2 Chronicles 4:1

MORE OF SOLOMON'S SINFUL CHANGES;

THE SINFUL LAVER AND THE SINFUL IMAGES PLACED UNDER THE LAVER

"Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. Also he made the molten sea often cubits from brim to brim, round in compass; and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And under it was the likeness of oxen, which did compass it round about, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast. It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set upon them, above, and all their hinder parts were inward. And it was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths. He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as belonged to the burnt-offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in."

"He made an altar of brass ... the height thereof ten cubits" (2 Chronicles 4:1). What was wrong with this? Ten cubits was a height of something like fifteen feet, which required that steps would have to be used by the priests in making sacrifices upon it; and God had specifically commanded Israel, "Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto my altar" (Exodus 20:26).

Not only did Solomon's temple and all that it contained violate many of God's specific commandments, such as this one; but there were also countless concessions to paganism, as seen in the images of the bulls (politely called oxen here) placed under the laver. The bulls, calves, oxen, whatever they were called, were the usual images under which the old Canaanite fertility god Baal was worshipped. Even the Jewish historian Josephus condemned Solomon for what he did in this.[1] It is an unqualified mystery to us why "Christian" writers attempt to justify it! Besides that, the Decalogue specifically forbade the making of images, or `likenesses' of anything either in heaven or on earth, the sacred images of the cherubim commanded by Moses, having been one exception to this.

"It ... held three thousand baths" (2 Chronicles 4:5). The bath was a Jewish measure, being the equivalent of about 4,7/8 gallons.[2] The very size of this laver was a testimonial to the type of `washing' to which the priests submitted. It was by immersion,[3] being in that particular typical of Christian baptism. (For further elaboration of this, see our Commentary on Exodus, pp. 404,405.)