Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals of the LORD our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel. – 1 Chronicles 2:4

Today's Scripture Reading (December 3, 2025): 2 Chronicles 2

One of the dangers of religion is that it can set us up to try to take actions that God never intended for us to do. I am convinced that the terrorist attacks that have become a standard part of our contemporary experience are not born out of any God. No God is sitting up in heaven at the moment of an explosion who exclaims that "the ones who planted that bomb, they're my people and I am so proud of them." If there are moments when God cries, I think these moments of violence are among the times that bring tears to God's eyes. God is not proud of our protests or our hate. He is the one who has commanded us to love. Every time we burn a holy book or trash someone whose lifestyle is different from ours (even if we would say that their lifestyle is sinful), I think that those actions make God sad. We want to believe in those moments that we are doing the work of God, but the reality is that we are not; we are simply fulfilling our own selfish desires.

So, Solomon makes this pronouncement and he places the command in the voice of God; Solomon believes that God has told him to build him a Temple, a place where the Name of God could live on the Earth. The problem is that we cannot confirm the command, and, in many ways, it seems out of place. It is not that God did not use the Temple throughout the nation's history; we know he did. But often, as is evidenced in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4, the Temple also became a source of pain and division. Some experts have gone so far as to say that the concept of God desiring a physical Temple was entirely conceived in Solomon's mind. I think they are probably wrong. If the dream of the Temple was not conceived of in the mind of God (by the way, the tabernacle was conceived of in the mind of God, and the Temple was really just an extension of that tabernacle), the idea for a Temple was definitely present in the mind of Solomon's father, David. If it was not the concept of Solomon's heavenly father that Solomon was following, the Temple was most definitely the dream of his earthly father.

One of the things that makes us wonder if this is really the will of God is that Solomon used slave labor of the conquered peoples and the forced labor of his own people to build the Temple. He even went into debt to finance the task. And one of the questions we are left with is: Does that sound like something God would want us to do?  All of this to build a building that we are not sure God really wanted.

Stephen, in his final speech before his death, notes that all the powerful things God did for Israel occurred before the Temple was built. And then Solomon built the Temple. In his final speech before those who had been designated as the keepers of the Temple, Stephen makes this comment: "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands" (Acts 7:48). What David and Solomon possibly both missed was that God's plan has always been that His dwelling place here on Earth was to be inside of us; those who chose to follow him. That in dwelling in us, he would be all that we could ever need. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 3

See also 1 Kings 5:5