Wisdom: A Blueprint for Living

Solomon Builds a Sacred Space

Text: 1 Kings 5–9

Focus: Sacred space is everywhere the divine and human meet.

Human Need for Sacred Space

Video – Solomon’s Temple (1 cubit = 1½ feet) (5 mins)

And with that, I would like to announce the blueprints for a new building campaign at Jericho Ridge! (ha, ha … at least I got our elders’ attention)

• The truth is, when we see the details of Solomon Temple, we could never afford to build that building … it literally cost Solomon multi-billions to build (something we can’t relate to)
• So what then does the story of Solomon building a temple have to say to us at Jericho Ridge today?
• To answer that, we need to zoom out from the details (encourage you to read 1 Kings 5-9) and look at the story from 30,000 feet, so to speak.

From this vantage point, we can see how this narrative fits into human history, particularly humanity’s historical and religious pursuit of creating/building/finding “Sacred Space”.

• What is “Sacred Space”? It’s a place where the human and divine meet.

• Ever since Adam & Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, the human race has been longing/searching for sacred space.
• Christian churches, Catholic cathedrals, Jewish synagogues, Buddhist temples, Islamic mosques, Hindu ashrams, Egyptian pyramids, First Nations sweat lodges, tribal dance circles…

• … and Solomon’s Temple, which is the first of 3 Jewish Temples if we include Ezekiel’s prophecy for a 3^rd.
• By the way, did you know that traditional Jews still pray 3xs/day for the building of the 3^rd temple?
• These devout Jewish prayers epitomize our human need for purpose/identity that can only be found in Sacred Space.
• In other words, we need to meet with the divine, to answer:
  • Who am I and who are we as a people?
  • Where did we come from?
  • Why are we here?
  • What’s important to us?
  • Where are we going?

Solomon’s Need for Sacred Space

King Solomon believed that the answers to these questions were always to be found in Yahweh/God.

• The Israelites were God’s chosen people.
• They ascended from Adam & Eve, who God created in his image and who walked with God in the Garden of Eden.
• The Israelites existed to worship God and carry out his will on earth … to be a witness, a means to relationship with God.
• It was important for the Israelites to obey God above all else.
• And if they accomplished that, they were destined for heaven … a sacred space … an eternity with God.
• Until that time, however, there’s a chasm between God and humanity.

So in order to fill that void of sacred space, Solomon believed, as did his Father King David before him, that God needed a place to dwell on earth.

• And so, we have the story in 1 Kings 5-9 of King Solomon building the Temple for God to dwell in.
• A sacred space that people could come and worship God.

Solomon spent 7 years, multi-billions in resources and thousands upon thousands of labourers to build the temple.

• And when you read the story, you see that Solomon followed God’s direction to the letter and then some.
• Everything was of the highest quality … tonnes of gold.
• Nothing was overlooked from a detail perspective.
• Even to the point of constructing everything off site with tools and then rebuilding it on sight without tools so that no noise would disrupt the creation of this sacred space.
• The human cost in sweat and labour was astronomical.
• And economically, even future resources/goods and 20 towns were leveraged to ensure that the Temple was fit for God.

Why go to such incredible, sacrificial ends to build a Temple?

• 1 Kings 6:11-13,

¹¹ Then the Lord gave this message to Solomon: ¹² “Concerning this Temple you are building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David. ¹³ I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.”

• In about 957BC, the work was complete, and generations of longing (really since the Garden of Eden) was satisfied.
• God’s people had another place, a permanent sacred space, where God would meet with them.

But not just anyone was allowed to go into the temple, let alone the really sacred space called the Holy of Holies, the room where God would actually show up.

• Oh no, that experiment with just your average Adam and Eve being allowed to walk around the Garden didn’t go so well.
• And it took 1000s of years to get back to this sacred place.
• So safeguards were ensured: depending on who you were and how “clean/righteous” you were, you were allowed to access certain levels progressing toward the meeting place with God.
• For the common “Curtis and Sues” of the world, you were never going to get a sniff of the Holy of Holies.
• Only the Levite priests were allowed to enter the Holy of Holies … and only under the strictest policies and procedures according to the Jewish purification laws.

In other words, this “sacred space” was deemed so valuable that every precaution was taken to ensure that the Israelites (ironically only through the priests) could meet with God.

• And it worked for about 370 years, until 587BC, when the Israelites no longer held up their end of the covenant (remember back to 6:12 … obey all my commands).
• At that time, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed and looted by the Babylonians and King Nebuchadnezzar 2^nd, who took the Israelites into captivity.

• Fast-forward about 70 years and the Israelites return from exile and start the process over, rebuilding the Temple so that they could again meet with God (Ezra 3:8-13) … even though he met with them even in exile.

• So now we have the 2^nd Temple and we fast forward again, 500+ years, and the Temple is still standing … in fact it’s been expanded by King Herod.
• You would think that expansion would be a sure sign that things are going well between God and the Israelites.
• This temple concept must be working 2^nd time around…

Jesus Redefines Sacred Space

But then Jesus of Nazareth appears on the scene and we realize that no, actually, the Temple might have been looking good outwardly…

• …but inwardly, the sacred space between God and his people was in need of a major renovation.
• In reality, people were not free to meet with God.
• There was no “sacred space” (or very limited at best).
• People were bound in chains of laws and regulations.
• Even the time of the prophets had ceased…
• God wasn’t showing up any more because once again, the people couldn’t hold up their end of the meeting agreement.

And so God, always the initiator of sacred space, says enough, I am sending a Renovator, a Savior to fix this problem.

