I have it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord promised my father David. It is clear that Solomon's heart to build a temple for the Lord was determined. Solomon loved and revered the Lord very much! Likewise, are you willing to pay the price and be determined to serve our God when you are living in comfort and have no worries about food and clothing? Will you wholeheartedly think about the things of God? Let us look at an important teaching shared by the teacher in this chapter: To be Christians who pay the price!
Questions for Reflection:
Do you agree with the statement that all Christians are the same? What kind of Christians do you think God delights in?
Why pay the price for the things of God? Which is more worthwhile, believing in God with a price or believing in God without a price?
Since God is omnipotent, why does He still need people to build the temple for Him?
What requirements must be met to build a temple where God dwells?
Paying the Price for the Things of God
If we read this passage, you will discover a problem: The Lord God created all things in the universe, the earth and all that is on it, the heavens and all that is in them, but now He wants people to build a temple for Him, which is more than ten meters high. For people, this is a huge project, but for God, it is a trivial matter. But why would God bother people to build the temple? Why doesn't He blow a breath and blow the temple out?
The Holy of Holies of this temple is about the size of our meeting hall, more than ten meters high, more than ten meters wide, and more than ten meters long. The scale of the entire temple is about the size of our building (three stories high). It is hard for us to imagine that this God who can create all things in the universe needs King Solomon to build such a temple for Him. In fact, this is very similar to the situation we face today. God also needs us to build the church. But why does God want us to build it? In fact, our brothers and sisters must understand that God wants to work with us. This matter was actually determined when God created man. God created us for the purpose of manifesting God's glory through man.
Now we must ask ourselves, what are we living for? Apart from manifesting God's glory, we cannot find any other answer. Today I want to say to everyone that God caused Solomon to build the temple, and then spent so much effort, using a total of more than 180,000 people. If calculated using the monthly salary of Singapore's low-wage workers (approximately S$1,700/month), one person would cost twenty thousand dollars a year, and using 180,000 people would be a very costly project in terms of manpower and resources, just for building such a temple. So in the Bible, we begin to see a clear theme: God wants people to pay the price in His affairs! In fact, God can build this temple without any effort. He can build this temple in a second. To use a popular phrase, it is instant kill. He can create things that are billions of light-years away. Something that is tens of meters high is simply children's play for Him, isn't it?
But God delights in people sharing His glory with Him, so He lets people build it. Have you ever thought about how unfair this is? How can God be so cruel? These people go up the mountain for a month, leave their families behind to build the temple on the mountain, and then go home to rest for two months, and go up again in the third month, working hard. Why does God torture these people? Some people have such thoughts. Later, I discovered that whether people believe in the Lord, build churches, or do all things that belong to God, you will discover a very interesting principle. This principle is that you will find it very worthwhile after paying the price. The history of Israel reached its peak during the reigns of David and Solomon. The territory of Israel reached its largest extent during the reigns of Solomon and David, and the country's economy was also the wealthiest. The rich life of the Israelites during the reigns of David and Solomon was also a very typical state. Later, people were unwilling to pay the price for the things of God, and as a result, they lived very badly.
Today we must begin to ponder one thing, which is what we will talk about in the past and next few Sundays: To be Christians who pay the price. You will find it worthwhile paying the price in the things of God. It is very crowded when going to work in Singapore, and it is hard to take the bus. Brothers and sisters coming to church from all over is paying the price, and the result of paying the price is living a comfortable life. We return to the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You will find that the people in the book basically have an uncompromising attitude. For example, those who do not observe the Sabbath are killed. Every year during the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Passover, the people of Israel rush to Jerusalem to observe these festivals. No work can be done on these days, and the price must be paid! When you pay the price, your faith in God is real; if you are unwilling to pay the price, your faith is false. Indeed, the Christianity we believe in is based on faith, but faith is also faith supported by actions. I have found that many people are unwilling to pay the price, and as a result, they will pay a heavy price elsewhere.
To Start a Ministry, One Must Have God's Promise and Revelation
I want to bring your attention to a verse, 1 Kings 5:5: “And I intend to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord promised my father David.” Before you build a temple for God, you must have a promise from God, and this temple must be built according to God's promised word. Some people also wanted to build this temple, including Herod the Great, the Herod of Jesus' time. He also built a temple for God, but the temple he built did not please God and was of no use. The temple built by Herod was also very impressive. Today, if you go to Jerusalem and see the Wailing Wall, it is actually part of the temple built by Herod. It is very magnificent, and the stones are huge, but this temple did not have God's promise.
What is the difference between the temple built by Herod and the temples built by Solomon and David? The hearts of the people are different! David was very eager to build a temple for God, and then God gave him a revelation: you cannot build a temple for me, but your son will build a temple for me (see 1 Chronicles 22:7-9). This is a revelation from God! Today, we must begin to ponder this matter. If building a church is not through God's revelation, it cannot be built. If building a temple is not God's promise, it cannot be built. So some people say, I also want to build a church. If that church does not have God's presence and is not a revelation from God, it is useless. Therefore, we often hear pastors share: building a church must have a burden from God. Today, we see these things that God is doing among us, and we know that although we stumbled along in the beginning, we can see that we had a heart at that time, a heart like David's heart for building the temple. With David's heart for building the temple, God will lead you in the following matters.
The life of a Christian is also like this. You must examine your heart no matter what, and do not look at the outward temple. The same is true of a temple; the one built by Solomon and the one built by Herod, one was built with God's promise and revelation, and the other was built entirely with religious and political purposes, without God's presence. So today we must see that the first is to pay the price, and the second is to have God's promise and revelation.