The Temple was completed in about 960 B.C., about 450 years after the Israelites entered the Promised Land. II Chronicles tells us that it was built on Mount Moriah, which was the place where Abraham had intended to sacrifice Isaac. It was also the place where David built an altar and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in I Chronicles 21:18-22:1, to appease God when He sent a plague against Israel in punishment for David’s sin in taking a census. Recall that this was to be the place where the people would congregate three times a year for holy days as required in the Law. This made Jerusalem the city in which God would place His name, almost 500 years after first mentioning that that place would be designated by Him. In the meantime, the Tabernacle made by Moses had housed the articles of worship. This would be quite a change to the look and feel of worship. Consider all of these tidbits about the Temple; do they reveal to you anything about the worship that took place in the Temple, and thus, about your own worship?
Do you wonder, as I do, why God preserved the correspondence between Solomon and Hiram – not in one place, but two? Recall that Hiram was king of Tyre and Sidon, which would have made him the ruler of the most powerful kingdom in the known world in his day. It was powerful because it was the only source of those famous, precious cedar trees, and because they shipped goods all over the known world. Thus, Hiram was the wealthiest and most powerful ruler in the world in his day. Association with Hiram such as Solomon had, would have given Solomon and the nation of Israel prestige. The correspondence would have told the original readers of these books that Solomon was impressive and important. Again, isn’t it interesting that Hiram is such an unknown today that I feel the need to explain who he is and why his letter to Solomon was important, while Solomon needs no introduction today? The people of that day would not have believed it. Consider that, and marvel at God’s amazing works.