And let's turn back to 1 Kings. And our text for this morning is chapter 6, all of chapter 6. We won't read all of it. We'll just read the first 13 verses. But of course, we will be looking at all of the chapter. I hope that you were able to read it beforehand, meditate on it, so ready to receive the Word of God here. 1 Kings chapter 6, as I said, we'll read the first 13 verses. So here again, The Word of our God. 1 Kings 6, verse 1. In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and 10 cubits deep in front of the house. And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets in the wall in order that supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. The entrance for the lowest story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. He built the structure against the whole house five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon concerning this house that you are building. If you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel. We'll read verse 14 as well. So Solomon built the house, and finished it. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray again, just ask for his help. Father, indeed, give us your help once again. Father, we know why you gave us your word as Christ taught his disciples, that it testifies of him, that all of scripture shows us Christ, teaches us of Christ, glorifies Christ. And this chapter as well, we confess does that. Teach us how by your spirit, may he show us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and of his gospel this day as well. To his glory in Christ's name, amen. Think about the most impressive building that you have ever seen or been in as a, in your life. So in person. the most impressive building. Of course, there are many famous and big and important buildings, beautiful buildings in our world, from the Empire State Building to the Taj Mahal, from the US Capitol to the Hagia Sophia. Have you ever been inside or seen in person any of those famous buildings or others? There are many. Buildings certainly do have the ability to impress various ideas upon our minds, whether by their size, or by their beauty, or by the symbolism of the architecture, or even just by the significance of what takes place within those buildings. Well, all of those really, the size, the beauty, the symbolism, the significance of what takes place in the building, all of those would have been factors that would have caused Solomon's temple to make a very strong impression upon the minds of the ancient Israelites, as indeed it did. This temple of whose construction we now finally read here in 1 Kings 6 would have been the grandest building that any of the ancient Israelites ever would have seen. And it became the very center of their religious lives. It became the symbol of their national identity and virtually a synonym for God himself. At the beginning of last week's sermon, I traced the outlines of the biblical theology and typology of the temple idea. throughout scripture. I emphasized how the overall story of redemption that we read in the Bible really could be told as a story of God bringing mankind back into his temple, back into his presence, out of which they had been driven by sin, by the sin of man. When God first commanded the Israelites through Moses to construct a dwelling place for him, the tabernacle originally, which now just takes more permanent solid form in the temple, God had said, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. It's really an incredible statement that the God of the universe, the creator, the thrice holy God, still has as his purpose to dwell in the midst of his people, of sinful people. Again, that original garden temple that mankind had been driven out of that paradise. But again, it was paradise primarily because it's where man met with God, where man communed with his creator. Which again, as we confess, is the chief purpose, the chief end of man, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To dwell in His presence and commune with His God. That communion that was disrupted, that was broken, that was shattered by sin. And now God comes back to man and says, I want to dwell in the midst of my people. God dwelling with man, dwelling with his people. That is the most fundamental significance of this temple idea. And that's the idea that's highlighted explicitly here again, in the middle of this record of the construction of Solomon's temple, as we'll come back to. Now, once again, we really here could fall down the rabbit hole of all of the details. It's even interesting to read different translations and, of course, technical terminology, architectural terminology. Sometimes there's debates over what it's even really actually referring to. We could fall down, chase down a whole bunch of rabbits down their holes. Architectural terms, precise measurements. But we will have to content ourselves with the clearest and main aspects of this chapter. I'll try to point out the primary most significant details as we go. All of them are significant. But I find here in this chapter, in all of these details, all the way to the end of the chapter, you know, we didn't read this right now, but the description of the various rooms within the temple, and of the doors, and even briefly of the courtyard of the temple, But in all of these details, I find three primary such aspects, aspects that are the clearest and