My father had a saying: “Let the numbers lean on you.” I don’t think I truly understood what he meant until I got a little older. I don’t truly have the gift of numbers, but I try to understand statistics and budgets, pie charts and graphs, and certainly the bank statements that come to me. I’m more of a words person. I do my Wordle every morning, but just can’t stand Sudoku. Still, I know there are times when numbers convey both content and intent in a powerful way.
One of these instances is in the Scripture above. We have been waiting for the moment when King Solomon, the man of peace, would begin to build God a Temple in Jerusalem. His father planned for this, stockpiling money and precious materials for the project he would never see begun. When Solomon begins construction, he does everything lavishly, importing materials and craftsmen who are gifted in every art. Every aspect, inside and out, is carefully assembled out of scented wood and overlaid with gold decorations of great beauty. We see that the temple as a whole is 60 cubits long by 20 cubits wide by 30 cubits high. (A cubit is 1.5 feet, so it’s about 90 feet by 30 feet by 45 feet. Ninety feet long is about as long as 13 and a half King-size beds, for you bed-making aficionados.) The Temple, as it is described, is truly a work of art, offered to God, for the people of Israel and the world. It took seven years to build.
And then we read that Solomon built himself a palace. It took 13 years to build (the first number that pings our critical attention). It took almost twice as long to build as the temple, and it is much larger, 100 by 50 by 30. The palace was called the Forest of Lebanon, because of its numerous cedar pillars, and it included colonnades, porticoes and a Hall of Justice with a throne for the king to sit in judgment. We see that the king built another palace like this one, for his queen, Pharoah’s daughter, to live in.
The facts that Solomon’s Palace took almost twice as long to build as the temple, and that the Temple is dwarfed by the palace—those are just numbers. But they are numbers that speak to Solomon’s heart. “Let them lean on you,” as my father would say. His own desire for luxury and renown demanded a palace larger and grander than the Temple. And God’s Temple was only part of his capital complex.
As we read further in 1 Kings, we see that Solomon’s faith and love for God eroded over the course of his reign. He started out so well. His wisdom was the talk of the known world. He studied natural history and plant life, and was the author of many proverbs and songs (1 Kings 4:32-34). Notable and learned people came from faraway lands to bring him rich gifts and ask him questions, like the Queen of Sheba, who was overwhelmed by his intellect and his wealth. But Solomon let his many wives persuade him into worship of their gods. Solomon, the Temple-builder, even built worship sites near Jerusalem for these “detestable” gods (1 Kings 11:7-8). You have to wonder how the sizes of those worship sites compared to God’s Temple. Solomon started out wholeheartedly for God, with every blessing secured for his family, but the numbers don’t lie. We can see, as he builds the Temple and the Palace, that Solomon did not love the Lord nearly as much as he did his own desires and luxury.