Solomon Summons the Ark

January 5, 2020 Background Scripture: 1 Kings 8:1 – 13; 2 Chronicles 5:1 – 14 Lesson Passage: 1 Kings 8:1 – 13 We begin the new year with a look at a series of lessons that focus on King Solomon. This series seems appropriate after we ended last year with a series that focused on his father, King David. With the start of Solomon’s reign, the leadership of Israel began to follow a succession from father to son for the first time. Solomon had the benefit of observing the latter years of his father’s leadership of God’s people. There are many lessons to be learned and benefits derived by the person who patiently observes a leader when they will later find themselves trying to fill that person’s shoes. In fact, it is good and wise to observe and learn from a leader even if one does not expect to follow in their footsteps. It is not clear how long Solomon might have known that he would succeed his father as King of Israel—or if he knew it at all prior to his father’s final days. Again, this was the first time in Israel’s history to have a king based on succession occurring in the royal family. Nevertheless, there are still advantages to having an up-close look at leadership from behind the scenes. In the background scripture of today’s lesson, Solomon has just completed his first major task as king of Israel. The construction of Israel’s first “permanent” temple was finally completed. It was magnificent. It was an architectural wonder of the world at that time. It required seven years of construction to complete it. The furnishings and fixtures had been carefully crafted and the interior walls overlaid with gold. The final step was to have the Ark of the Covenant relocated from the tabernacle, or tent, to the Most Holy Place inside the temple constructed by Solomon. King David had dreamed of such an event but he had not lived long enough to see it come to fruition. He ordered the procurement of all of the materials that were needed for the work. King David had led the nation of Israel for forty years. It was a small thing for King Solomon to oversee his first major project as king over the relatively short span of time of seven years. Just as his father had brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem with great fanfare, so too did Solomon have the Ark brought from the tabernacle to the temple. He assembled every leader and elder from throughout Israel at Jerusalem for the relocation of the Ark from the tabernacle to the temple. As King Solomon and the elders of Israel led the procession, the priests brought up the Ark, the tabernacle, and the holy vessels that were kept in the tabernacle. According to the writer of our text, they sacrificed more sheep and oxen than could be counted as part of the procession. The Ark was brought into the temple and place in the most holy place under the cher-u-bims. As soon as the priests exited the holy place, the glory of the Lord, the cloud, filled the temple. The glory of the Lord inside the temple was God’s assurance that He had accepted what was done and how it was done as being pleasing to Him. This was in contrast to the death of the man who unknowingly touched the ark as it was being transported incorrectly the first time David attempted to have it brought to Jerusalem. King Solomon acknowledged that the cloud in the temple was the assurance that God’s presence was now occupying the most holy place. Robert C. Hudson December 16, 2019