main points of this chapter. They're emphasized for us throughout in this lengthy account of the construction of Solomon's temple, God's dwelling place among his people. Namely, I find here most significant It's timing, it's theology, and it's terms. So of God's dwelling with his people, the timing of that, the theology of that, and the terms of God dwelling with his people. So that's what we'll turn our attention to now. Beginning with the timing of God's choice to dwell among his people. That's what I see here first, the timing of God's choice to dwell among his people. Chapter 6 is sort of marked out from the rest of the narrative here. It begins and it ends with references to time. Now again, those are details we tend to just read right past. We think, oh, we're just kind of giving trivia information here. It's obviously more than that. And hopefully I can point that out to you. But the first verse and the last two verses mark the beginning and the ending of the construction of the temple. Now there's gonna be more recorded in the next chapter about Solomon furnishing the temple and of course the dedication of that temple. But the actual construction of the building itself takes place here in chapter six, and we're told the exact time in which that construction took place. And again, these references to time here are not arbitrary. They're not purely for trivia. I do take them as literal, right, that they are literal, but also as significant and intentional by the providence of God. We confess that God is in control of all of these things. And if you see some sort of significance to a particular time, that doesn't mean we don't have to take it literally, because God is the one who's doing this. And he maybe literally caused these things to take a particular period of time for his own purposes. And I think we certainly see that clearly here. And what is the point that in the providence of God, the timing even of this is significant. As I said last week, the construction of the temple in Jerusalem is one of the most significant episodes, significant occurrences in the life of God's Old Testament people. It really marks a new stage, a new step forward in the history of redemption, a new era for God's people. And this is pointed out to us by these references to time. This underlines two significant, the timing here underlines two significant features of this new era of God's dwelling among his people. The first feature of God's choice to dwell among his people at this particular time marks its settled and more permanent nature. So God's dwelling with his people at this particular time, it's more settled, it's more permanent than it has been in the past. This is really the point that's made in verse one. In the 480th year, after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. Now this, we're given time markers here, but they're with reference to two things. The first is with reference to the Exodus, right? To God bringing his people out of the land of Egypt. We're told it's been 480 years precisely since the Exodus. And the other timeframe that we're given is in Solomon's reign. It's the fourth year of his reign. Well, why are these significant? Well, significant in many ways, because here we have scriptural evidence to help us date the Exodus. I'm going to spare you all of that argument. There's always been a lot of argument over the dating of when the Exodus actually took place, under which Pharaoh and regime, everything like that dynasty. But we are given a specific time measurement here. 480 years after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, but this reference to the Exodus, I think is what is particularly significant. The reference to the Exodus, why does he take us back to the Exodus? Well, it's reminiscent of another time marker that we have earlier in the history of Israel about the Exodus itself. This phrase, even the way it's worded is very reminiscent to what we're told in Exodus chapter 12 and verses 40 to 41. Here it is written that the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. And here we have another kind of marker for us. 430 years that they were in Egypt. The background for that and the significance of that time frame goes back to God's covenant promises to Abraham. Remember God in Genesis 15, 17 had said to Abraham, or Genesis 15 verse 13, Now that your descendants are going to go down to another land, they're going to be slaves there for 400 years, but then I am going to visit them and I'm going to bring them up. Well, 430 years to the very day we are told since Israel went down. So from when Jacob brought his sons down to be with Joseph in Israel. 30 years elapsed before then the people were enslaved and they were enslaved for precisely 400 years and God kept his covenant promise to bring his people out of Egypt. So this emphasis here is of This 430 years, the background and the covenant promises to Abraham in Genesis 15 that mark the end of Israel's bondage and God giving them the gift of freedom. Well, now similarly, we have another time marker that reminds us very much of that. Now we have 480 years. And again, people have speculated about the significance of that. A generation tended to be counted as 40 years. 