While David was King of Israel he planned to build a beautiful house near his palace in Jerusalem and call it the temple of the Lord. He planned to build it just like the tabernacle had been built by Moses and his helpers in the wilderness, only this was to be a house of wood and stone instead of a tent.
But God did not want David to build such a place. He said, “You have been a man of war and you can not build a house for my presence to dwell in. Your son Solomon, who shall reign after you, will be a man of peace, and he shall build the temple.” So David did not begin the work of the building, but he planned many things for the time when this work should be done. And before dying he explained his plans carefully to Solomon and urged the young King to carry them out.
Not long afterwards Solomon wrote a letter to Hiram, the king of Tyre, a country by the seashore. In that country many beautiful cedar- and fir-trees grew up on the Mountains of Lebanon, and Solomon wished to get wood from some of these trees to use in building the temple. He told Hiram about his purpose to build the house of God which his father, David, had planned to build, and asked permission to buy some of these trees.
Hiram had been a dear friend of David’s, and now he was glad to help David’s son. He allowed Solomon to send men to that country to work with his, Hiram’s, servants in the Mountains, cutting down the great trees. After the trees were cut, the men dragged them to the seashore and threw them into the water, and they were floated down the coast to a place not very far from Jerusalem. Here they drew the wet logs from the sea and sawed them into boards..
While this work was going on, Solomon had other men digging great stones out of the earth and cutting them into shape for the foundation-stones of the new building. He ordered that every stone should be cut to fit another, so that all of them might be ready to go into their proper places when they should he brought to Jerusalem.
So great was the task of building the temple that Solomon appointed thousands of men to help in the work. They made every part ready to be put together with other parts without using nails or hammers. And they worked seven years on the building before it was finished.
The temple stood on top of the mount, Moriah, where David had seen the angel stand with the drawn sword stretched over the city. There, you remember, he bought the threshing-floor from Araunah and built upon it an altar to worship God. At the same place where his altar stood, the great altar of burnt offerings for the temple was built. This great altar was made of rough stones that had not been out to fit each other, for so God had commanded his people to build the altars upon which they should offer their sacrifices to him.
Only the priests were allowed inside the inner court and the rooms of the temple, but around these Solomon commanded that a wide outer court should be built, and the men of Israel were permitted to walk in this outer court. No person from another nation, however, was allowed to pass inside the outer wall of the great building.
When the building was finished, Solomon called all the men of Israel to come to Jerusalem; from every part of his kingdom. Then he went with them to the house of God and offered many sacrifices upon the great altar of rough stones. The ark of God was brought from Mount Zion and placed in the holy of holies, that inner room behind the great curtain, where only the high priest might go. And other furniture that belonged in the tabernacle was placed in the temple just as God had commanded it to be placed in the tent-house that Moses had built. When the priests had carried the ark of God and other furniture into the building, God filled the temple with a cloud just as he had filled the tabernacle with a cloud many years before. And all the people knew by this sign that God was pleased to let his presence dwell in the house that Solomon had built.
Solomon knew that God was greater than the house that he had built for him. He knew that God’s presence filled all the heavens, and that God does not dwell in only one place, but that his presence is everywhere. He prayed a, beautiful prayer to God in the presence of all the people, and asked God to let his blessings always rest upon that place. He asked that God would always hear the prayer of every one who should pray for forgiveness in that house. And when Solomon had ended his prayer, and all the people had finished their worship, he dismissed them and sent them back to their homes.
God spoke to Solomon in a dream again after the temple was finished. This time he said, “If you will walk before me as David, your father, did, with always a desire to keep my laws and to do my commands, then I will bless your children after you forever. But if you will forsake me, you or your children, to worship other gods, then I will despise this house that you have built for my name. And I will allow other nations to take away your kingdom and to bring much sorrow to your people.”