Solomon Builds God's Temple

1 Kings 5-8

     King David and his wife Bathsheba had a son named Solomon who became king over all Israel and married the princess of Egypt.

     Solomon remembered that God had said to his father, "Your son will build my temple in Jerusalem."

     He sent a message to the king of Tyre, who had been a friend of his father's. "The Lord promised my father David that his son would build the temple. Now I want to begin. Please send your men to the hills of Lebanon to cut great cedar trees for me."

     The king of Tyre was very pleased to get this message. He sent Solomon hundreds of cedars and pines by floating them in rafts down the Mediterranean Sea. Solomon also sent many men into the mountains to cut stone. Many more came to carve wood or to hammer the gold decorations.

     The people of Israel began building the temple. They made it ninety feet long and thirty feet wide. It was forty-five feet high at the front, and about seventy feet high at the back.

     The inside walls were covered with cedar, and the floor was pine. Solomon's workers made an inside room to be the most holy place, where the Ark of the covenant would stand. It had angels called cherubim carved in olive wood and covered with pure gold. All the walls in the temple had carvings of angels, palm trees, and flowers. All the floors were laid with gold.

     A wonderful engineer named Hiram came from Tyre to help King Solomon. He made two beautiful pillars with copper tops with lilies and pomegranates hammered into them. He made all the bowls and stands and bronze decorations.

     Every thing to be used on the altar was made of purest gold, and even the hinges for the doors of the most holy place were gold.

     It took Solomon and Hiram and thousands of workers of Israel more than seven years to build God's temple. When it was finished, Solomon had the ark of the covenant with the ten commandments in it brought from David's palace on Mount Zion. The elders and leaders and priests brought the ark into the new temple and set it in the most holy place.

     When the ark was in its place, God's glory filled the temple in a great cloud. They feasted and sang and danced that day. When the people went home, they had joy in their hearts because of the goodness that God had shown to David and to Solomon and to all the people of Israel.