480 would be exactly 12 such generations. But from the time that God brought the fulfillment of the covenant promises to Abraham, brought an end to their bondage, now, There's another significant era in the life of God's people. In this one, we have the reference back now, the background being God's covenant promises to David. And what was that covenant promise to David? When I give you rest from all of your enemies round about you, then your son will build a house for my name. In a very real sense, because this takes us then back to the Exodus and places it within the timeframe of the history of God's redemption of his people. Here, this fulfillment of a covenant promise to David, bringing about the end of this period of wandering. brings them this gift of rest. I think all of that points us to the fact that this building of the temple finally under Solomon, in a very real sense, marks the final end of the process that was begun in the Exodus. God brought his people out, delivered them from bondage, but then brought them into the land, and yet they had to conquer that land, and then they had to settle that land, and there was never that full settlement, that full rest, until the reign of Solomon, after the warfare of David. We saw last week the emphasis on one of the prerequisites for the building of the house had to be rest. It had to be this peace. What is this marking now? That the building of the temple marks the full end, the final end of this process that was begun in the Exodus of deliverance, conquering and settling the promised land. That's why it's also mentioned that it's the fourth year into the reign of Solomon. Solomon, yes, ascended the throne. There was some trouble within the kingdom that had to be taken care of. He had organization to do. We've seen all of that. Four years into his reign, though, now, as he said to Hiram, now there is peace. There is rest all around. On every side, there is neither adversary nor misfortune. God has fully finally settled his people, given them rest in the promised land. And so now it's time for God to settle down more permanently in their midst. So this time signifier here emphasizes of God's dwelling with his people, this more settled and permanent nature of that dwelling. It also emphasizes the fullness and completeness of God's coming to dwell in the midst of his people. All right, this is really the end of the chapter, verses 37 and 38. In the fourth year, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv, that's what we've already been told, the fourth year of Solomon's reign. And then verse 38, and in the 11th year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it. Now again, you might think I'm dipping my toes into numerology or something like that. But I don't think it's any coincidence that it was seven years. Now, if you look at it, it was seven and a half years, it was seven years and six months, but it's emphasized there at the end, he was seven years in building it, right? Seven years. Again, literal, I believe, but intentional. Seven years, again, as we've seen many places in Scripture, not every time you see it, many times, seven does represent the idea of completeness and of fulfillment and of fullness. And I'm not just picking this out because it's seven years, the language highlights this as well. As we saw in verse 14, so Solomon built the house and finished it. We read of him saying that other places throughout the rest of the chapter, but then in verse 38, the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications, right? It's done. It's finished. It's complete in every last detail. There's no more to do. There's no more to add. God has come to settle and rest in dwelling with his people in a more permanent sense, in a fuller and more complete sense than ever he has before. And again, this very idea is emphasized in the fact that this is a A massive building. It's a structure built on a foundation that is going to last. It's no longer a tent, a mobile thing that can be taken down and transported and set back up again. The major step forward in God's dwelling with his people, a fullness, a completeness, more permanence, more settled dwelling of God in the midst of his people. These references to timing emphasize this. God is now, at this particular time, chosen to dwell among his people fully and finally, completely and permanently, at least in a relative typological sense, as we have pointed out before and as we will see. But what do we get a glimpse of here in that typological sense? Well, we get a glimpse of that great and glorious day, that far greater and far more glorious day, when the fullest and most final dwelling place of God will descend onto the new earth, the new Jerusalem, that eternal, permanent, eternally permanent temple city. When God finally gives his people complete and eternal rest from all her enemies, without and within, then he himself and the Lamb will come and dwell in our midst forever and ever. May that day come soon. May that day come soon. Again, that is our hope. That is what we long for. This is what we ought to long for. That day, when we are again, it's our very purpose of our existence to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. To dwell with God in His presence, in His temple. It's what we ought to be longing for. Here, no, we are not at rest. We are not settled. We should not feel perfectly at home here in this life, in this world, because we do not yet have that greatest of joys, the full and immediate presence of our God with us. We ought