“whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze, Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.”
– 1 Kings 7:14
Hi James and Ellen,
What would you build if you were asked to build something that was fit for a king? Solomon was the Israelite people groups guys and gals third positioned king. Solomon built for himself an ornate, stunningly beautiful palace. It took 13 years to build the palace that Solomon designed to be built in the city of Jerusalem. Solomon’s palace was called the Forest of Lebanon. The palace that was built per Solomon’s blueprints was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high – making the place that Solomon had built for himself half as long as a football field and nearly as wide. The palace that Solomon had built – which was nearly 3,000 years ago, was probably one of the larger structures – if not the largest structure, built up to that time. The elaborate, resplendent palace that Solomon had built probably had three floors – with each of the three floors covering 11,250 square feet. Ask your dad if he knows how many square feet that your house has. The house that your grandmaa and grandpaa have lived in for the past two and a half years in Gainesville, Georgia has about 2,000 square feet of living area. The massive palace that Solomon had built was built around four rows of trimmed cedars that were cut from a forest in the country of Lebanon. To get the trimmed cedars the 145 miles or so from the country of Lebanon to the city of Jerusalem was in itself a major feat that had to have taken a good amount of time to accomplish. The four rows of cedars ran parallel with each other about 25 feet apart. 45 cedar beams – 15 cedar beams in each of the three areas that were between the four rows of cedars, were attached to the cedars at every 10 feet to support the cedars. The palace that Solomon had built for himself had a cedar roof, a colonnade – which is a porch like area, 75 feet long and 45 feet wide that was built at the front of his palace and a portico or entryway that used pillars to support the overhanging roof. The walls and floors of the palace that Solomon had built – and the courtyard’s walls and foundations, were covered with precision cut and laid high grade blocks of pinkish white limestone that was quarried from the Palestinian people group land area. Solomon had a throne room built in his palace – which became called the Hall of Justice, where he would do judging, which he totally had covered from floor to ceiling with cedar planks. Solomon also had a ‘hall’ finished off in his palace for a Pharaoh’s daughter who he had married or he had an identical ‘hall’ built very near his palace for his Egyptian wife.
The Kings Books historian continues right on in 1 Kings 7 to write about the building of a place that was built for God’s presence. What would you build if you had to build something that was fit for God’s presence? Solomon used a multitalented guy – whose name was Huram, to build a place in the city of Jerusalem that was fit for God’s presence. Verse 14 lays out Huram’s life profile and job portfolio, “whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze, Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.” Huram began doing what he was tasked by Solomon to do by overseeing the making of two 27 foot tall bronze pillars – with both bronze pillars having an 18 foot circumference. Huram sat a 7½ foot tall, lily shaped capital – which he had made, at the top of each of the two bronze pillars. After Huram saw to the attaching of a network of seven interwoven chains to the top of the capital on each of the two bronze pillars, Huram saw to the decorated of the two capitals with two rows of 200 pomegranates. After having the two bronze pillars erected at the portico of the place which he was building in the city of Jerusalem as a temple for God’s presence, Huram named the southern bronze pillar Jakin and the northern bronze pillar Boaz. Huram then oversaw to the casting of a bronze sea cast that was 15 feet wide and 7½ feet deep that he specifically had made for the temple of God that he was seeing to the building of for the God’s presence. Huram then oversaw to the putting of two rows of cast gourds – 300 per row, around this massive basin. Huram then oversaw the placing of the bronze sea on twelve bronze bulls – with three of the bulls facing to the east, three of the bulls facing to the south, three of the bulls facing to the west and three of the bulls facing to the north. Along with overseeing the very large bronze basin being cast, Huram had another 10 smaller, moveable bronze basins made that had their own ornate, engraved stands. Huram also oversaw to the making of the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls that would be used during the animal sacrifices that would be made to God in the temple that he was overseeing the building of as a place for God’s presence. Solomon may have personally been involved in overseeing the fashioning of the gold furnishings – such as the golden altar, the golden table, the ten golden lampstands, the gold basins, the gold wick trimmers, the gold sprinkling bowls, the gold dishes, the gold censers, the gold tongs and the gold door sockets that would be used inside the place that was being built in the city of Jerusalem for God’s presence.
In the history of the land of Israel, the time – 3,000 years ago, when Solomon lived on planet Earth, was filled with prosperity and peace. This time of opulence and tranquility ended when Solomon died because . . . would you like to have a palace for your house to live in? How do you feel about your body being a temple for God’s presence?
1 Kings 7 (1060)