The temple Solomon built was amazing. Hewn stones outside, cedar paneling inside, and an interior overlaid with 45,000 pounds of gold. Carvings, statues, and golden cherubim inside with their wings spread across the span of the hall. Halls, courtyards, windows, and steps leading up to huge doors. Imagine Washington D.C. with all its grand, glorious, marble buildings ringed in colonnades (columns). If you roll the grandeur of D.C. into a big ball, you have a sense of the glory of Solomon’s temple.
But it was not a big place. Once you passed the outer walls and the courtyards, the temple itself was only 90’ x 30’ or 2,700 square feet. That is smaller than many middle class houses in the United States today. Can you believe that?
(I think I’m going to memorize this line and say it to my friends—“Your house is 2800 square feet?! Wow! That’s bigger than Solomon’s Temple!”)
We call the temple “God’s House” but the temple is not God’s House. He does not dwell there. He’s too big. In fact, God is so big, the SIZE of the temple is irrelevant. No matter how big it might have been, it would remain infinitely small compared with Him. Solmon said so himself:
“Who is able to build a temple for Him, since even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Him? Who am I then that I should build a temple for Him except as a place to burn incense before Him?” 2 Chronicles 2:6.
The temple was a place to honor God and for God’s people to stand in awe of a God who was everywhere. Temples help worshippers focus their emotions and their worship—and the New Testament says your body is a temple.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you … and that you are not your own. Therefore GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY” 1 Corinthians 6:19.
How can you glorify God with your body today?
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