to long for that. We ought to, as Hebrews 3 and 4 tells us, strive to enter into that rest. And how do we do that? By holding fast to our confession of faith. Hold fast by faith to enter into his rest, not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. but to press on, to hold fast that we indeed might have that place in that new Jerusalem, that eternal, settled, permanent temple of God in his presence forevermore. Do we long for that? Do we long for that? How often do we find ourselves praying for that? God, I want that. I want that day. want to be in your presence without any of the hindrances of our own lack of faith, our own sin, that again, God will have defeated all of our enemies, those enemies on the outside, those enemies even more so on the inside, and we can dwell with Him perfectly and completely and forever. We should long for that, and we should pray that that day would come and come soon. But the timing of God's choosing to dwell among his people, even that's significant. It emphasizes this new stage, but there's an even greater stage of God's coming to dwell with his people still in the future. But that brings us then to the theology of God's coming to dwell among his people. Under this heading really fall the majority of the details in this chapter. All of the details, all the architectural elements and the construction materials, There's a theology to it, right? They communicate, they teach us something about God and about our relationship with God. And this is common. The temples of the ancient world were meant to communicate something about their gods, right? Even within many churches, especially older churches, architecture communicates theology. It's interesting to see, especially in all these glorious old Roman Catholic cathedrals. Yes, there are these grand and glorious, beautiful buildings, but the way that they're laid out communicates much of their wrong theology, right? What is central in these churches? Well, central in Protestant churches is the pulpit, right? Emphasizing what is the primary means of grace. The preaching of the word of God is central. The pulpit is the thing that's raised that is central. Many Roman Catholic churches, You know, the first thing you see as you enter in is the baptismal font, right? Because that's how you enter into the church as an infant. The thing that front and center up front of the church is not the pulpit, but the altar, right? Because that is the center of their worship, the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Christ, really essentially and practically the re-sacrifice of Christ, because his one sacrifice is never fully sufficient for anything. The pulpit or whatever is spoken from is shunted off to the side. You're communicating a lot about your theology just in the way in which you structure your church. Well, certainly that was the case with the temple. All of these details, there was theology to it. And of course, that theology is all wrapped up in what we read about in the book of Exodus in the layout of the tabernacle, right? If you look at even just the layout of the temple, compare that, it's just a duplication basically of the layout of the temple. The dimensions have about doubled, right? Because it's bigger, it's more permanent. And there's, you know, the people of God are bigger. You've got to have, more tables of showbread, more candlesticks, things like that. So it's bigger, but essentially it's the exact same. And theology is the same. You can see the rough structure of the passage as it lays out kind of what it tells us about the architecture and the structure of the temple. In verses two to 10 of our passage, you have mostly a description of the the exterior, right, just the overall dimensions. In verses 14 to 28, you get more of a description now of the interior. and there's a more detailed description of the interior. In verses 29 to 35, you actually have a lengthy description of the doors of the temple, the doors into the main hall or whatever you wanna call it, the nave, I think is how the ESV translates it, but it's the holy place where you had the tables of showbread, the candelabras, where you had the altar of incense. So you get the description of all the details there, the doors leading into that, but then also the doors, interestingly enough, that are described as leading into, well, not so much leading into as preventing one from getting into the Holy of Holies. I think that's more of the significance, as we'll see. And then in the last verse, verse 36, you get a very brief description of the courtyard. But as far as the exterior and the basic dimensions of it, again, there are three basic parts to the temple. There is the vestibule, again, is how the ESV translates that, or the portico, or the porch, really. It's just kind of the facade area that was a covered porch of some kind, just serving as the entranceway to the temple, which was 20 cubits wide, 10 cubits deep, and well, length, width, whatever you want to call them. But the overall width of the temple as you were looking at it was 20 cubits. It was 10 cubits deep, 30 cubits high. The nave or the main hall, the holy place on the inside, the biggest room was again, 20 feet wide, like everything. It was 40 feet long, so it was much deeper and a 30 feet high. So again, about double the size of the dimensions of the holy place within the tabernacle. But then you have the inner sanctuary, you have the Holy of Holies, which is It's smaller, it's 20 feet wide, like every 20 cubits. I'm probably going back and forth. 