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So, last week we read in 1 Kings chapter 6 and got a good idea of what the inside of the temple looked like. And today we're going through 1 Kings chapter 7 and there's a lot more details added here and a lot of what is around on the outside. Now I'm just going to give a real brief summary of some of those things. It talks about, and just so that you might, just so you understand what they are, these are words often times that we don't use on a daily basis. And they're not things you might normally come across. So just to help you understand what things are being described here, obviously everyone should know what a pillar is. Pillars are supports, they hold up buildings typically, they don't have to. But the chapeters is what's added to the top and it's kind of like the crowning at the top, just the extra ornament type to add to the top of the pillar. So that's what a chapeter is. And lavers, if you know like Spanish at all, lavar is to wash. Lavers are just bowls that they would fill with water. And the reason why they had these bowls around, they would have five on the one side and five on the other side of the temple because they would do the sacrifices and stuff. So they would need to clean their instruments, they would need to wash, you know, washing off the blood and everything else that they're doing when they're offering up the sacrifices. So the Bible goes into a lot of detail on how these things look. They were in these square, the lavers would rest in these square things that had wheels on the bottom so they could move them around to do their work with and stuff. And I'll be honest with you, I don't understand like a lot of the deeper meanings that you could probably glean from this chapter. And I'm never going to try to teach something that I don't know if it's something that I'm unsure of. You're not going to hear me, you know, go into detail on or try or attempt to preach on anything. Now sometimes I'll give you a couple, you know, just leads and say, hey, here's something that I've heard, here's something that I kind of think, but I'll let you know right off the bat. There's a lot in this chapter, I mean, there's definitely some content I'm going to be preaching on. Don't get me wrong, but we're not going to go through every single verse of this chapter. There's just, there's too much that, it's a real long chapter, but there's too much that I don't know all of the reasons why all of this information is contained in the Scripture. I'm looking forward to understanding it all one day. I think it'd be great, but we're going to go over what we do know, what I do know tonight to teach you with, and starting with verse number one, I'm actually going to spend quite a bit of time on verse number one. Verse number one says, But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. This is a continuation from the last verse of chapter six when it says that the temple was seven years in building. So at the end of chapter six, the Bible tells us that it took Solomon seven years to finish building the temple, the house of the Lord. But then we start off in chapter seven saying, But Solomon was building his own house for thirteen years. Now we don't have specifically told why it took Solomon thirteen years, and it only took him seven years. Was he focused more on his own house than he was on the house of the Lord? I don't believe that for a second. I actually believe that the reason why it took him thirteen years is because he spent so much time and resources and everything in the first seven years, because I think he started these simultaneously while he was getting the work from Hyrum and while he was hiring these people out. He's getting all the resources. He knows how much he's going to need for his own house, for the temple, and for everything else. So he's getting all this stuff, and the work's going on. I think he really put forth the effort into the temple to get it done in seven years and put his house more on the back burner, which is probably why it took thirteen years. Now whether or not specifically that is the reason why Solomon's house was in building longer, it doesn't matter because this is still a biblical principle. So I'm going to have you turn tonight to Haggai chapter number one, and we're going to dig into this a little bit deeper since we see this kind of alluded to, I believe, here in First Kings chapter seven. Turn if you would to Haggai. Haggai's in a minor prophet, so after you go through the big books, of course after the book of Psalms you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, you get into the minor prophets, and you want to go to Haggai, and just be careful as you flip the pages because usually the entire books are only one page itself. There we go, Haggai chapter number one, and we'll start reading verse number one. I have verse number two in my notes, so let's look at verse number one, in the second year of Darius the king, oh, and before I get into this even, last point, it just kind of slipped my head, another reason why I think Solomon just put an emphasis on all his resources in the temple also is because when they built the second temple, after they came back from captivity, it took them like 45 years to build that temple, and that was not as great of a temple as Solomon's temple was. Like what Solomon built was more magnificent than the second temple that was rebuilt, and it took them way longer to rebuild that second, now they had other things going on, whatever, but to get as much of all this done and everything covered in gold and all that work done in seven years was a pretty big accomplishment, and we're going to get into that a little bit later when you understand how big the foundation was and the stones and stuff, we'll get into that a little bit later, but doing this type of work, they didn't have the cranes and the forklifts and all the machinery