1st Kings 7:1-12: Lessons from the design of Solomon’s palace

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There a few details worth sharing about the design of Solomon’s house (1st Kings 7:1-12). Why was this recorded? There isn’t even a parallel passage in Chronicles. Why does Solomon’s personal residence matter? Why should we even care?

There is nothing arbitrary recorded in the Scriptures (2nd Tim. 3:16). God made sure this information was included in the Bible for a reason.

A description of the design of Solomon’s palace seems more appropriate for an architecture textbook than the Scriptures. Yet the elements of the design tap frequent symbols in Scripture, pointing to the roles of “priest” and “king” in the Messianic Age.

Solomon named this palace “The House of the Forest of Lebanon” (1st Kings 7:2), even though this palace was actually located in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). It was a two-story building. 

The beams of the building were basically 50-f00t-tall trees use to uphold the second story which was floored with hewn stone. But these stones were smoothed with metal files, unlike the temple stones which were not polished. 

The first floor was mostly open air with a few partitions but the second floor had walls with windows. The second story was the living quarters for the king, his family and his household staff. 

There a few symbols that are built into this text that might give us a clue as to why this is included in Scripture. 

This house was built securely enough that it withstood several earthquakes and survived all the way to the time of the Babylonian siege.

One of the materials mentioned extensively in Solomon’s house is cedar. It’s a very tall, upright tree. Moths and bugs don’t like it. It’s a symbol of purification, cleansing and judgement. It’s used in the ritual of the red heifer — which is later mixed with water and used to cleanse the priests — and the ritual for declaring that a person or an item is cleansed from leprosy. 

In Ezekiel (chapters 17 and 31) and Jeremiah (chapter 22), cedar is a symbol of a royal lineage or nation that is being judged.  

God’s temple, in a matter of speaking, is a royal house. Yeshua, the Messiah, is a priest/king. Only Yeshua is both king and priest. 

The cedars represent all the nations. They hold each other up, and they hold up the royal house of David and Solomon.

This house is a place where judgements were issued and the rule of law is upheld. The citizens of the nation are part of the nation and are protected by the nation. People are defined by the nation they inhabit. The people of the nation are to allow themselves to be refined by the laws of the land they live in. 

Living in a house did not make Solomon a king, it was his judgements that made him a king. The rule of law makes one a nation. No rule of law, there’s no nation, just a band of wandering nomads. 

God is separating between what is priestly and what is kingly. There are a couple of kings of Yehudah (Judah) and northern Israel who tried to combine the king and priestly roles (Uzziah and Saul). Neither of them ended well. Uzziah was stricken with leprosy and Saul died a horrible death. 

At the millennial reign, the leaders of all the nations will go to the Messiah for judgement. Once they are judged by Yeshua, they will then be allowed to visit God’s temple. The pattern of government in Scripture that starts at the beginning will follow through to the end. After the millennial reign, there will be no more separation because God Himself will live on earth and reign. When God is here, there will be no temple anymore. 

This matters because this is our future. If you are going to be a priest or a king, we need to know what is expected of us. We should want to know the rules of our job before we do it. We need to learn our job before we perform it. 

Speaker: Daniel Agee. Summary: Tammy