Wed.’s Devo - Completing the Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11; Romans 7:1-13; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 19:22-23 Solomon had a bronze altar made that was 30 feet by 30 feet and 15 feet high. Just imagine how many animals could be burnt on it at a time! The aroma of the cooked meat had to fill the whole city. He had a bronze basin made for the priests to bathe in after the sacrifices. It was called the Sea. It was round with a diameter of 15 feet and was 7 1/2 feet deep. There were two rows of carved oxen all the way around the lip of the basin and it sat on twelve bronze oxen all facing outward - three in each direction. Ten smaller basins were made to wash the utensils in. Five menorahs were placed on the north wall and five on the south. Can you imagine the light reflecting off of the silver and gold walls. It was built to resemble the garden of Eden and show the glory of God. Ten tables were placed - five on the south wall and five on the north for the shewbread. At the Feast of Shelters or Tabernacles, they brought up the Ark to place in the Temple. They offered up so many sacrifices they couldn’t count them. They placed the Ark beneath the wings of the cherubim. The only thing in the Ark was the two tablets that Moses had gotten from God on Mt. Sinai. The sanctified priests played their music and sang songs in worship and praise. They proclaimed that the Lord was good and his love endures forever. A thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord and the priests could not continue the service because of he glorious presence of the Lord that filled the Temple. Solomon presented the Temple to the Lord, then turned to the people and blessed them. He told the story of his father’s dream to build the Lord a Temple and how he was the one to get to see it come to fruition. In Romans, Paul compares our relationship with the law to the relationship of marriage. They are both covenants that are binding until a death occurs. When we become dead to our sins it is like the death of a spouse that frees us to be married to another. When we die to our first covenant, the law, we are free to be married to Christ, our second husband. It wasn’t the law that was bad; it was our sin. The law just pointed out or sin and held us accountable. The law is good and is still God’s standard for us to follow, but when we give our lives to Jesus, the law cannot condemn us when we fall short of what it says. God wrote his laws on our hearts and we now have the Spirit to lead us in righteousness. Lord, thank you for all that has happened before and all you have prepared for the future. We are grateful for those who went before us to prepare the way for us to walk in. May we carry on the work of the gospel and fulfill our destiny on the earth.