to do the work that we can do with construction today, so it took longer. Now they had different technology, I believe, I mean throughout history people have had different technology, but a lot of which kind of falls by the wayside that when other things come up, they get obsolete, but anyhow, I don't want to get off on tangent to that, let's look at Haggai chapter one, because what we're going to see here, the philosophy of teaching of making sure we're putting God's house first and seeking the things of the Lord, Haggai chapter one, this is the time during the reign of Darius when they were supposed to be building, rebuilding the temple, and this is why it's so pertinent now, look at verse number one, in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jauzadek the high priest, saying thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying this people say the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you, oh ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, ye have sown much and bring in little, ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink, ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified saith the Lord, ye looked for much and lo it came to little, and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it, why, saith the Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house, therefore the heaven over you has stayed from dew, and the earth has stayed from her fruit, and I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. So what's being explained here, the word of the Lord came unto Haggai, and he's saying look this people is saying, oh it's not the right time to rebuild the temple, it's just not time yet to focus on God's house, it's not time to do that yet, there's too many other things going on, or we're facing persecution, or we're still in captivity, it's just not time yet to do this work, and God's saying, you know, is it time for you to just dwell in your sealed houses, you've got your nice house, you've got a nice comfortable place to live in, and this house, talking about the house of the Lord, lie waste, so you got your priorities screwed up, that's why he says, consider your ways, you're going home, you've got a nice comfortable place to live, you've got everything set up at home, everything's great, you've got a nice roof over your head, and the house of the Lord is just lying waste, and these days we have houses of the Lord that are in shambles and in ruins, and people don't even realize it, and people just think, oh, it's not the right time, it's not the right time for me to dedicate my time and my energy and my effort into building God's house. This was an effort that required the work of not just the priest, it wasn't just Zerubbabel's job to go in and rebuild the temple, to rebuild the house of the Lord, it required everybody's help and everybody's work to rebuild God's house. And these days, if we want to build up a house unto the name of the Lord, it's going to require a lot of work and a lot of effort for more than just one person. We all need to decide, hey, I've got a house, I'm living this way, let's build the house of the Lord. Now, physically, obviously, we have a building here and a place to meet, but there's a lot more that we can learn from this than just the physical building. Because what this is symbolizing anyways is the Lord ruling His people from the temple and being among His people, and the priority that we would place on honoring and glorifying and bringing God back by building up the house to the Lord. That's what was really important. God didn't care about the physical temple, about the temple made with man's hands. That's not what He cared about, but what He's illustrating, what He's pointing out to Him, saying, you know what? You're focused on the wrong thing. And when He says, consider your ways, He's explaining to them. Look at verse number six here in Haggai chapter one, ye have sown much. You're going out and working hard. You're sowing your seed. He says, but you're bringing in little. He says, ye eat, but you don't even have enough. Ye drink, but you're not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Now, I'm sure everyone's probably felt like that before. You're earning, you're working hard, and it's like, where did all my money go? I mean, my money's gone, like I get paid and it's just like, just gone. We understand this feeling, but God's saying, He's doing this to them on purpose. He's saying, you are going out and you're sowing much, but you're not bringing anything in. Why? Because He's not blessing their work. Why? Because they're not focused on the physical. They're focused on their flesh. They're focused on their life and just going out to work and living in their house and just forsaking the house of the Lord and forsaking the things that have to do with God. And God's saying, I'm not going to bless you for that. And let this sink in because this is an important lesson to learn. You may reach a time in your life where you think, I just don't have time for church. I don't have time for the things of the Lord because I need to make sure that my house is over. I need to make sure that I'm going to work. I need to make sure that my house is taken care of and you're giving no time to God. And you're not putting the things of God first in your life. You know what's going to happen? God's going to make you continue to work harder and harder and harder. You're thinking like, man, I just can't get caught up. I can't get ahead. As soon as I get caught up, as soon as I get enough money, as soon as I pay off enough bills, then I'll go to church. And God's saying, no, that's not the way I operate. That's not what I want you to do. Turn if you would to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six, we'll see it's illustrated the same exact concept illustrated in the New Testament. He's explaining to them, consider your ways in Haggai. It's because