20 cubits wide. It's 20 cubits deep or long. But it's also 20 cubits high. So the rest of the temple is 30 cubits high. Now, that's significant. We'll get there in a moment. It was either the ceiling was dropped and there was an empty chamber above the Holy of Holies, which some people speculate may have been the case with a hole in the ceiling if they needed to get in and do repairs, minimal contact with anything, or the room itself was raised. And so you just had 20 cubits in between the floor and the ceiling, but a perfect cube. is the idea. A perfect cube, just as it was in the tabernacle. But basically, same basic layout, double the size of the tabernacle. But the theology is all basically the same. So what is the theology? What did this all communicate about God? What was it meant to communicate about God? Well, many different things. The clearest, probably most obvious thing that the temple now was meant to communicate about God is his greatness and his glory, right? His greatness and his glory. That's what most of the temples in the ancient world were meant to communicate, the greatness and glory of the God to whom they were dedicated. But this certainly is the case. Solomon's temple was overall a massive and beautiful building. Certainly for the ancient Israelite, it would be the most glorious grand building he had ever laid eyes on. You read of the descriptions of the Jews, the Israelites, ascending the hill of Zion to the temple. As you look at the layout of Jerusalem, even David and Solomon's palaces were lower. They would not have been as prominent. You would look at the city of Jerusalem You're ascending the mountains of Judea and on top of everything would be this glorious, brilliant white gilded with gold building shining in the sun. It certainly would have impressed upon the Israelites the greatness and the glory of God, a house fitting for the one true God of Israel. Although, as we'll read later, certainly not fitting in an absolute sense. All right, as he's going to say, of course, the heaven of heavens cannot contain me. What is one little house is grand and as glorious as it was. But even by ancient standards, this was a massive and beautiful building meant to convey the greatness and the glory of the God to whom it was dedicated. It certainly also would communicate about God, not just his greatness and his glory, but his purity and his holiness. His purity and his holiness. Again, this is all emphasized in the materials and the construction of it. We read some of these details. I would struggle even to try to describe especially what this means of these outer chambers of the court and everything. But the main point that is communicated here is that even in those chambers that are sort of built around the temple, right? So they weren't part of the temple proper. They were storage rooms. They may have been sleeping quarters for the priests who were on duty, things like that, but they were certainly for more common use. But the point that's emphasized is that they're constructed in such a way that none of the beams for those outer chambers penetrates into the temple proper itself. Because the temple is holy. The temple is to be kept pure. It's separate from all common kind of use. The temple itself is inviolate. At the same point, I think is also being made in the note in verse seven about how the stones that are used were prepared at the quarry. They were chiseled and shaped. And again, think about the skill that that would involve. To shape them all to the perfect size, the perfect shape, the perfect dimensions, so that they can just be brought together and assembled like a puzzle once you get to the actual site. But that they were all prepared with hammers and axes and tools of iron off-site. And why? Just so that the sound of them would not be heard in the house while it was being built. You know, the sounds of this sort of common labor, the cacophony of the iron against stone. It just adds to the aura of this is a holy place already. It is pure. It is inviolate. It's set apart from all that is common. You get the emphasis about on the interior of both the Holy of Holies and the main hall, the holy place, that all of the walls are covered with panelings of cedar. And the emphasis there is no stone could even be seen. So again, you couldn't even see just the common building materials overlaid with these intricately, beautifully carved wooden panels so that you don't even see any of the stone from the inside. But then especially what? Then even that beautifully carved cedar paneling is itself overlaid with gold. You get this emphasis, everything inside the temple is overlaid with gold. You don't see a single surface that's not covered with gold, or even the floors themselves are overlaid with gold. There's language that indicates that the ceilings themselves were overlaid with gold. Again, gold is that symbol in the ancient world of purity and of that which is of the highest value, but especially of purity. Albert Edersheim, he's an older writer from the 19th century. He was actually a Jew. He was born to a Jewish family. He converted to Christianity and became a biblical scholar in England. And I really still like his works. And