1 Kings 7:50

50. Bowls Used for drinking out of, and sometimes, like the basins, for sprinkling. Compare Exodus 12:22.

Spoons כפות , pans, or dishes; for what particular purpose does not appear.

Censers Fire-pans, in which coals were taken up and incense kindled. These smaller vessels are not described, but are supposed to have been like those of the tabernacle.

ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TEMPLE.

The temple of Solomon, so far as it was a reproduction, on an enlarged scale, of the tabernacle, was, like that more ancient structure, the pattern, example, and shadow of heavenly things. Hebrews 8:5. But Solomon introduced a number of additions to the ancient pattern shown to Moses in the mount. The side-chambers, the colossal cherubim, the molten sea on twelve oxen in place of the more simple laver of the tabernacle-court, the ten smaller lavers and their bases, the ten tables and the ten golden candlesticks, all seem to have been the product and expression of theocratic ideas that had been maturing in the Israelitish mind for more than four hundred years, though many of them were probably demanded by the more extensive and elaborate service of Solomon’s time. An attempt to point out the sacred symbolism and meaning of the various parts and vessels of the temple must, in many respects, at best end only in conjectures. But this subject should not, therefore, be passed without remark. Dr. Bahr well observes, that if the entire system of Hebrew worship “were no idle ceremony, still less could the structure where this worship became concentrated be an empty, meaningless piece of architectural splendour. All the ancients so founded, arranged, and adorned their temples that they were the expression and the representation of their specific religious contemplation. The temple of Solomon would have been an exception to all the sacred buildings of high antiquity, had it not been the expression of the specifically Israelitish Old Testament ideas of religion.”

The writer just quoted has made this subject a special study, and has written extensively upon it, both in his Commentary on Kings, and his able work on the “Symbolism of the Mosaic Worship.” The present note is based largely on his exposition. Remarks on the typical significance of the altars, laver, table of showbread, golden candlestick, and mercyseat belong rather to the explanation of the tabernacle. We notice here only the leading outlines of the temple-plan, and the significance of its principal parts.

Though Solomon was well aware that “the heaven and heaven of heavens” could not contain the God of Israel, (1 Kings 8:27,) yet he built the temple with the declared purpose of providing a house for Jehovah to dwell in a settled place for his abode. 1 Kings 8:13. He could therefore have entertained no such thought as that by dwelling in the temple God ceased to be omnipresent; but the temple was specifically the place where Jehovah recorded his name, and therefore the visible sign and pledge of his covenant with Israel. It was the abode of his holiness, the place where he was to be consulted and understood by his people. Hence the graduated sanctity of the court, the holy place, and the holy of holies, was adapted to teach an impressive lesson of the absolute holiness of Jehovah.

While the temple was thus specifically the dwellingplace of Jehovah, it also typified heaven itself, which is “the true tabernacle.” Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 9:24. Accordingly, in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication we find a continued contrast between “this house” or “this place,” and “heaven, thy dwellingplace,” or simply “heaven.” 1 Kings 8:30-49. And so the pious Israelite might ever see in the holy and beautiful house where Jehovah recorded his name a type and symbol of heaven itself. It was the temple of his holiness. Psalms 5:7; Psalms 79:1; Psalms 138:2.

Bahr totally rejects the opinion that the temple was a representation of the theocracy of the kingdom of God in Israel, or of the New Testament “kingdom of heaven,” and urges that the latter is a divine-human relation, while the dwelling of Jehovah is a place. But he seems to overlook in this connexion the great truth that the divine-human relationship realized in the kingdom of grace is truly God dwelling in man, (1 John 4:12; 1 John 4:16,) or making his abode with him, (John 14:23;) and that the great body of his people in whom he thus dwells are called “the temple of the living God,” “a habitation of God through the Spirit.” 1Co 3:17 ; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21-22. We may, therefore, look upon the temple that rose to completion so silently that neither hammer nor axe was heard while it was building, as a glorious type of that “spiritual house,” built of “lively stones,” (1 Peter 2:5,) “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fifty framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” Ephesians 2:21.