you're not seeking the house of the Lord. It's because you're not doing the work that I have for you to do that all of these problems are come upon you. You're not, you're trying to get these problems fixed first and they're never going to get fixed. He's saying, I called for the drought upon the land, on the mountains, on the cattle, on the people, on everything else to get through to you. Maybe you're going through a lot of trouble and hardship and financially and things, nothing's working out. Maybe God's trying to get ahold of you and say, look, you're doing something wrong. Look you're not paying enough attention to doing the work that I've got for you to do. You're so concerned about getting comfortable at home when my house is in shambles, when you're forsaking the work of the house of the Lord. Matthew chapter 6, look at verse number 24. So Jesus taught us in Matthew 6, 24, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And that word mammon is basically synonymous with money. You can't be serving and all about trying to make a bunch of money and think that you're also going to be able to serve God. You simply can't do it. You're going to have to choose one or the other. You're going to have to decide, this is where my time is going to be invested. Is it invested in making a bunch of money, or is it invested in serving God? You could try to do both, but you're going to end up having to choose one or the other because you cannot split up your time that way. Nobody has that much time to do both. And whatever you're spending your time on, that's where your heart's going to be. Let's keep reading here, verse number 25, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. He said, for this reason, because you can't serve God and money at the same time, I don't even want you to take thought for your life. Don't think about it. What you shall eat and what you shall drink. Aren't those important things, though? Yeah. And what's he saying? Don't even think about it. Don't worry about it. Why? Because God's got you covered. You don't have to worry about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to put on. He says, what you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment. Aren't you here for a better reason than just to fill your belly with food and to put on certain clothing? I mean, people work, and you think about it, you say, well, I don't have anything. Well, you need to have some type of clothing, right? But what are most people working for? That little bit of better clothing, those extra pieces of apparel, that better food to have more servants making your food for you, to get the more expensive and tasty food and all the different variety. That's what people are living for in the world. That's what people really care about. And Jesus is saying, don't even take thought for it. Keep reading here. Verse 26. Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, and neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Under the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. He's saying the lilies, they're beautiful. They've got an awesome piece of clothing or covering over them. And he's saying even with all the riches that Solomon had and everything at his disposal, he did not look like the beauty that the lily has. He wasn't arrayed like one of these. He said if God is clothing a flower, just something you just go pick up, doesn't have to work for it. Flower's not concerned about doing all these various things and making sure it's working real hard in order to have this great appearance. But God gave that to that flower. He's like, then why do you care so much about what you're wearing and what you look like? Look at verse number 30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. God knows what you need. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. This is the teaching that we need to get down in our heads and learn and remember and think about on a daily basis because our flesh is really concerned about the food that goes into our belly. It's there. I'm always thinking about it. If you're like me. I'm always thinking about what's for lunch, what's for dinner, what's for, you know, thinking about that food. And that's obvious. It's not just saying that. It's talking about, you know, stressing out and thinking, well, where's my next meal going to come from and worried about these types of things. Well, how am I even going to be clothed? Look, God will take care of you. Now, he doesn't just take care of the lazy bum who's not doing anything at all and just wants to have this attitude of, oh yeah, who cares, I don't know, I'll just be taken care of somehow. That's why he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all of these things shall be added unto you. See, God is not going to let his workers go hungry. God is not going to let his workers go cold and not be clothed upon. If you are going to work and do work for the Lord, he's going to take care of you. You don't even have to worry about it. I'll take care of you. But you need to be seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness first. Put that first in your life. Don't be so concerned about these other cares of this world that you have. God knows what you need. God knows what you need more than you know what you need. And he's saying, I've taken care of the grass. I've taken care of the birds. I've taken care of these other animals. Do you realize how much more important you are than all of these things? That the grass is here today. It's going to be dry up, wither away and be burned in the fire and be gone. Yet God so clothed the grass with these beautiful flowers and everything else. Aren't you way better than that? Don't you think God's going to take care of you? Don't you think he's going to give you some clothing and some food? It's this faith that we need to be living by that is difficult to do. If we put God first, these extra stresses in