David’s intention to build the temple for the Lord was acceptable to God. However, as he was a man of war and the land was not yet at peace, God prohibited him from doing so. God instead promised that his seed who was to succeed him would build a house for God’s name (2 Sam. 7:12-13; 1 Chron. 28:2-3, 6). God further showed David the pattern of the temple by His Spirit. Before David died, he had already given the pattern to Solomon his son (1 Chron. 28:11-19).
The first thing Solomon did after he ascended to the throne of David was to worship God and sacrifice to God at the tabernacle in Gibeon. During the night, God in His kindness appeared to Solomon in a dream to ask what he desired. Solomon did not ask for riches and longevity for himself, but only for wisdom to rule God’s people. God therefore answered him and gave him wisdom and understanding. When Solomon awoke, he left Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem at once to stand before God’s ark to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings (1 Kings 3:4-15). This shows us that upon receiving wisdom from God, Solomon realized that a tabernacle without the ark is empty, having only an appearance and not being of much value. Therefore, he immediately left the empty tabernacle in Gibeon and went back to the ark which was at Jerusalem. He also understood that while the tabernacle without the ark was but an empty shell, the ark without the tabernacle was also abnormal. A short time thereafter, he built the temple according to the pattern seen by his father David. The temple became the proper and solid dwelling place God had desired. At this juncture, not only did God secure a kingdom to demonstrate His authority, but He also gained a temple to manifest His glory.
Both David and Solomon occupied special places in the building of the temple. The former prepared the building materials and the site, while the latter finished the building work. Both David and Solomon typify Christ. David typifies the suffering, fighting, and crucified Christ. As David prepared building materials in hardship, Christ also redeemed us through suffering and in death to prepare us as building materials. Solomon typifies the resurrected Christ, including His ascension and His second coming. As Solomon finished the building, Christ is also building His church in His resurrection until His return.
During Solomon’s reign, the temple was built in Jerusalem. First Kings 8 tells us that God’s glory filled the temple (vv. 10-11). The age of the building of the temple was a golden age in the history of Israel. When the work of the building of the temple was completed, Solomon offered a marvelous prayer. However, not long after that, in 1 Kings 11 Solomon’s heart was turned from Jehovah, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods (vv. 9-10). And Solomon did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and did not follow Jehovah fully, as did David his father (v. 6). Besides marrying the daughter of Pharaoh, Solomon loved many other Gentile women. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. In his old age, these Gentile wives turned away his heart after other gods, and for their sake he rebuilt high places for the Gentile gods, which places Moses commanded the Israelites to destroy after they entered the land of Canaan. Deuteronomy 12:2-3 says, “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: and ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.” After the destruction of these things, the Israelites were to come to the unique place of God’s choice (Deut. 12:5, 11). Moses commanded this in order to preserve the oneness of God’s people, for he knew well that the unique place of God’s choice and the destruction of places of pagan worship had much to do with the people’s fate before God. If they were faithful to destroy the Gentile worship centers and come to the one place of God’s choosing, then they were doing what was right in God’s eyes. If they would not obey this commandment, they were doing evil in the sight of God. After the Israelites entered into the good land, they did in fact destroy the high places and the names of idols. As a result, they conquered and subdued that land, ushered in God’s kingdom, and built God’s temple.
At Solomon’s time, however, the destroyed items were brought back again. The high places, the pillars, the wooden symbols, and graven images were all recovered. The very king who had built the temple according to God’s desire actually took the lead to build high places (1 Kings 11:6-8). The very king of unsurpassed wisdom took Gentile women as wives and followed them in idolatry. This offended God and resulted in the division and disorder of God’s people.
After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam succeeded him. According to His word, God rent the kingdom from his son, leaving only one tribe for him (1 Kings 11:9-13). The Israelites rebelled against the house of David and made Jeroboam king over them, and none followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah (1 Kings 12:19-20).