In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it. – 1 Kings 6:31

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 1, 2016): 1 Kings 6

We live in a temporary world. Nothing is permanent and everything is subject to decay. This is simply our reality. If you look around you right now, there is probably nothing that you see that will still be there in a hundred years. I own a house, but to keep it functioning I always seem to have a project that needs to be done. In my garage sits a 1983 Mustang 5.0 sports car. I have friends who constantly ask when I am going to be finished restoring it. But I am not a restorer of sports cars, nor have I restored this one. I am just trying to maintain it, to make it last just a little while longer until I can give it away to someone else who wants the job of caring for it. The natural order in this world continues to be from order to disorder. Without us to maintain what it is that we have, it is amazing how short the period would be until everything that we have simply disintegrates and is reclaimed by nature. All that we possess is temporary.

According to the author of 1 Kings, it took seven years to complete the Temple. It might have taken longer (thirteen years is suggested in 1 Kings 7:1). Herod’s renovation of the Second Temple was supposed to be completed in eighteen months, but the out-buildings and courts were still being worked on at the time of Christ, forty-six years after the initial start of the project (John 2:20). But at the end of seven years, there was enough completed on the Temple to declare it finished; and it was beautiful. Solomon could be proud that he had been able to accomplish what it was that his father had asked him to accomplish.

But even David’s/Solomon’s Temple was temporary. Five years after Solomon’s death, the enemies of Israel raided the Temple for the gold that was found within. By the time of King Josiah (7^th century B.C.E.), the Temple had fallen into great disrepair. Josiah caused the Temple to be restored. The restoration was so extensive that some have argued that it was really Josiah, and not Solomon, who had built the Temple in Jerusalem in the first place. Less than a hundred years after the restoration of the Temple by Josiah, the Babylonians tore it down and burned it. Less than 500 years had passed since the beautiful unveiling of the Temple by Solomon, and the Temple was gone.

Today, we have no evidence that it ever existed. We are not even completely sure where the Temple was originally built. The archeological evidence of a Temple that we do have is of the Temple built by Herod. All of the beauty and treasures that were stored in this earthly Temple of Solomon have disappeared. Maybe all of this simply confirms the words of Jesus. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21). And God has always intended for our hearts to be the earthly location of his Temple.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 7