in fact, I'd like to kind of investigate him a little bit further. He's an interesting guy, but he writes, he has a whole book on the temple in the days of Jesus, which is fascinating. But he writes kind of a whole history of Israel as well. And as he gets to this point and he's describing the furnishing and especially the the overlays of gold in this temple. He writes this, in truth, the sanctuary was a golden house. The floor, which was of cypress wood, was overlaid with gold. The walls, which were paneled with cedar, on which the same designs were carved as on the doors, were covered with gold. And so was the ceiling. It needs scarcely be said how it must have glittered and shone in the light of the sacred candlesticks." I mean, could you even imagine being in a room that is just absolute gold? And then you get the light flickering from those candlesticks and shining off. You read 2 Chronicles 3.6, the walls were also encrusted with gems. Just everything designed to reflect the beauty of the light from the candlesticks, especially though the inner sanctuary. Ken, where everything was gold, but they're a pure golden cube, a pure golden cube that you lived. Again, what does this all remind us of? Reminds us of, well, Not when it was written, but now that we can see all of this. You can't read the description, especially of the innermost sanctuary, without immediately thinking of the New Jerusalem. The description of that New Jerusalem we have there at the end of Revelation. The city foursquare whose walls, whose streets are paved with gold. but a pure cube of a city. And why? To emphasize that it is now the inner sanctuary of God. It is the Holy of Holies in which God himself dwells with the Lamb. And what is it? It's pure gold and gemstones. What is it all supposed to do? To reflect and to amplify the glory of God in its midst. This is the full expression and full typology of what we see described here, which again, as we argued when we finished up Revelation not that long ago, is not necessarily a literal description, physical description of what, you know, the new Jerusalem and the new earth will be, but it's a description of God's people, God's people, his true temple and all of their glorified and purified beauty. So what does the theology of all of this tell us? What does it communicate about God? His greatness and his glory, also his purity and his holiness. It communicates as well, clearly, God's presence with his people. Again, this is the point emphasized again in verse 13, and I will dwell among the children of Israel. Again, the whole point of the tabernacle in the first place But again, think about that. This God, this God of such greatness and glory, this God of such purity and holiness, making it his intention to dwell among his people. And this is also emphasized throughout with the imagery of the original temple. of the Garden of Eden, of the paradise that was lost. You read through descriptions of what was carved on all of the walls and on the doors. The images of a paradise-like garden. Jaime emphasized this when he was going through his study in biblical theology and did so well, but gourds and open flowers and palm trees that all would just make you feel like you're in this golden paradise, this golden garden, just like Eden in which there was every kind of tree with its fruit. That's what's being emphasized here, that now in this temple, mankind is being brought back into The garden temple, the paradise of God brought back into his presence. There's also another, we could say perhaps more ominous feature that decorated and adorned all of the surfaces of the temple that also takes us back to the Garden of Eden. Yes, there are the paradise-like trees and flowers and fruits But also on every wall, on every door, on the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, certainly within the holy place, there were cherubim. Cherubim. What does that remind us of? Yes, the Garden of Eden, but particularly what? The thing that prevented man from entering back into the Garden of Eden. And so while as much as this temple and all of its construction and structure and adornments, its architecture communicates the glory and the greatness of God, the holiness and the purity of God, his presence with his people, as much as it symbolized his presence with his people, it continued to symbolize his separation from his people. or rather his people's separation from him. God of such greatness and glory, this God of such purity and holiness, you are meant to ask the question, how? How can he dwell in the midst of a sinful people? Again, this is all emphasized by these cherubim on every wall, on the veil, especially on the doors of the temple. At those doors, Again, through which most of Israelites would never pass. It really is incredible to think you have this glorious description of all of this inward furnishing of the temple. Whoever saw it, not the common Israelites, only the priests, but who saw the absolute pinnacle of beauty and glory in the Holy of Holies. Only one man ever, only once a year, and only after innumerable rituals and sacrifices in order to cleanse him and make him able to enter into the true direct presence of God. Of course, within there, the cherubim symbolism reaches its height. Of course, on the Ark of the Covenant itself, you had two cherubim carved on the lid on the throne, both of