Reference links:
Old Testament
Remember how God told David not to build a temple? At the time, God promised that one of David’s sons would become king and that son would build a temple. Accordingly, Solomon begins construction of the temple today. Which means architecture geeking!
He gets the wood from Hiram of Tyre in exchange for food for the king’s household. This was paid as an annual tribute of wheat and olive oil. I wonder if that payment lasted for the duration of the building of the temple or extended beyond that.
We next get a detailed description of the layout of the temple. We can sum it up with a picture:
The top view is a cutaway of the side, the bottom image is a top down view. In the back you can see the holy of holies which was (as far as we can figure the dimensions) 30’x30’x30′. The important part is that the dimensions are all equal. Outside of that is the holy place, which was 30’x60’x45′ (width x length x height). Rooms were built onto the outside of the temple on beams that were not connected to the temple itself. The interesting characteristic of these rooms, which the top cutaway does not show, is that they actually got wider on the higher levels! Each level was 7.5′ tall, but the rooms in the first level were 7.5′ wide, on the second level 9′ wide, and on the third level 10′ wide.
The interior of the temple was, according to the description, quite splendid. Carved wood paneling overlaid with gold. Very shiny.
The temple took 7 years to build.
New Testament
Remember Stephen from yesterday? He was on trial for being blasphemous. Today he starts his self defense with a review of the history of the ancient Israelites from Abraham through Moses’ flight to Midian. I am sure he’ll make a point eventually.
Psalms and Proverbs
Today’s psalm is one of those ones that I am is wonderful if you believe in a God who is guiding your life.
We also have interesting proverbs today, all about trouble makers.
With narrowed eyes, people plot evil;
with a smirk, they plan their mischief.
If only evil were so easy to detect. It is just as likely to be plotted behind a smile as behind narrowed eyes or as likely to be planned behind a kindly word as a smirk.