THE DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE OF THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION)

DATE: WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE, 2018

TOPIC : WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING WITH?

TEXT: I KINGS 6:14-38

1. So Solomon built the temple and finished it.

2. And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress.

3. Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.

4. And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long.

5. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.

6. And he prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there.

7. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar.

8. So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold.

9. The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

10. Inside the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

11. One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.

12. And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape.

13. The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub.

14. Then he set the cherubim inside the inner room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

15. Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

16. Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

17. And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries.

18. For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were one-fifth of the wall.

19. The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

20. So for the door of the sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, one-fourth of the wall.

21. And the two doors were of cypress wood; two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door.

22. Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.

23. And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.

24. In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv.

25. And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.

MESSAGE

Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 3:12-15 warns and encourages us to use quality materials to build for God because our work will be tested by fire. King Solomon as shown in our reading today, built with cedar, cypress tree, olive wood and gold. A closer study of the passage reveals that the quantity of the gold used was more than all other materials. He even went ahead to overlay the wooden materials with gold. Verses 20 – 22 further emphasise this (Read these verses again).

Let us ask ourselves if we have been so generous with our ‘gold’ today in the work of building for our God. It is quite unfortunate that many of us give the type of offering that is unacceptable to men to God. Malachi warns against this in Malachi1:6-8. Let us learn big lessons from Solomon today to honour God with the best He has given us and stop wasting it on parties, revelling and other frivolities.’ God’s works must not suffer in our hands again (Read Haggai 1:3ff further on this).

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Giver of all things, grant us grace to honour and serve You with the best of all You have given us.