”So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. Then they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.“
I Kings 8:3-9 NKJV
a. The priests took up the ark: Solomon was careful to obey what God commanded about transporting the ark of the covenant, that it was only to be carried by priests. He would not repeat the error of his father David in 2 Samuel 6:1-8.
b. And all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle: The ark of the covenant was the most important item in the temple, but not the only item. They also brought the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense from the tabernacle into the temple.
i. “It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles, one at Gibeon, and the other in the City of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark.” (Clarke)
c. Sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude: Solomon went far beyond custom and expectation in his effort to honor and praise God on this great day.
d. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb: At an earlier point in Israel’s history, there were three items in the ark of the covenant. Earlier, inside the ark were the golden pot that had the manna (Exodus 16:33), Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17:6-11), and the tablets of the covenant (Exodus 25:16). We don’t know what happened to the golden pot of manna and Aaron’s rod, but they were not in the ark when Solomon set it in the Most Holy Place.
e. When the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt: The reminder of the deliverance from Egypt is significant, because there was a sense in which this – some 500 years after the Exodus – was the culmination of the deliverance from Egypt. Out of Egypt and into the wilderness Israel (out of necessity) lived in tents - and the dwelling of God was a tent. Now since Solomon built the temple, the structure representing the dwelling of God among Israel was a building, a place of permanence and security. (Guzik)
Dwelling of God!
”Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.“
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 BSB
These verses should give the Christian great pause!
Blessings
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