our life and worries about finances and money and food and clothing and everything else, he's telling us we don't have to worry about that. There is no reason for us to have that type of stress in our life at all. If we could walk by faith. Not an easy thing to do. Not at all. That's why it comes by faith. It's not something that someone can logically explain to you. Don't worry about it. Hey, God's got you covered. But you know what? There is a way to understand it. Again, if we just take to the understanding of God being our Father, a good Father, and you think about children that have a good Father, that a good Father is going to take care of their children, especially when they're listening and obeying and doing things for him and working for everything he's telling them to do, they're going to be receiving and not have to take care of them. I mean, do you think my kids have to care at all or take one thought of where their next meal is going to come from or being clothed at all? Is that ever a concern for them, one little bit? Of course not. The thought never has to cross their mind. But now they should be saying, well, because I don't have to worry about feeding myself and getting a job and doing this other stuff, I'm going to do whatever it is that Dad tells me to do. That would be the right attitude. And see, we should be taking that same approach and say, I'm going to do whatever my Heavenly Father tells me to do, and I'm just going to do it. I'm going to work for him. And you know what? He'll supply my need. He'll supply your need way better than any boss will on this earth. That's for sure. There's a lot of bosses that are penny pinchers that do not want to pay their employees well at all. Many of them. That's not God, though. God will take care of you, and we need to have that faith. And this is based on these principles, based on what we saw in Haggai, based on what we saw in Matthew chapter 6, turn if you would back to 1 Kings chapter 7. This is why I think, and especially at this point in Solomon's life, he's a really godly guy. He's got a lot of wisdom. He's following the Lord. This is why I think that he put off the building of his own house. His own house wasn't ready for 13 years. Why? Because he's focused on the house of the Lord. He's focused on doing what's right by God. He asked God for wisdom in order to be able to lead the people, and didn't ask for things on himself. He was still operating under that same mindset. He's like, I don't care that much about my house. My house will get done when it gets done. I'm going to make sure that the house of the Lord is taken care of. We need to have the same type of priorities in our life. The more stuff you get, the more wealth you get, the more things you have, the more maintenance there is, the more work there's going to be that's going to drag you away and get you distracted into doing other things. People think, oh man, how great it would be to have a cabin somewhere. How great it would be to have a boat. How great it would be to have all these different various material possessions without even considering and thinking, and this is human nature, you don't even think about it. Well, then I got to get the registration on the boat, then I got to get the gas, then I got to make sure the gas is winterized, I got to make sure everything is taken care of, I got a place to store it, I got to take it out, I got to run the motor so often, and do all this stuff. And it's like, that will consume you and consume your time, because that's what you care about. Let's not get caught up in that trap. First Kings chapter seven, let's go back here. Verse number two, it's going to be a long night, no I'm just kidding. Verse number two, he built also the house of the forest of Lebanon. The length thereof was in hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar beams upon the pillars. So, not only was he building the temple, not only building his own house, but he also built this other house of the forest of Lebanon, which I don't really know exactly what this was for, but it was just something else that was in the building. But what I do want to point out is this, being careful and paying attention to as you read, because he's giving different descriptions of these various places, and if you're not careful it's another area where you can look at, oh there's an error in the Bible. So in verse number two, I'm just going to point this out, he said that when he built the house of the forest of Lebanon, the length thereof was in hundred cubits, breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. So he's saying there was four rows of pillars, right? Now look at verse number three, and it was covered with cedar above upon the beams that lay on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. Five pillars with fifteen in a row, that's only three rows. That's forty-five. You say well verse two said that there was four rows. So how can that be? Because what you don't realize, and what I didn't realize at first when you start reading this, oh verse two is the only verse that's talking about the house of the forest of Lebanon, and then he switches gears and goes back to describing his own house. Because verse number one he's talking about his house. Verse number two is thrown in there saying well he also built the house of Lebanon and gives you a little just real, real minor details about that, and then continues back on about his own house. Because as you keep going here in verse number six it says he made a porch of pillars, the length of it keeps on going on and on. Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other. And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch. So you see, it shifted gears on you without just being really explicit about it. But those are the types of things where people are going to point to you and say oh see there's an error in the Bible right here. It's not. It's just mentioning, it's bringing a brief mention up to this house of the forest of Lebanon. But we get more details about Solomon's house and then it switches gears again going back to describing the temple and giving more details about that. And that's where we're going to jump down here now instead of reading, oh well, jump down to verse number eight. It says in his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch which was of the like work. Solomon made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken to wife, like unto his porch. All these were of costly stones according to the measures of huge stones, sawed with saws within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping and so on the outside toward the great court. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. Now again, if you're not familiar with the measurement, a cubit is approximately a foot and a half. Basically it's a measurement between an elbow and your wrist, whatever, your elbow or arm. It's about a foot and a half is roughly what that measurement is. So when you see stones that are ten cubits, that means they're fifteen feet. That's a big stone. I mean, you try moving, have you ever tried moving rocks and we go camping and stuff and you come across these boulders that are only like a few feet in diameter, right, or across. It's just, you know, three, four feet. Man, those things are massive. They're heavy, right? Think about a stone that's fifteen feet long. And just trying to move that. Twelve feet, fifteen feet, these are the stones that he got and that's why they're real costly because the cost goes into the labor of moving these things. But see, this is what they're using for the foundation. You need to have a solid rock, a solid foundation in order to build a great house they're on. If you don't have the foundation, you don't have anything, they have these great three story high buildings and these great architectural structures and magnificent and beautiful and it's got all this stuff and they're overlaying everything with gold and they're making it all fancy and if they didn't have the right foundation, the storm's going to come and the flood's going to come and it's going to beat upon the house, the wind's going to blow and the house is going to fall. But they needed these great stones to build a great foundation. I know there's an entire sermon in that, I'm not going to get involved in the foundation laying here but realize how big and how important this was. And again, when you're considering how long it takes to do this type of building, I mean think about how long it must have taken just to transport from wherever he's getting these rocks from, probably from some mountain somewhere that they're hewing out of a mountain to transfer them over to the place where Solomon's house is being built and stuff like that. So it's a very big endeavor to get this done. Let's jump down now to verse number 13, we're going to see another reference to Hyrum, the king of Tyre. Verse number 13 says, and King Solomon sent and fetched Hyrum out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning to work all works in brass and he came to King Solomon and wrought all his work. We saw a couple chapters ago, a couple weeks ago, how Solomon dealt with King Hyrum and was wise in his communication with him and dealing with him but we can see why back in chapter 5 the Bible says, and Hyrum king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father for Hyrum was ever a lover of David. We get a little more insight here as to why Hyrum loved David so much, well it's probably because his mom was a Jew. His mom was of the, it says he was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali. His mom was of the tribe of Naphtali. His dad, his father says was a man of Tyre. He was a worker in brass. He's the one where he learned the trade and the skill from and all this great work that he was able to use for the Lord. So was this a great situation, they're not supposed to be marrying and joining a marriage unto the heathen, right? But here's a child that was able to take his situation and use it for the Lord. I believe his mother was probably still a godly woman and got him saved but he was of the tribe of Naphtali and his father was a man of Tyre. He ended up becoming king and was put into this position, had the skills, I believe put there by God in order to help to get this work done and being able to, and being so willing to do all of this work that he did. When you look at everything he built, he built like all of the, I mean really all the brass, all the work that was done was done by Hiram and his servants and stuff to get all this work done. He used Miley by God in order to create this temple that was, that existed for a long time. Let's look at verse number 15, it says, for he cast two pillars of brass of eighteen cubits high a piece and a line of twelve cubits that compassed either of them about. Now again, a cubit, remind you, is about a foot and a half, so eighteen cubits high, that's twenty-seven feet high. And that's prior to placing the chapitor on top of that, which added I think another like eight feet roughly, if I remember correctly, I was doing the math before, in preparation here, yeah there it is. The chapitors were also made of brass and they were placed on the top of the pillars adding another seven to eight feet, making the pillars approximately thirty-five feet tall. That's a large pillar to make and then the circumference, it says they made a line of twelve cubits that compass them about. The circumference was eighteen feet. That's pretty big. I mean eighteen feet going along, that's a large pillar, that's a great work. That is a big, and he had, it says he casted them. So if you've done any casting, I mean, being able to cast these huge pillars that are twenty-seven feet long, it's a big deal, I mean, this gives you a scope of the magnitude of this project