them looking inward at the center of that throne, their wings covering that throne. But now in the temple, you have two massive statues of cherubim standing and now facing outward, facing toward the rest of the temple. I mean, what is that? We think, all right, it's beautiful, it's glorious. It was terrifying. That's what it was meant to communicate above all else to the people of Israel. Do not dare enter here. Do not dare enter here. You are not worthy. You are not fitting. You are not pure and holy enough to enter into the presence of this pure and holy and great and glorious God. It was a warning. Do not enter here, lest you die. And the common people, so much more so the Gentiles, never saw the inside of the temple, certainly never saw the Holy of Holies. What did they see? They just saw this grand, glorious building, but with doors. closed to them and covered with cherubim, with the heavenly guardians of God's holiness, keeping out all defilement, all sin. As much as the temple is a symbol of God's presence with his people, it was a symbol of his continued separation from his people. And you're meant to ask again, well, what could overcome the separation? What could overcome this barrier? Again, if it is God's intention to bring his people back into his presence as fully as man enjoyed his presence in the Garden of Eden, how can that happen? How could God come to dwell with a sinful people truly, fully, eternally, as we see him doing in the last chapters of the book of Revelation, in that true temple city, that true cubicle, golden holy of holies, where all of his people dwell in his immediate and blessed presence? How can that happen? We're also told that here in this chapter. We see the timing of God's choice to dwell among his people. We see the theology of God's coming to dwell with his people. Thirdly, and finally, we see the terms, the terms of God continuing to dwell among his people. The terms of God continuing to dwell among his people. And we see this right in the center of this chapter. Verses 11 to 13. As you're reading this chapter, right, you read the description of the construction of the exterior of the temple, of the main body of the temple. And then you go on after these verses to read of the kind of the continuing construction of the interior of the temple and all of the other features of it. But right in the middle of that, you get verses 11 to 13. And of course, most secular scholars look at this and they say, this makes no sense here. This is obviously an intrusion into the text, right? Someone inserted this later. And even in the Septuagint, these verses are missing. And so people, they're in the Hebrew, but they're missing, you know, they say, oh, it was obviously an intrusion. The later editor came in and he wanted to insert some of his own theology in here. Well, even if that were true, why would he insert it right here? It's very invasive. It's very disruptive to the flow of the text. As you can see from the book of Kings, its author or its editor, whoever you want to call it, certainly had more literary skill than to do something like that. But what does it do? By its very out of placeness, by its very outstanding kind of intrusive nature, It's all the more striking that here God is intervening into this process. And we get the fact or get the impression that, yeah, he spoke this to Solomon in the midst of his construction of the temple, somewhere in that seven year period. And he wanted to emphasize this point once again. And what does he say to Solomon? Verse 11, now the word of the Lord came to Solomon concerning this house that you are building. If you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel." Here in the midst of this, God says, yes, I am coming to dwell in the midst of my people, but there are terms. There are conditions that have to be met, that have to be fulfilled. And upon whom do those conditions fall? It's on the king, it's on Solomon. Again, English is ambiguous, but verse 12, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, that's singular. He's not saying this to the people, he's saying this to the king. My continued presence, my continued dwelling among my people, my not forsaking Israel is dependent on you, your obedience to my commands. And this is the theology of Kings that we started out with when we introduced it. There is this shift with the Davidic covenant where in order to bring God's blessing and presence with his people, that that no longer depends on the obedience of the people themselves. so much as it now depends on the obedience of her kings. And if one of David's sons is going to fulfill the Davidic covenant and bring about all of the blessings for the people, the eternal rest from her enemies, the eternal dwelling of God in her midst, the blessings of the covenant, that now all depends upon the obedience of the king as the representative of the people. We emphasize that's the shift in the Davidic covenant. That is the point of the book of Kings, as we will see all throughout the rest of this book. God's blessing of his people or his judgment upon the people now depends upon the obedience or the disobedience of her kings in particular. And as we will see, as I read last week, I won't read it again, but at the very end of second Kings, When the armies of Babylon eventually come and destroy Jerusalem and destroy this house, this dwelling