2 Chronicles 3:0 - Homiletics

(see also on 2 Chronicles 4:1-22 . in its proper place).—These two chapters are occupied with the subject of the

The Preparation for the building of the temple

its site, its exact proportions and measures, its contents and furniture, vessels and instruments. Upon the first glance, and merely superficial reading of these, it may seem that they bear little relation to us, address no special messages to us, and proffer but little instruction adapted to our light, our time of day, our confessedly more spiritual form of religion. A little longer thought, more patient inquiry, and deeper consideration will go far to correct, or, at any rate, to modify, an estimate of this kind. Perhaps no devout mind, in a healthy state, unsophisticated and unvitiated by special freak of education, will fail to feel, free of argument, that the principles underlying the directions of minutest detail of outward work once, find their use and application now within the domain of motive, of purity of motive, and exactitude in judging, not the motives of others, but our own; within the domain, again, of cheerful, ungrudging giving to Christ and to his living Church; and within the domain of that exalted but perfectly simple law of giving, not the lame, the blind, the blemished, and the utter superfluity of our own possessions, but the first and the best, and of what may call for some self-denial, some self-sacrifice. Add to these considerations the hard fact that, in the name of Christianity, in the purer name of Christ himself, and for the love of him, now for fifteen centuries (repudiating that narrowest of all things, a narrow construction of the spirituality of the simplest and purest religion possible) the instinct of the disciples and followers of Christ has expended on the art of ecclesiastical architecture, the art of ecclesiastical painting, the art of ecclesiastical music—all things of the outside, if so they must be called—an amount of care, time, skill, devotion, exactness, and wealth of precious things, exceeding by millionfolds all devoted to the temple of Solomon and all its successors, and required for them, even by highest inspiration of the pattern showed on the mount. It is, therefore, a great historic mistake, and a blinded or oblivious reading of history, when any presume to suppose that the detail, exactness, material grandeur, and contribution of all costly things commanded for the temple of the ancient Jew are not paralleled by their almost identical likes in the Church of the Christian! For such reasons as these it is interesting, and it is useful, to review the injunctions and the methods and the accomplished results of Solomon's work as rehearsed in these chapters. They contain the seminal principles which Christian work still demands, and by which the Christian Church should be guided. Far, then, from slighting and underrating the significance of the sacred principles that underlay the religion of elder days, and of that chosen people, to whom it was conveyed in all its outer detail by special revelation, let us be encouraged to consider it attentively, now, in respect of that holy house, the temple, which stood for So much in the minds of a great and remarkable nation, and which was a manifestation of so much of the mind and will of God to them first, and through them and after them to the world. For we are here reminded of—

I. THE STRESS LAID UPON THE VERY PLACE WHERE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE TEMPLE SHOULD BE PLANTED . It was the place:

1 . Where sin had been sternly reminded of its just punishment ( 1 Chronicles 21:15-17 ), and had grievously felt it.

2. Where the interposing angel of the Lord appeared, and spoke and stayed the destruction and pestilence ( 1 Chronicles 21:27 ), in answer to confession, repentance, and sacrifice.

3 . Where that same sacrifice was offered on the new-builded altar, which was paid for, and everything necessary to the sacrifice upon it paid for by David, that it might as far as possible be the perfect offering of self. The house and the altar were almost synonymous ( 1 Chronicles 22:1 ). And we are reminded of the greatest fact, the central fact, that there is no such thing as a true Church without altar. The one, only true and ever-abiding Church of the living God on earth is the sacred environment of the solemn altar, is founded one with it, built up round about it, grows out of it, commences, as did the temple of David ( 1 Chronicles 22:2 ) and Solomon, from it, and ever must have it for its centre.

II. THE FACT OF THE DIVINE INSTRUCTION GIVEN FOR THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE IN ALL ITS PARTS . This fact, per se , may be justly regarded as marking:

1 . The Divine estimate as to human need of revelation for all that pertains to real religion. There is something that inevitably and invariably differences natural religion from revealed religion. It lacks direction, stability, and a real living connection between the worshipped and the worshipper, the great Adorable and the humble sinful adorer. This is supplied by revelation, which is by most deliberate preference not partial, not fitful, not a thing to be taken or left, but uniform, spreading everywhere and penetrating to each detail.

2 . The reverence towards all that affects our spiritual and eternal weal, which Heaven would help us to feel and earnestly to believe in.

3 . The kind sympathetic interest with which the August Majesty himself would wish to help us assure ourselves that he tends even the human side of religious institutions. He "dwells in light unapproachable," and yet himself is not inaccessible, is not afar off, is nigh to us. What a welcome thought, inspiring thought, that he helps us build our very place of worship! Notice—

III. THE CAREFULNESS AND EXACTITUDE WHICH THAT DIVINE INSTRUCTION MODELLED FOR OUR IMITATION . After the tabernacle, in time indeed, but second to it in no other sense, nor strictly separable from it, here was the beginning of corporate Church life and institution and building. All things must be done "decently and in order;" "as to the Lord, and not to men" alone; "not with eye-service." And as real religion is the only real life, how sure were all the carefulness and exactitude now prescribed and exemplified to draw up, and constantly to tend to draw up, lesser life, home life, and individual life! The individual life (time and illustrations without number have shown it) will grow more divinely ordered for that man whose taste, whose knowledge, but, above all, whose deep principle reverences, observes, and "observes to do" all the words of such commandments, with those that correspond with them, and are their heirs and successors, as are contained in these chapters.

IV. THE PRINCIPLE INVOLVED IN THE MATERIALS AND CONTENTS OF THE TEMPLE , IN THEIR BEING SUFFICIENT IN ALL SMALLEST DETAILS , BEAUTIFUL IN DESIGN AND MAKE , GENUINE AND SOLID , AND COSTLY .

V. THE THINGS IN OR BEFORE THE TEMPLE , WHICH WERE GREATER THAN IT . Beside the many lesser vessels and instruments, each of which had its ancillary (and therefore not unimportant) relation to the greater vessels, or to the worship, service, and sacrifices for which those greater were ordained, there were some of special, marked, leading importance; while the distinguishing importance of some others lay strictly in their import . Call attention to just the things which arc said of:

1 . The greater house; its gold; its ceiling, with fine gold, palm-tree figures and chains; its walls, with graven cherubim.

2 . The most holy house; its fine gold; its two symbolic cherubim; its veil, with wrought cherubim.

3 . The two pillars; their height; their chapiters, with chains and pomegranates; their names and respective positions.

[The general homiletics of 2 Chronicles 3:1-17 . and 4. combined close here, and the more particular homiletics appropriate to 2 Chronicles 4:1-22 . separately, follow that chapter.]