Preparing for the Temple!

Preparing For The Temple
1 Chronicles 22

Historical background:
David had just received a sound defeat spiritually from the hand of Satan and chose to number the children of Israel (which was strictly forbidden). The result of this was Israel experienced first hand the wrath of the Lord as David discovered his sin affected many more people than himself (the entire nation). The angel of death killed 70,000 people as a punishment for David’ sin.

David saw the angel of the Lord with his sword raised over Jerusalem, but then God caused the angel to stop the destruction. The location was Araunah’s Threshing Place. David buys the threshing floor from Araunah and worships the Lord there with a sacrifice.

Later David proposed to build the Temple there as a world renowned worship center. God told David that he was not to be the one to build it because he had blood on his hands. That my friends, is a lesson itself of why today’s Temple builders need to be non-resistant!

Here we are today, taking a look at the preparation David enacted to speed up the process of the Temple construction.

First of all, David had a vision.

On one hand, I hesitate to refer to David’s vision as a vision, lest it be understood as something it is not. This vision David had is more like a purpose. We could say, “David purposed in his heart to build a Temple for the Lord”, and then God said “Not so fast David, You have blood on your hands”.

God met David where he had surrendered and David wanted it built there as a memorial!

At the time of David’s reign, the land was still inhabited with wicked people. The comparison is that as David rooted them out or subjected them in labor, he was setting forth a physical example of our spiritual battles where we root out the carnal nature or subject it to a holy calling. Clarification - The Carnal Nature will never be completely eradicated, but our battles will continue to work to that end!

In our study today, vision and purpose mean the same thing!

Proverbs 29:18 says “Without a vision, the people perish”. The vision David had was not just some dream of building a Temple, but it affected his life. David put forth energy to turn this vision into reality.

David had been instructed by God not to build him the Temple but told him that he would have a son whose name would mean peaceful. God told David that Solomon his son would be the one to build Him the Temple.

As a Spiritual Application we take a look at this account from beyond the physical realm and try to discover how to apply it to our lives today.

There are two types of Spiritual Temples we are building today. First, as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 say, “Your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost”; secondly, The Church, though commonly referred to as the body of Christ is also a Temple for the Holy Ghost. Wait a minute, isn’t the Church people? Then what we really have is each Christian as a temple and as they come together in a collective worship they should begin to merge together as a glorious temple as the one Lord comes with them. Matthew 18:20

We find David not just reaching out to the Israelites to help him gather material and process it for the Temple, but David as the king of Israel, sent to gather the strangers that were in the land of Israel at that point to cut stone for the Temple. In other words, “they were forcibly gathered and put to work at hard labor as slaves, no less. So why did David do that?

Who were the Gibeonites? In Joshua 9:1-27 the story of the Gibeonites begins. Though there is no direct reference to who the “strangers” were, we first of all can be pretty certain they were not Israelites. The distinction would not have been made. Based on what we do know about the Gibeonites and the Treaty of Gilgal we can rightfully assume they were at least part of this group of strangers. There was basically two ways that Israel took over the Land of Canaan. One was killing everyone off or enslaving them forever. Also, remember, when Israel took off from Egypt, they had a following on non Israelites. These were people hoping to have a better life. While we do not know assuredly who any of the strangers were, these groups of people would have been strangers (not brethren).

This could be applied to our lives in that as we build the Temple of God (our bodies), we need to subject our carnal man (the original inhabitant of our temple) to our Spiritual man as he builds the Temple with the blueprint that God has set forth as one that will bring Him the Glory He deserves. As we build the Spiritual Temple, the general populous should be setting up to take notice of the Glory of God, and come to worship God just as the Queen of Sheba did for Solomon’s Temple! Her decision to search out the God of Solomon enabled her to say the half had not yet been told!

The detail that David put into his preparations shows how serious he was about his vision. He did not just gather stuff that could be used, but manipulated it to make it more useful. He obviously had a plan that indicated how each stone was to be cut, how each piece of lumber was to be cut, how each nail was to be formed for their respective function.