place of God, when the symbol of God's dwelling with his people, his presence with his people, his blessing upon the people is destroyed, it's because of the sins of her kings. It's because our kings did not fulfill the terms in order to bring the blessing of God and his presence among his people and secure that eternally. Of course, this all once again just points us forward to that one true, perfectly obedient and righteous king, that true son of David, Jesus Christ. Only he could offer the perfect obedience to all of God's commands, all of God's statutes and laws, walking in them perfectly. That then God established with his word, his promise to David with him, gave to him an eternal kingdom, brought his richest and truest and fullest blessing upon himself and his people. and thus secured God's eternal dwelling with his people. That's the only way that we get to the end of the book of Revelation and that perfect and eternal blessed dwelling of God among his people. It's because Christ did what needed to be done in order that God may dwell in the midst of a sinful people. And as I said, what the book of Kings shows us is, yes, we see in the Old Testament, and we see emphasized over and over again, as we made this distinction in Sunday school, the passive obedience of Christ. That yes, negatively, he had to take upon himself the judgment that our sins deserved. And we see that primarily, what, in his work as the great high priest, right? Within this temple, the one who, according to the author of Hebrews, offered that perfect and eternally sufficient sacrifice for sins that then opened up that curtain, opened up that veil so that we now can boldly enter through into the true holy of holies, into the true presence of God. because he perfectly in himself offered that sacrifice that perfectly took the judgment that our sins deserved. Yes, the passive obedience, his priestly work was necessary, but here we see also the need for his active obedience and the active obedience as our king, as our representative, positively then fulfilling the whole law of God also in our place and earning for us that righteousness that he imputes to us by faith, which again is necessary to enter into and dwell in the presence of a thrice holy God. to enter into that holy of holies that no one else could do in the Old Testament. It's only by faith in what Christ has done for us, in his passive obedience as our great high priest, in his active obedience as our true king. Again, as Thomas Boston loved to put it so succinctly, Christ redeems us, he brings us back into the presence of God by doing and by dying for us. We need them both. We need Him to suffer the judgment we deserve, to cleanse us from our sins, but we also need that fulfillment of the righteous requirements of God, of the positive fulfillments of His law, in order to be clothed in that perfect positive righteousness. We need to have the filthy rags of our unrighteousness stripped from us, but we also need the perfect robes of Christ's righteousness if we are going to be fit to dwell in the presence of God for all eternity. But again, that is exactly what Christ has done for us as our perfect High Priest, as our true and righteous King. And because of that perfect work, we can then with full confidence and sure hope know that one day when our wanderings are done, when God finally brings about that perfect rest for his people, that the new Jerusalem will descend. The dwelling place of God will be with men. He himself will be with us as our God, and we will dwell with him and enjoy him forever and ever. For in his presence there is alone fullness of joy. At his right hand, pleasures forevermore. That is our hope. That is our confidence because of the work of Christ if we trust in him. Praise God for that hope because it's only in and through him because of his work as perfect priest and true king that God can and does indeed promise to us what he promised here on the condition of Solomon's obedience. I will dwell among them and I will not forsake my people. Praise God that it's his hope, that is our hope. May Christ return, may he bring that hope to its fulfillment. May we live in light of that hope. May that be our true longing, the thing that gives us the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure in this life and in the hope of that in the life to come. And if that is our great desire, our great joy, Let us enjoy the presence of God that we have here and now. Every day, as we individually are the temple of God, having his spirit within us, but especially as we gather with the other living stones of God's temple and worship him, his presence is here with us in a special and real sense. Do we delight in that? Is that our chief joy? May it be so, but praise God for the work of Christ who secured this promise for us, I will dwell among them and will not forsake my people. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this great hope we have only because of the work of Christ, dealing with our sin, fulfilling the law of God so that we might be made fit again to dwell in the presence of our God. Help us to remember His perfect work now as we remember Him in the elements of the supper. And as we partake, may our faith in Him, may our gratitude to Him, may our love for Him be deepened and strengthened. For His glory, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.