“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… The inside of the temple was cedar… He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.”
Interesting details about Solomon using precious materials to build the Temple. It was fascinating to me that various types of beautiful and expensive woods were covered by gold. Had I been the designer I would have used cheap materials for anything that was going to be gold plated.
I think that’s an illustration of how man cares about appearance, but God looks deeper than that. When men walked into the temple, they saw the surface beauty. But when God entered the temple, He saw the workmanship and quality material used in its construction.
The same is true of my life. Men only see the surface. But God looks at every level and knows if what I have constructed is a cheap imitation covered with flashy material, or if I used the best of the best, and gave all I had to build a dwelling for Him.
It doesn’t say in this chapter, but my guess is God prefers the foundation to be quality even if it doesn’t look flashy. Unfortunately, we emphasize the opposite, focusing mostly on appearance… Sometimes our Sunday morning self looks like we’re covered in gold, but Monday shows the plywood and plastic that our image is built on.
Let me challenge you today to examine your life at a deeper level. At the core of your walk is there strong quality material that will be sturdy in times of trial. Gold is pretty but it’s soft… is there solid commitment under the Gold coating?
In life you must build the solid prior to the shiny. Don’t misunderstand, our offering should be covered with the most glistening beautiful substance we possess. But the foundation of our faith, the part that goes unseen, must be solid valuable material that will withstand the onslaught of this world. We must have “Iceberg faith”, which means while what is above should be beautiful, the strength comes from the depth and quality that is underneath.
“Ninety percent of an iceberg is underwater. It is that unseen foundation that allows it to destroy anything that comes against it.”
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