“Rome wasn’t built in a day” is a phrase still today to mean that important achievements, complex projects, or great things take time, patience, and consistent effort to complete and cannot be rushed. The phrase serves as a reminder to be patient when things are not progressing as quickly as desired and that significant accomplishments require a long-term commitment. 

Imagine watching the Temple in construction with detailed carvings in stone and wood, overlaid by gold all done by human hands.  There were no heavy equipment machines to push, tug, and pull large stones, specifically cut for the Temple.  No, all were tediously positioned in just the right place by human brute strength, using carts, ropes, and pullies.  It is no wonder that wise Solomon rotated the workmen so that only one-third of the workforce lived away from home at a time, giving much needed rest and time with family that kept the moral and the muscles of the workers strong!

New church buildings are built brick by brick.  As I shared yesterday, after the ground breaking ceremony and the debt of the land paid off a few years later; I then watched as an anxious, impatient teenager as brick by brick was laid upon the solid concrete foundation. I realized then that workers must have a plan and then materials obtained.  The real work begins when the plan and resources come together with a foreman to oversee each part of the work.

Construction of any major building is accomplished brick by brick, beam by beam, put into place upon a firm foundation on the outside.  When that work is accomplished and the building is “in the dry” with a roof over the top; the inside work begins.  My grandfather, who was an elder in the church, as well as a professional carpenter, consented to be the Foreman of our church building project.  Everyone trusted him with both his professional abilities as well as his spiritual mentorship. God has a way of putting the right people in the right place at the right time for our good and His glory.

OUTSIDE IN AND INSIDE OUT

Many who passed by thought the church was complete by looking at the outside only; but the tedious, detailed, inside work took even more time to accomplish in preparation for the real work of God on the inside of all hearts who would come to this building dedicated to God.

Building a structure where people come to meet God in pray, worship, teaching, while growing their relationship with God, is not accomplished in a day, a week, or even a year but over a lifetime. It begins, brick by brick, stone by stone being laid on the solid rock foundation of Jesus Christ. 

God will remind Solomon, during the work, of the real reason for the Temple with the outcomes of love and obedience to God.  We often need to be reminded of why we attend church, too, or it becomes all to quickly a habit without substance.

1 Kings 6

Solomon Builds the Temple

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. ³ The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. ⁴ He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls. ⁵ Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. ⁶ The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

⁷ In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

⁸ The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. ⁹ So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. ¹⁰ And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

¹¹ The word of the Lord came to Solomon: ¹² “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. ¹³ And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the temple and completed it. ¹⁵ He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. ¹⁶ He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. ²² So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

²³ For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. ²⁵ The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. ²⁶ The height of each cherub was ten cubits. ²⁷ He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. ³⁰ He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. ³² And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. ³³ In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. ³⁴ He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. ³⁵ He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

³⁶ And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

³⁷ The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We must always lean into God’s wisdom and knowledge given to us from Peter and Paul, called and sent by God to be planters and builders of people, called “church,” who are built on the solid foundation of believing in Jesus Christ as God’s Son. We believe Jesus died for our sins, resurrected from death to life, appeared to his disciples to declare the glory of God who raised Him, demonstrating eternal life for all who believe, trust, and obey Jesus. Allow God’s Holy Spirit to lead us to all Truth.  Jesus is the Head of the Body.  We are the Body of Christ.  We are Temple in which God/Jesus/Holy Spirit takes up residence as our Life source.

WHO WE ARE—

Living Stones

“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and,

‘A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.” –Peter, 1 Peter 2:4-8

Royal Priesthood in Christ

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”—Peter, 1 Peter 2:9

The Body of Christ

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”—Paul, 1 Corinthians 12:12

“But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”—Paul, 1 Corinthians 12: 24-27

Joint heirs with Christ!

And speaking of Rome not built in a day,Paul preaches that “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Romans 8:14-17

WHAT WE DO—

Reconciled to lead others to reconcile with God

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”—Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:

Commanded and Commissioned by God through Jesus

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”—Jesus, Matthew 28:19-20

We the people are God’s church, the Body of Christ.  We are far from perfect but we are perfectly forgiven.  God is not as concerned with our perfection but for our progress in becoming more and more in every way like Christ. 

Our Source of Life

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”—Paul, Philippians 3:10-14

Lord,

Take hold of me and transform me daily, brick by brick. I know this will take a lifetime until I see you face to face.

In Jesus Name, Amen