It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. – 1 Kings 7:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 7, 2019): 1 Kings 7

Mahatma Gandhi argued that “Action expresses priorities.” If something is really important to you, then that will be where you will place your time. Unfortunately, a lot of us say that something is important to us, but it is not important enough for us to spend the time necessary to accomplish the task. Instead, we place our time doing other things. Often, a common complaint is that we wish we had more time to do the important stuff. But the reality is that each of us has twenty-four hours every day to spend on the essential things in life. No one gets more. And if it were possible for us to have a few more hours added to our daily schedule, it is unlikely that we would spend them on the uncompleted tasks that we claim are important. We would spend them precisely as we spend the rest of the time that is available to us.

Solomon became King of Israel just before his Father’s death in 970 B.C.E. For the next four years, Solomon arranged the affairs of his Kingdom. But then he spent the next seven years building Temple that was his father’s dream. And when the Temple was completed, Solomon set out to create a palace for himself and his descendants. The thirteen years that followed the completion of the Temple were spent on the construction of Solomon’s Palace. Altogether, the construction of the Temple and his Palace consumed two decades, or just over half, of his almost forty-year reign.

The author of Kings tells us that the two buildings took twenty years to complete (1 Kings 9:10). With the seven years that was required for Temple and the thirteen years required for his palace, it is apparent that the two buildings were built consecutively and not concurrently. Work on the Palace did not begin until the work of the Temple was finished.

Two things are important to note about this twenty-year span of Solomon’s reign. First, Solomon’s priority was the Temple. He built it first, and he did not allow anything else to interfere in the construction of his father’s dream. But, once the Temple was completed, he began construction on his home. And he would spend almost twice as long building his Palace as he did building the Temple that would bear his name. Some argue that that must mean that the Palace was twice as beautiful as the Temple. But that might not be true. It is equally possible that Solomon had less assistance in the building the palace, and that that building project was not as important as the construction of the Temple. And so Solomon was able to take his time with the Palace.

But what is not disputed is that both buildings were beautiful, and built of the best materials. And that, at least early in Solomon’s reign, he put the things of God first in his life.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 8