(Picture above is found at http://biblestudyoutlines.org/bible-study-lessons/old-testament-bible-study/1-kings-6-bible-study/)

Have you ever read the account of Solomon’s building the temple for God? I’ve been recently struck by the extravagance of Solomon’s ‘giving’ to the Lord. No, God never asked for it to be built; it was King David’s desire, that was given to his son King Solomon to fulfil but God sure accepted it.

What struck me, is that King Solomon at the time of building the temple knew in his inner man, the worthiness of God. He knew that God was worthy of extravagant giving and sacrifice and he went all-out to express that knowledge of the Lord’s glorious worth.

There is so much to learn in this story about the gold and precious materials he used in this building. One might say in today’s terms that King Solomon was a ‘perfectionist’. Nothing less than extravagance would do – and he could afford it! King Solomon had soooo many blessings from God that he could hardly give enough! His blessing from God far outweighed what he could give back to God, but he was adamant about doing all that he could to create the biggest, best, most glorious, most appropriate, most true representation of the Lord’s glorious ‘deservance’ (I made that word up ’cause I’m free in Christ to do so – lol!!) 

There was purpose and meaning in every single aspect – the entire process from beginning to end. That is every type of material used, every item and where it was positioned, every section, every boundary etc.

You know, at the completion of the building it still wasn’t enough! King Solomon STILL had plenty of blessings to spare because the Lord had blessed him so. The scripture says that King Solomon made so many sacrifices that there were too many to count. Talk about over the top – talk about extravagant giving!

This all reminded me of the Lord and us of course. God has given us so much in His Son Jesus, that we could NEVER spend enough on Him; we could NEVER return to Him what He has given us. We could NEVER sacrifice enough to meet His ‘deservance’! (worthiness)

Those who have seen the Lord and His glory, who He Himself is, have seen that He is worthy. We have seen that He may not ask us to build Him a temple, like He didn’t ask David, but we see that simply by being Who He Is, He demands our all! We want to give Him EVERYTHING we have to give! And we realise that anything we have to give has come from Him in the first place! There is this exchange of gift-giving, love, sacrifice. He sacrificed His Son Jesus to give us EVERY blessing in heaven! We have been made most rich! And now we seek to give back to Him by sacrifices and gifts of pure love and adoration, as He Himself leads us by His Spirit.

Once again, it is all HIS work – nothing of ourselves. What an extravagant God we serve and love! We have seen He is worthy! So worthy! 

Of-course, King Solomon at the time of building the temple, was a type of Christ – but that is for part 2………….