Today’s Scripture Reading (September 6, 2019):
1 Kings 6
The English Poet William Blake noted that “what is now proved
was once only imagined.” It is the ever-present reality of our lives. Before
the theory is proved, someone thought that this might be the way that the
universe worked. Before the invention was always the dream. Before anything was
built, someone conceived of the building and attempted to derive a way in which
the building could stand. Our imaginations, combined with the power of our
wills, creates the reality in which we live. Willpower without the dream, or
the dream without willpower, will lead us to the same place. Any mathematician
knows that when you multiply anything by zero, the answer is always zero. I
have many dreams, and the ones that remain unfulfilled are the ones for which I
have had no willpower, they are the dream on which I have never followed
through, or have not yet followed through.
It is essential to note the time in the building of the
Temple. The Temple was built almost five hundred years after the Israelite
slaves left Egypt. Nearly five centuries had passed since that inaugurating
event when Moses stood on the banks of the Red Sea, and a nation was born. For
most of that time, the Tabernacle stood proudly as the place of worship for the
God of Israel. It was at the Tabernacle that sacrifices were made for the people.
The Ark of Covenant, for most of the life of the Tabernacle, stood behind a
curtain, in an area designated as the Holy of Holies, inside of that tent. The
Tabernacle, for almost five hundred years had been sufficient for God and Israel.
Pastor and theologian David Guzik makes this comment about the four hundred and
eighty years that passed before the building of the Temple. “This marking point shows just how long Israel lived in the Promised Land
without a temple. The tabernacle served the nation well for more than 400 years.
The prompting to build the temple was more at the direction and will of God
than out of absolute necessity.”
Guzik might be right, and wrong, in his assessment. He is right that the
Temple was likely not a necessity. But I am still not convinced that the
building of the Temple was at the direction and will of God. The Tabernacle,
which was the direct result of the will and the direction of God, would still
have done the job for the generations that would follow the reigns of David and
Solomon. And after the advent of Jesus, a Tabernacle, or a Temple, would no
longer be needed. The altar would change from a place in a building surrounded by
priests to our lives dedicated to following Yahweh. God lives within us,
empowering us to do good in the world.
I continue to be convinced that the building of the Temple was the
direct result of the dream of David, possibly generated out of his guilt that he
lived in a house made of stone while God was confined to a tent. David dreamed
of a Temple that he would never build. He constructed the Temple in his mind,
and he told stories of it to his son, He arranged with architects and builders
most of the things that would be needed to complete his dream. The Temple was a
direct result of the will of David and his son, Solomon. God had never demanded
a Temple; the Tabernacle was functioning fine. But he did bless the efforts of
David and Solomon and understood the divine purpose of their dream.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 7
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