1 Kings 6: God's Presence with His People

"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.'" 1 Kings 6:11-13

Have you ever read those seemingly boring chapters in scripture that give us a bunch of monotonous dimmensions of how things were supposed to be built in the time of Israel? Well, this morning we come to one of those chapters. In 1 Kings 6, Solomon is building the temple, and we get every detail. However, if we truly read scripture aright, we can see that this chapter is absolutly not pointless or boring.

When approaching any passage of scripture, we must remember the words of Paul that "ALL Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). What kind of scripture is useful? ALL scripture! Thus, even these seemingly boring chapters of scripture have a great purpose. Our task as exegetical Christians is to find out what that purpose is.

This morning, I would like to propose to you that why 1 Kings 6 is important is because God here is starting a new stage of redemptive history. From the beginning of time, God's plan was to dwell with man, even as God was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. However, because of Adam and Eve's sin, God could no longer be fully in their presence because of their own sin. Thus, the sacrificial system was set up so that man could atone for their sin, and be partially in the presence of God. However, as we see in the book of Exodus, man still cannot be perfectly in the presence of God, for if man were to see God's face he would die. Yet, God commands the building of the tabernacle that God might dwell with them more. However, the tabernacle was only temporary. It moved from place to place and was not a firm house in which the Lord could maintain his presence. Enter the building of Solomon's temple.

But the question still remains: why is this chapter of scripture (and many others) seemingly so boring? All of these dimmensions and details about the temple often seem pointless and overstated, but what we must truly realize is that that are all speaking of the perfection of the house of God as well as their shadowing of future things. Firstly, all of these dimmensions and details show how God must dwell in a perfect, holy place just as he his holy and perfect. Secondly, these dimmensions and details foreshadow for us three things: Christ (the bodily presence of God), us (the present temple of God), and the future heaven (the final, ultimate dwelling place of both God and his people). Do you see it now? Surely these chapters of scripture are anything but boring.

So, in response to today's devotional about God's perfect temple, have you realized that you are now God's temple? As Paul speaks of in his letters, the Church of God is now the temple of God. He no longer dwells in physical buildings but in spiritual hearts. However, his standard is still the same: perfection. Therefore, we ought to take care of our bodies as temples of the Lord our God as Paul commands, as well as cast all sin out from ourselves so that the Lord may dwell in us more and more. There is only so much room in the human heart; make sure it's all being used for the presence of Christ, and not for sin:

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18