and what went into this, and if you were standing before it, those pillars go up thirty-five feet in the air. Pretty big. Let's jump down to verse number twenty-three, I'm going to get back to the pillars. The pillars are going to be my last point, because the Bible kind of makes a special point about the pillars that were made. Jump down to verse number twenty-three, I've got one more point here on people who want to attack God's word and try to claim it's not God's word, because they find some contradiction, they find some error in it, and they'll say that this is an error. We'll read a couple of those scriptures. Verse number twenty-three, it says he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other. It was round all about, and his height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it round about. So it's giving the dimensions of this sea that he made, and the sea rested on the twelve oxen, there's three facing north, three facing south, east and west, and this big sea resting in the middle. The sea is just a big basin, there's a big brass basin that held all this water. So it gives you these measurements, and like I said, I'm a nerd for this type of measurement, and I've actually seen people try to use this argument, because I've also gone out and tried to find where there's errors in the Bible, whatever. I've seen this argument be used, where they'll try to say the Bible is not scientifically accurate, and here's what they say. When you look at the measurements for this sea, they'll say it doesn't add up, or it's incorrect, because if you're trying to calculate the circumference of a circle, the formula is it's pi times the diameter. Circumference equals pi, you remember this from school, everybody getting a refresher course here? Pi D, right? Or pi to R. There's another one, if you do two times the radius, right? We're going with pi D. The Bible gives us the diameter here, it says from one brim to the other, it's ten cubits, right? So what they'll say is, well we've got the diameter, so if you do ten times pi, and we know pi is three point one four one two six, and it goes on and on and on and on, ad infinitum, but that will be thirty one point two, you know, whatever, and what the Bible says here is that the circumference is thirty cubits, so they're saying, well that doesn't add up, you got a problem, you got a mistake, but like every other so-called contradiction and problem, there's a couple ways you can answer this. First of all, the Bible never works in decimal points, like you're not going to see all these various fractions and stuff. When you're giving dimensions on things, there's an order of magnitude, there's an order of scale that's being used. Many times, rough figures are given where it's not an exact. Now, other times there are very exact figures being used, but sometimes you just have thirty, right? Thirty cubits. It's a nice round, even number, not a big deal, but I don't even think that's the case in this case. Anyways, what they're not considering is the thickness of the brim. See, you got these idiots that will take a geometry and they'll take a circle on a piece of paper and say, well, yeah, the circumference of this is pi D, right? And you have no consideration for any, you know, any other reality to it, because it's so nice and easy when you work it on a piece of paper and on a chalkboard, right, to come up with these figures. But in reality, these things are three-dimensional objects, okay? In reality, it might not have been 100% perfect in its roundness either, right? But what we have here also is the breadth of the bowl. So think about a bowl. Just think about a bowl. We got a bowl here and it's holding water. There's thickness to that, right? And your brim is probably going to be somewhat ornate because all of this stuff is. So we don't know exactly how, well, it tells us that it's a hand breadth thick. So you've got this thickness on either side. Now when it says from brim to brim as being the diameter, it says 10 qubits from brim to brim, how do you know if that's measuring the inner diameter or the outer? In fact, if you're measuring the outer diameter from brim to brim, from edge to edge, and you put in the two hand breaths and then you calculate it out, it's astonishingly close to the figure you get when you consider pi and everything else and you do the math that way. And I did it. I didn't write all the numbers down. I actually did it because a hand breadth, depending, again, and these aren't like exact numbers, either. The measurement, it's roughly four to six inches on that hand breadth, depending on who you look up your resource from on the way that they did measurements back then. So you're talking about a foot, roughly, that you have to account for, which is 0.66 qubits less than the total qubits, right? So it's 9.33 qubits for the inner diameter, which is what you would use with the pi figure and getting the circumference. Again, the circumference, are you going on the outside or are you going on the inside? You're taking it kind of from the middle. So there's plenty of room for this to have no problem whatsoever. And look, if this is shaking your faith in the Bible, you've got bigger problems because you're really nitpicking now to try to find an error in God's word. There is no error here and any reasonable person can look at this and say, yeah, it's fine. It's right. You know, you're not, you're not going to the decimal point and there was no purpose for that whatsoever. These dimensions worked. It's not like it was saying, you know, 10 qubits for a circumference, but then the diameter is 15 qubits. You know, I mean, something ridiculous like that. Not even close. This is so close to where it's like, you have unknowns that aren't even recorded here. So you can't even go with that. Now let's get on to the pillars. Verse number 21. Verse number 21 here in 1 Kings 7, the Bible reads, and