Temple to honor my name. He will be my son, and I will be
his father. And I will secure the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’ 11 “Now, my
son (Solomon), may the Lord be with you and give you success as you follow His
directions in building the Temple of the Lord your God. 12 And may
the Lord give you
wisdom and understanding, that you may obey the
Law of the Lord your God as
you rule over Israel.13 For you
will be successful IF you carefully obey the decrees and regulations
that the Lord gave to
Israel through Moses. Be strong and courageous; DO NOT be afraid or lose heart! 14 “I
have worked hard to provide materials for building the Temple of the Lord—nearly 4,000 tons of gold,
40,000 tons of silver,[b] and so
much iron and bronze that it cannot be weighed. I have also gathered timber and
stone for the walls, though you may need to add more. 15 You have
a large number of skilled stonemasons and carpenters and craftsmen of every
kind. 16 You have
expert goldsmiths and silversmiths and workers of bronze and iron. Now begin
the work, and may the Lord be with you!”
What a great commendation!
Here we have an elderly father that after working all his
life with a purpose for the Lord now he understand is time to share the details
about what God had planned for the son’s future. I’m not sure if the son ever
questioned the father about the large amounts of materials but even if he
didn’t, now it’s all being explained.
Can you imagine your father saying to you: “Surprise,
surprise!!! You know all the materials we’ve been accumulating for some time out
there, the mounts of iron, bronze, the innumerable cedar logs, you know what’s
all that for? That’s all for you, son! You will build a temple for the Lord!”
Well, this is what happened! I’m sure due to the greatness
and the difficulty of the task to come, God didn’t want to scare anyone, so He
decided not to reveal exactly all the details to the individual chosen for that
task but instead decided to prepare a forerunner to train and path the way for
such individual. Which reminds me about
Joseph and his brothers; Joseph had a dream, but God didn’t reveal all the
things he was going to have to go thru for that dream to be fulfilled. Eventually
as he was sold into slavery, this prepared him and took him to the place where
God wanted him to be for the fulfillment of God’s plan.
I’m sure God had been working on Solomon’s life for this;
but can you imagine if that would happen today: “But dad, I’ve got plans on my
own. I’m going away; I’m moving to
college, I’m having a part-time job while I finish school so I can pay for my
extras….. Sorry, you know I love you, but I can’t help you on this one; you’ll
have to follow another “looser”, that who “has no life”, to help you on that.
I’m gone!”
Lord, merciful God help us!!!
Praise the Lord for HIS omniscience, for He KNOWS it all!!!
And for this great task HE prepared the right person, which did such a great
job that even today so many thousand years later we can still found some
physical evidence of where it used to stand.
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