Buildings and Blessing

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1 Kings 6:1a - "In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt..."

You know, I consider myself extremely blessed to not only go to a great church that focuses on ministry and giving out our faith, but also a (to be completely honest) church that meets in a really cool church... for example:

  • We have an escalator!  How cool is that.
  • The sound system in the main auditorium where we have worship services... state of the art.
  • Check out the artwork in Wauba Land (our environment for pre-school children), it is a freakin' awesome and artistic rendition of creation developed by a very creative member of the Northpoint community.
  • The large group rooms in Upstreet and the KidStuf theater are also pretty darn cool too.

However, it was nothin' compared to what Solomon built God for a temple.

I'm reading today in my QT about the building of temple (1 Kings 6), and I have to tell you that it would put any building project in Buckhead or Midtown Atlanta to shame.  Dude, Solomon the man didn't spare any expense... lining the Holy of Holies with pure gold, lining all of the walls with cedar wood (not cheap today or I'm sure then), having stones cut and measured at the quarry and moved to be positioned in place... 

You know, I suppose if you were going to build a "house" for the God of the universe, it would be at least that ornate.  Oh yeah, what about the giant cherubim built out of olive wood.  Where do you get that stuff today?  

But what really caught my attention today was not all of the cool features of the temple, but the asides... 

"480 years..." vs. 1

And... in the middle of the construction project, God spoke to Solomon:

"As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you my promise I gave to David your father.  And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel" - 1 Kings 6:12-13

The 480 years caught me because... God hadn't been pouting around wondering "So when are you going to build me a big honkin' temple..." before He was active in the life of Israel.  In fact, God was doing a lot in their lives.  I know we talk today about our church meetings as "going to the house of God" - but seriously, does God NEED a house?  For 480 years, his tabernacle was nothing but a tent and He wasn't really complaining... it was more so King David musing about the situation (God "living in a tent" and him in a palace of cedar) and God seemed pleased to allow David to build the temple through his son Solomon.  But the idea that God NEEDS a house, or HAS an earthly house, is not really Biblical.

The second aside was interesting because God is encouraging Solomon, pleased with the heart he has with the work going on (God did bless the temple, so having cool buildings are not a bad thing at all... I think we should care about how we represent our Lord in our buildings), but reiterated to him what God really cares about... which is the heart of the people and Solomon's own heart toward Him.  

In fact, as we see later in the history of Israel, this expensive and ornate temple is expendable in the eyes of God compared to the devotion of His chosen people... as He allows it to be destroyed by the Babylonians and again by the Romans when Herod rebuilds it in Jesus's day.  

God cares much more about our relationship with Him than he does about the toys in our church.  And that includes the way cool escalator, art displays, and sound system in the place I currently worship.  I hope that we never forget that... and keep God and our worship to Him front and center.  

Chris <><

Comments

Mike Tiemann said…
Cheers, Chris - great post!
3:00 PM
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