David was preparing a heritage for his son, who would be able to stand on the shoulders of his father’s spiritual experience and go forward to build the Temple. How are we building the Spiritual Temple? Is it in disarray? Does it just have a bunch of useful stuff laying around that isn’t being form for it rightful purpose? How are we preparing to pass the heritage of our Spiritual Experience on to our children?

When your children are young and tender, as a parent, you should do everything to shore them up spiritually including patiently and tenderly guiding them. As a parent we have the advantage of being able to see what makes our children tick, and can then steer them toward some type of project, job, or ministry that would be able to use their strong points.

David was nearing the end of his life and now saw fit to pass the baton of faith on to his son Solomon. David gave his son a charge (or an appointment/command). David goes back over his vision with his son and the reason he could not build the Temple of God. He tells Solomon that God had ordained him as the builder of the Temple and that God would be a Father to him, and that he, Solomon would be a son to God. David repeats God’s promise to Solomon that his descendants would be on the throne forever.

David, then closes off with the blessing “The Lord be with thee and prosper thee”; and then to make the charge official said “Build thou the House of the Lord as He has said you would do”. David continues his charge by giving Solomon more blessings and instruction with “Follow God and you will be blessed”.

We must be found doing God’s will if we want to be blessed.

As David continued to instruct Solomon, he tells him that he, David, had went out of his way to prepare this for him. The word “trouble” means misery or affliction, so if we were to read that with its meaning in place then it would read like this, “Now, behold, in my affliction (or misery) have I prepared for the House of the Lord”.

Why did David make such a big deal about the misery he was in while gathering and preparing the material? First of all, Do we know what had been going on in David’s life up to this point? Ever since David’s sin with Bathsheba, his kingdom was becoming more and more divided, his family situation was falling apart, and spiritually he was having his ups and downs.

So, taking a look at all that, Does it make a difference knowing what was going on in his life? I think it does!

Christ is the Prince of Peace and Solomon’s name meant peaceful. Both Christ and Solomon initiated a New Spiritual Era! Solomon’s Spiritual era was physically glorious, but Jesus’ Spiritual era is Spiritually glorious.

The name Solomon means peaceful and because his domain had peace from its enemies, he was able to put forth his energy to building Temple. The blood that David had shed hindered him from building the Temple of God. So what about us? Maybe we aren’t shedding physical blood, but what about spiritual or emotional blood. Are we killing off our contemporaries through gossip and slander? What about sarcasm? Sometimes we give ourselves a pass saying that it was just in jest not giving any regard to how they perceived it.

The charge to Solomon consisted of more than just building the Temple. David charged Solomon with living holy before God. It was as though David was telling Solomon “Focus … Focus … Focus”. There is so much out there today to grab our attention from serving the Lord and fulfilling His purposes, but if our eyes are single, if our hearts are stayed on the Lord, if the Holy Spirit is being heeded; then we will be where God wants us and we will always be glorifying God.

Can you set your heart and soul on building God's House today by having a frolic? Is that going to do it? All that action! All that interaction! Colossians 3:2 Says “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Just as married people will lay down their will for the sake of their partner, if we are married to Christ, we will lay down our will for Him. See, if our affection is on something, all else will take second place. I don’t have a problem with people doing things extra spiritual, but if that extra spiritual thing is holding their affection, that is going to be their focus and has become their God. They will talk about a lot as their passion for it consumes them.

Solomon didn’t do so well at that. He made all sorts of agreements with heathen kings and through that gathered to himself many heathen wives who lead his heart astray.

Deuteronomy 17:14-20

The Law for the king was given by Moses who foresaw that Israel would be asking for one. If the Law had been followed, Solomon would have had some guards in place to guard his heart, but no, he multiplied silver and gold, got wives in abundance, and tried the best that the carnal man could enjoy.

That took him on a spiritual ride from which he almost didn’t recover. Even as the wisest man who had ever lived he was blinded by prosperity and luxury. It does seem as though he did come through though and gave his heart back to God at the end of his life.