… and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses the LORD’s servant had made in the wilderness. - 2 Chronicles 1:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 27, 2016): 2 Chronicles 1

Before Washington and the White House, there were other Presidential Mansions. George Washington actually lived in three different mansions in two different cities during his time as President. The first Presidential Mansion was the Samuel Osgood House in New York. This was followed by the Alexander Macomb house again in New York. But then the capital was moved temporarily to Philadelphia and George Washington moved into the President’s House. On his election, John Adam’s also moved into the President’s House in Philadelphia. But a capital in New York or Philadelphia, or really any of the other U.S. cities was never the dream. The dream was to build a new federal city on the banks of the Potomac River. This city would not be part of any state and would, therefore, not be indebted to any one group of people. The dream was to build Washington, D.C. The exact spot of this new federal city was to be chosen by George Washington. The new city was originally going to be a square city built on land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia. And slowly the dream that would become Washington began to take shape.

But that did not stop both New York and Philadelphia from attempting to make their cities the permanent capital of the United States. New York built Government House, a building that was intended to become the Presidential Mansion. But the house was still under construction when Congress decided to move the Capital temporarily to Philadelphia. Philadelphia made their own bid to become the permanent capital of the United States by building their own Presidential Mansion. That building was completed while George Washington was still in office and while the capital was still in Philadelphia, but Washington refused to occupy the house. When elected President, John Adams likewise refused to occupy the Philadelphian Presidential Mansion. It was as if both men thought that occupying the house might take the nation away from the dream of an independent Washington. Finally Washington, and the White House, were ready to receive John Adams, and Adams moved in.

For most of Israel’ history, the Tabernacle, the place of meeting between man and God, later the Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, thought to be the very seat or throne of God, were intimately connected. But apparently during the reign of David, that was not true. David’s dream was of a Temple. The Ark had been lost to the Philistines just before the reign of Saul. It had been moved from place to place but never restored back into the Tabernacle at Gibeon. Eventually, David made a grand attempt to move the Ark into Jerusalem. One would have thought that at that time, David would have also moved the Tabernacle from its place in Gibeon to Jerusalem, reuniting the linked pair. But evidently that never happened. We really don’t know why David refused to move the Tent of Meeting into Jerusalem, but one of the theories is that the Tabernacle was never David’s dream. His dream was the Temple. And he was possibly afraid that moving the Tabernacle into Jerusalem could possibly make the people content and then they would never bother to build the Temple. So the Tabernacle waited in Gibeon until the time that the Temple was constructed and the Tabernacle was effectively decommissioned. But in this moment, As Solomon desires to meet with God, he leaves the confines of Jerusalem and rides to Gibeon where the Tabernacle sat so that he could meet with God.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 3