Nor should we overlook the profound symbolism of the divine-human relationship set forth in the two main apartments of the temple. Why, in the temple as in the tabernacle, have two holy rooms, rather than three or more? Why, except, as Fairbairn admirably shows, ( Typology, vol. ii, p. 250,) to express the twofold relation that essentially exists between the worshipper and God? The holy of holies, with its profound symbols of “mercy covering wrath,” showed God’s relation to his people; how and on what terms the Almighty and Holy One would dwell with man. The holy place, where the consecrated priests ministered, with its incense-altar and tables and candlesticks, expressed the relation of the true worshipper to God. The devout worshippers, who offer before God the incense of continual prayer, are at once the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And this is the one great truth embodied in the several symbols of the holy place. Thus in the two main apartments were exhibited “the two great branches into which the tree of Divine knowledge always, of necessity, runs, namely, the things to be believed concerning God, and the things to be done by his believing people.”

When we come to observe the details of the structure we notice, first of all, the graduated sanctity of the three holy places. First, the court, where nothing unclean might enter; then the holy place, where only the consecrated priests might go to perform holy services; and, beyond this, vailed in thick darkness, the holy of holies, where only the high priest entered, and he but once a year, on the great day of atonement. Here was symbolized not only the absolute holiness of Him who “dwelt in the thick darkness,” but also the gradual and progressive revelations of his name and nature, which have been made known to men. Whilst the temple and the priesthood remained, the Holy Ghost signified that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, (Hebrews 9:8;) but since Christ has rent the vail, and entered heaven itself for us, we all may, with boldness and full assurance of faith, enter into the holiest, and have everlasting communion and fellowship with God. Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:19-22.

The square form of all the apartments and courts of the temple is not without meaning. The oracle was a perfect square; the nave a double square; the porch half a square, etc. Nowhere do we find the form of the triangle, the pentagon, or the circle, but every thing about the sanctuary seems, like the heavenly Jerusalem, to be quadrangular, as if to correspond with the four corners of heaven, the upper dwelling-place of God. Jeremiah 49:36; Matthew 24:31. Equally noticeable is the predominance of the numbers ten and three. The length and breadth of all the apartments and the courts is a common multiple of ten the number of the commandments written on the tables of testimony within the ark. Ten is the number of the candlesticks and tables, the bases and lavers; ten cubits was the height of the cherubim, and the extent of their outspread wings; ten cubits was the breadth of the molten sea. Then we note the three holy apartments, each with its type of expiation the altar or burnt offerings, the altar of incense, and the mercyseat; the last within the most holy place, which bore the form of a perfect cube, the length and the breadth and the height of it being equal. Each apartment also had three principal kinds of articles of furniture. In the oracle were the cherubim, the ark, and the tables of the law; in the nave were the candlesticks, the tables, and the altar of incense; and in the court were the brazen sea, the lavers, and the altar of burnt offerings. There were, also, the three stories of side-chambers. In this symbolism of numbers we may discern a mystic representation both of the variety and unity of all Divine revelation. “What happens thrice, is the genuine once; what is divided into three, is a true unity. The one dwelling by its division into three parts, is designated as one complete whole; and the three kinds of articles of use which are in the three parts, or in one of them, again form a complete whole, and belong under it to the one or the other relation. While the number ten gives the impress of finishing and completing to multiplicity, the number three is the signature of perfect unity, and thus also of the Divine being.”

The adornings of the temple, the cherubim, lions, oxen, palms, flowers, and lily work, were representative of all created life, and signified that while Jehovah condescended to make the temple his special dwellingplace, his presence fills the universe with life. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Angels and men, cattle and creeping things and fowl, and all inanimate creation, have their being from Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. And thus was added to the various lessons of Jehovah’s absolute holiness and infinite perfections, which the temple symbolized, this ornamental expression of his universal Providence.