C. Building the Temple (1 Kings 5-8)Solomon set about building the temple in fulfillment of the terms of the covenant Yahweh had made with David. He contracted Hiram of Tyre to supply the building materials and skilled craftsmen in return for food supplies. There were cost overruns, however, and Solomon ended up paying his bill to Hiram by deeding over territory in the north of Israel. This, of course, did not sit well with the Israelites living there.Nor did another policy. Solomon needed workers for the massive temple project, as well as for building his palace. He conscripted Israelites and constrained them to provide manual labor (a practice termed the corvée, or "unpaid labor force"), thereby further alienating his constituency. This reminded them of the bitter oppression of Pharaoh in Egypt before the exodus when the Hebrews were forced to work on royal building projects. The temple was a magnificent structure (see Figure 9.4). Its walls were made of stone overlaid with wood paneling. There were two rooms within the sanctuary. The outer room housed an incense altar, lamps, and a table for ceremonial bread. The panels were decorated with carvings of flowers, trees, and cherubim. The inner room had perfectly symmetrical dimensions. It housed the ark of the covenant. The temple took seven years to build and was completed around 950 B.C.E. The temple was the most sacred of Israel's buildings. Because it housed the ark of the covenant it was considered to be the location of Yahweh's presence among the people. This was expressed hymnically in the statement, "Yahweh sat enthroned between the cherubim" on the top of the ark. The ark was considered to be his throne and the inner sanctuary his throne room.
The configuration of the temple complex, its decorations, and its various implements suggest that the temple was intended to symbolize the world over which Yahweh rules. The outer courtyard with its bowl of water represented the waters of chaos. The outer room of the temple with its pictures of plants and animals cut into the walls and the lights of heaven represented in the lampstands depicted the physical world in microcosm. The inner sanctum was a perfect cube covered entirely with gold. It housed the ark throne flanked by cherubim and represented the perfect heaven where Yahweh dwells, enthroned among the angels of the divine council. The temple is a graphic symbol of the power and authority of Yahweh over his creation.
In addition to building the temple Solomon built an expansive (and expensive) royal palace complex. It took twice as long to build as the temple. This opulence further indebted the nation and ripened the growing dissatisfaction of the population.
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