1 Kings, Chapter 7 (part 1) - The Two Pillars | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] Shalom friends and welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This [music] is the book of Kings, chapter 7, part one, brought to you by the land of Israel network at the land ofisrael.com. So yesterday [music] Jeremy walked us through the building of the Bam Mikdash, you know, the holy temple in Jerusalem. um seven years of cedar and gold. So stones shaped so completely at the quarry that no hammer, no iron tool was heard on that mountain while the house of God rose out of it. And now we open chapter 7. And if you're anything like me, this is one of those chapters that you just naturally, at least I do, I just by default I just sort of skim through it because what you're looking at is basically a blueprint. Cubits and pillars, bronze and lattice work, basins, oxen, pomegranates, measurements. But in our reading, let's slow down a little bit here because buried inside these measurements is a question that is worth stopping for a moment and asking and really reflecting upon. And I think that question or one of the questions it presents to us is what do you do with everything it took to to get here, right? What do you do with the wealth, with the strength, with the victories, with the scars, with the traumas, with everything your fathers fought for and gathered and placed into your hands. And the chapter begins with Solomon himself. Verse one, and it took Solomon 13 years to build his palace until his whole palace was completed. seven years for the house of God, 13 years for his own. And notice the text doesn't comment, right? It doesn't rebuke. It doesn't explain. It simply sets those two numbers down side by side and walks away. Seven years for the house of God and 13 years for the house of Solomon. You know, Ari, I just want to stop here for a second because the classical Jewish reading here is actually really generous to Solomon. The sages point out that he pushed himself hardest on God's house and finished it quickly. And he let his own pace take its time when it he wasn't rushing to move into luxury. But I still think we're supposed to at least notice the numbers and then recognize the order. First God's house and then the king's house. And so the Tanakh does this a lot. It doesn't always tell you what to think. Sometimes it just puts two facts beside each other and then lets them sit there for 3,000 years for us to ponder. And it makes me think about us here in Israel today. Israel built a worldclass army. We built a tech economy that affects the entire world. We built cities and roads and universities. We turned the desert into farmland and transformed the agricultural industry worldwide in so many ways. Nobody can take that away from us. But what about our spiritual center? How much thought, energy, and national imagination are we pouring into who we are in our essence? Who are we actually supposed to become? Who are we destined to become? I don't think the question is whether it's wrong to build your own house. Of course not. The question is when historians write down the story of our generation, what will they say we poured ourselves into first? And what did we leave waiting? Whether fulfilling our national mission of building a house for Hashem and becoming the people we were brought back to this land to become was the center of our national life or whether it was just deep down we treated it as like a beautiful dream that we never really believed could become real. I mean, that's it. >> Yeah. Yeah. You know, that that that's exactly it. Um, did we really believe it, you know, and I'll tell you, reading this chapter made me look around at our own farm even and ask a a version of that same question about my own life, you know, and questions like this are not always easy to ask because the text goes on to describe what those 13 years produced. The house of the forest of Lebanon. So many cedar pillars that walking inside it felt like walking through a forest. The hall of pillars, the hall of the throne where Solomon would sit and judge a house for Pharaoh's daughter. And then right in the middle of this royal architecture, the chapter does something really interesting. It's really noteworthy. stops talking about the king entirely and it introduces a craftsman. Verse 14, right? He was the son of a widowed woman of the tribe of Naftali. And his father was a man of Ty, a worker in bronze. And he was filled with wisdom and with understanding and with knowledge. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge. Now, if those three words together sound familiar, they should because they are the exact three words used to describe betal, the master craftsman of the Mishan, the tabernacle in the desert. Right? In Exodus 31, he's described as with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge. That is not a coincidence. And I really think the text may be telling us that what's happening in Jerusalem then as the temple was being built was the continuation of what began in the desert and the construction of the tabernacle which as we know was in so many words the mobile beta mikdash. That's what the tabernacle was. It was like the mobile beta mikdash in the desert. The mobile temple. But look at who is carrying it. The son of a widow from the tribe of Naftali. His father was a Tyrion, a man from Lebanon, from Tyer, from a pagan port city. This man stands with one foot inside Israel and one foot outside of it. And he is the one whose hands shape the vessels of the house of Hashem. Ari, this is the pattern that appears again and again throughout the Tanakh in so many Jewish teachers just kind of gloss it over. And it might take our Jewish brothers. It might make us a little bit uncomfortable. But the Beta Mikdash, the holy temple in Jerusalem, was built for all nations and by the nations. That's the blueprint. The righteous among the nations, they're not an afterthought to Israel's story. They've been woven into it from the very beginning. King from Ty, the first one who sent cedars of Lebanon as the materials to construct the temple. And then he sent these Hyovllike workers to build the temple. And now Ham the artist whose father was a non-Jew from Ty. The same name as the king of Ty but a different person. Again and again when Israel takes a decisive step forward. Someone from the outside of Israel appears in the story choosing to attach themselves to what God is doing. And my friends, think about what that means for us today. Because we're broadcasting these teachings to all of you at the far ends of the earth. The Tanakh is here to tell you you are of the story. Maybe you're Rakav. Maybe you're Ruth. Maybe