• Jesus, God’s own Son, fully God, fully Jewish … fully divine and fully human, enters the scene…
• (show picture)

John 2:21 (NLT)

¹³ It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. ¹⁵ Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. ¹⁶ Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

¹⁷ Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”  ¹⁸ But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing?  If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”  ¹⁹ “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  ²⁰ “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” ²¹ But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.

And here comes the pivotal renovation of “Sacred Space.”

• After the Jewish leaders put Jesus to death on the cross, God fulfills the promise and raises up a new Temple, a new Sacred Space, so to speak.
• The Jews thought they were punishing Jesus for defiling the Temple and the Jewish law.
• Jesus went to the cross willingly for the sin of humanity because it was impossible for God’s people to live up to their end of covenant/law that God had created with them.
• And on top of that, it was exclusive to one nation.
• God always intended for all people to meet with him.
• Everyone should have access to the sacred space where divine and human meet.

And so when Jesus died on the cross, the Gospels tell us that the “veil” which separated the Holy of Holies in the Temple to keep the common person out, was torn in two.

• The separator was removed symbolically to show that the real separator, which is sin, finally received payment for what it was owed and was now removed as a barrier between God and humanity!
• And three days later Jesus body/Temple was raised from the dead to signify that sin, which leads to death, had been dealt with once and for all … AMEN!

• From that moment on, every person has access to the sacred space where human and divine can meet.
• We don’t need to go to the Temple, or a synagogue, or any building for that matter…
• We don’t need a priest, a Levite to go into the Holy of Holies on our behalf…
• Jesus Christ is our High Priest, offering himself for all.
• Jesus Christ takes the place of the temple, he is now the “way the truth and the life…” … the way we meet with God.

Our Need for Sacred Space

Friends, your longing, our aim is still the same as it always was… we need, we want sacred space – a place to meet God.

• This is not a new storyline
• Sacred space in the Garden of Eden.
• Sacred space on the Mountain top with Abraham and Isaac.
• Sacred space in the tent of the Tabernacle.
• Sacred space in Solomon’s Temple and the 2^nd

• All places where the divine and the human met to find answers to our existential questions … who we are, why are we here?
• The human story is the same from generation to generation.
• Unfortunately, the problem since Adam and Eve is also the same … Holy God wanting to meet with unholy/sinful people.
• It can work here and there, now and then, but we always find a way to ruin it through our sin … we can’t hold up our end of the meeting agreement.

Jesus comes and says no more Temple, no more priests, no more restrictions, no more sacrifices for sin … there’s a better way!

There’s a new way … I/Jesus am the way, the truth and the life … ²⁰ “Look! I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”  (Revelation 3)

• Oh my goodness … there it is!
• Talk about sacred space … sitting down at the table with God and eating together … are you kidding me!
• Imagine, the things I/you/we can ask God in that setting?
• Imagine, the revelations of meaning and purpose for life!
• It hits at, no it body-slams the heart of my longing for sacred space, where divine/God and human/me/us can meet.

I can’t imagine ignoring that invitation to sacred space … being called a friend of Jesus, sitting at the table with God himself, sharing a glass of Pinot Grigio and talking life.

• Are you kidding me … sign me up!
• Where do we find that sacred space?

• We find it in the invitation of Jesus.
• His invitation brings together the human/us and the divine.
• And when you agree to his invitation, you become a part of being the sacred space you are longing for.

John 7:37-39 (NLT)

³⁷ On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  ³⁸ Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” ³⁹ (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.  But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)  (…it happens in Acts 2)

1 Corinthians 6 (NLT)

¹⁹ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?  You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price (Jesus died on the cross for you).  So you must honor God with your body … because it’s sacred space.

• Now, instead of King Solomon and the priests going to great lengths to ensure that sacred space is possible, we have God going to even greater lengths to ensure that sacred space is possible…
• What’s our response?

Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith (sacred space), let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.  ³ Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.  ⁴ After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

¹¹ No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  ¹² So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. ¹³ Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

In other words, don’t give up on sacred space … don’t give up on your personal and corporate meeting with God.

• Your life embodies the reality of sacred space.
• Your life of discipleship let’s the rest of the world know that they too can meet with the Divine/God.
• And thankfully, we don’t have to build a temple with cedars from Lebanon and cover it with 16 tonnes of Gold.
• Our lives, Jericho Ridge Community Church, us, we embody the sacred space where the divine God meets with his people.
• We don’t need to labour for 7 years, or 46 years (2^nd temple) or pray 3xs/day that the 3^rd temple will be built in order to meet with God.

• But we do need to believe in Jesus as the way/our Saviour.
• And we do need to welcome the HS into our lives personally and corporately as Jericho Ridge/a community.
• And we do need to honor this meeting agreement we have with God on a daily basis with our bodies (singular and plural) … that’s called discipleship.

And our reward?  The human/us and the divine/God get to meet everywhere at all times!

• Let me close with this scene from 1 Kings 8

1 Kings 8

⁵⁴ When Solomon finished making these prayers and petitions to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven. ⁵⁵ He stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire congregation of Israel:

⁵⁶ “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. ⁵⁷ May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. ⁵⁸ May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors. ⁵⁹ And may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly, day and night, so that the Lord our God may give justice to me and to his people Israel, according to each day’s needs. ⁶⁰ Then people all over the earth will know that the Lord alone is God and there is no other. ⁶¹ And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”

…⁶³ And so the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the Temple of the Lord.

⁶⁵ Then Solomon and all Israel celebrated … and the celebration went on for fourteen days…

Friends, the reward is that we get to celebrate!

• We so want “sacred space.”
• The world is desperately looking for sacred space.

• In Jesus, we find sacred space … celebrate it, so that the world will know that “the Lord alone is God and there is no other!”

Invite the worship team back up and the prayer team to move to the sides … let’s pray.