you're Yro. Maybe you are a soul lost from the lost northern tribes of Israel that are awakening now in these end of days. And maybe you're Kam, a righteous non-Israelite who gifts and talents are helping build the house of Hashem in Israel. The Bible itself is telling you that the vessels of the house of God were shaped by hands that came from beyond the borders of Israel. >> Yeah, that's true. And there's one more thing I want to share with you, Jeremy. The cedars came from Lebanon. The master craftsman's father came from Ty. Materials and talent flowed south into Jerusalem to build a house for the God of Israel. But as yourself, what flows south out of Lebanon today? That's right. Rockets, terror, weaponized drones. It's the same geography and the same beautiful mountains today that it was then. But what these mountains in Lebanon are sending south has been completely inverted. Um, but I want to say here that I believe with my whole heart that that inversion is not permanent. It's a distortion of what that land was actually made for. And when the prophets describe the end of days, they describe the nations streaming back towards Jerusalem to learn. And I'm telling you, Jeremy, in my heart, I know that that it's not a distant fantasy. It's not some far-off dream. It's the world the prophets promised us. And I believe with all of my heart that we're beginning to see it unfold before our eyes. But anyways, back to the chapter. So, Kirram gets to work and the first thing he makes is one of the strangest things in the entire chapter. two enormous bronze pillars roughly 27 feet high, crowned with capitals of lily work and chains and rows of pomegranates. And he sets them at the entrance of the sanctuary. And then verse 21, and he called its name and he called its name Boaz. He will establish Boaz in him is strength. And Jeremy, here's what struck me about that. These pillars hold nothing up. They're freestanding. Structurally, they are in engineering terms completely unnecessary. So, what are they? I believe they're there as a testimony. their two enormous declarations cast in bronze standing at the doorway announcing to every single person who approaches. He will establish in him is strength. Not because the building is strong, not because the king is powerful, not because the the kingdom is wealthy or respected or revered by the nations that are coming to learn. That's not it, you know. And then there's the second name, Boaz. Now, I can't prove that the name is meant to evoke Davided's ancestor, Boaz. The text never says that. Maybe one of the commentators does have to dig a little bit deeper, but it feels almost impossible not to hear that echo. Boaz, the greatgrandfather of David, the man who redeemed Ruth, the Moabiti woman who chose Israel. This is the Genesis story of David. That's Boaz. And now a pillar bearing the same name stands at the gate of the temple built by David's own descendant. The Tanakh doesn't spell that connection out. And the truth is, I don't think it has to because the temple was never only the story of Israel building a house for God. It was always pointing toward the day when Israel's relationship with God would radiate outward and draw the nations towards that house as well. >> You know, Ari, if we're just already talking about those pillars, you're right. It's clear that they were not there because the building needed them structurally. I mean, I believe they were there because the people entering the building needed them. Every person walking into that sanctuary passed between two declaration. God establishes and God is strength. And maybe that's part of Israel's role in history, too. We don't exist merely because the world needed another state, another economy, another democracy that happens to be in the Middle East with another army. Strategically, so much about our existence makes no sense. A tiny country surrounded by enemies, millions of refugees absorbed from around the world, an ancient language brought back to in daily life, a people returning after 2,000 years, and rebuilding cities on the mountains where our ancestors walked. And somehow the entire world keeps looking at us. Every news cycle, every UN session, everyone has an opinion about Israel. And maybe that's because Israel was never meant merely to be another support beam in the international system. We're meant to be the testimony to stand at the doorway of history announcing something about who actually establishes and where strength actually comes from. I >> I agree and honestly I've never given as much thought to those two pillars as we're doing right now. And I'm just so happy we're doing this, Jeremy. And thank you, Hashem, for inspiring us to do this and guiding our way. And and and that's where I want to leave us today, my friends, because we've been standing here staring at two bronze pillars, 27 feet high, each of them. And the chapter doesn't stop there. It keeps going. A basin so enormous the text calls it a sea. 12 bronze oxen holding them up. We actually created this uh graphic to to show you that, right? And then vessel after vessel after vessel. And somewhere in the middle of reading all those measurements, a very simple question hit me. Where did all that bronze come from? This is uh a young kingdom, three generations out of the desert. Where does a nation like that gets that much metal? The book of Kings doesn't tell us, but there's another book that does. And when I found the answer, it changed the way I read this entire chapter. And I think it changed the way I read the last two years of our lives here in Israel because the bronze standing at the gate of the house of God did not come out of a mine. Tomorrow we will find out where it came from. Hazak Vat, my friends, now listen. Yah and Boaz didn't hold up a roof. They stood at the doorway and everyone who walked into that sanctuary had to walk between them. And my friends, I think I think about that when I think of all of you listening from 35 countries, learning these chapters with us week after week. You're not standing outside this story looking in through a window. There's a door and it's open. And we want to invite you into it. These teachings, our farm, this work of rebuilding, it stops being something you watch from a distance and it becomes something you're inside of with us, holding up your corner of it and being really a part of it. So come stand at the doorway with us. Become a kav or member of the fellowship or the Judeian Academy, [music] whatever is right for you at the land ofisrael.com. Israem, we'll see you tomorrow with the second half of chapter 7 where we'll find out what Solomon actually did with everything his Abba, King David handed to him.