he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. Now these are those huge pillars, mind you. These are the 35 foot pillars. He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple and he set up the right pillar and called the name thereof Jacob and he set up the left pillar and called the name thereof Boaz and upon the top of the pillars was lily work, so was the work of the pillars finished. This stuck out to me and I spent quite a bit of time kind of looking into this, trying to research this because why did he name the pillars, right? You're setting up these pillars. We said the name of the one is Jagan and the name of the other is Boaz. Now Boaz makes a lot of sense because Boaz is the progenitor of David, right? It's Solomon's line. So Boaz was the one who married Ruth. So if you know the story of Ruth, Ruth and Boaz get married and then later on David's born and then there's Obed, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon, right? So that's like the line. So it makes sense. Solomon's building this temple. Boaz is looked at as a patriot, as a figure, an important figure in his life and his lineage. We know he was a great man of God. You can see that in the way that he treated Ruth. We can see that in his life. There's so many things that we can see and you know what? That makes sense. He's a pillar in the temple. Now Jagan, on the other hand, I don't know that much about it. It's not even in the Bible very much. The only time the word, the name Jagan is even really used is saying that he was one of the sons of Simeon, I believe. Other than that, there's not a whole lot there. Now there's definitely, and again, I'm telling you all this because I'm not claiming to have 100% of all the reasons why these names are there, but it is really interesting and there still is a lot there to learn. All names have meanings, first of all. This is the first point I want to make. Everyone, you know, and the Bible's big on the names being given, names being changed. You know, Abram's name was changed to Abraham. Sarai's name was changed to Sarah and they all had meaning. Eve was given a name, meaning a mother of all living. They all have a meaning behind them receiving that name. I believe that there is extra meaning here for these names. Why would the pillars have these names? It's there. Now, one of the things, and I don't normally do this at all, but this is kind of interesting because I usually, when there's a meaning that's going to derive from a name, you should be able to find it in Scripture. It should be there. You may have to do a lot of work in finding it out, but you should be able to find it from the Scripture. I looked at the Strong's dictionary to see what the meanings, because they also have meanings for the names and stuff. Usually they're derived from the Bible. Usually they match up with what the Bible says, but they'll take these Hebrew words and apply the meanings. Just like today, I mean, you could look up any name and when you're looking up names for babies, you kind of see what's the meaning of those names. What does the name mean? We did that a lot, and you kind of pick names sometimes according to the meaning that the name has. So I don't discount this 100%, but I looked up anyways just to see, and from what I read, and I am no expert in this, but just from what I read, the Strong's meaning for Jacob means he will establish, and then for Boaz, it even said it's uncertain. We don't know where the name means, Boaz. And I saw two things, and they're really different. One is swiftness, like being fast, being swift, and the other one is strength, or strength is within him. So I pointed it out because, be careful of this stuff, because those are so far not even really close to each other at all, that you don't want to get carried away in like, well this is what the meaning is, because this is, you know, it's like, no, he will establish and strength is within him, okay, you know, as being pillars and the meaning for the names. I could buy that a little bit, but I'm not going to run with that very far. I think there's a lot more meaning to these pillars being established here, and I think it has more to do with the people actually than the meaning behind their names. Turn if you would to Genesis chapter 28, I'm just going to make this last point on these pillars, because the pillars are going to be, they're more symbolic than anything, and actually these pillars did not support the temple. They were not used as that, in these huge pillars you think, man, what is that going to support, what are you going to put on top of that, nothing. They were really there just for ornamentation, they were there to be symbols and symbolic and then to show and to teach something, I believe. So naming them Jacob and naming them Boaz, I think has more to do with the symbols that they represent. Now, one symbol can come from the fact that when the God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, it uses the word pillars, it says, the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire. So when God led the children of Israel, he literally was in a form or an appearance of this great pillar of a cloud and a great pillar of fire. And the cloud by day disguised them from the Egyptians that were chasing after them so that they couldn't find them and see them and would protect them that way. But then in a fire by night, it lit up their way to be able to see where they were going and it kept the Egyptians in the dark. So those are two pillars that God manifested himself in, which I think we're getting a little bit closer to the meaning when we start looking at this stuff as to why these two pillars were placed in the temple. But even more than that, look at Genesis chapter 28, verse number 16. The Bible reads, and Jacob awaked out of his sleep and he said, surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. This is when he saw, this is called Jacob's ladder, he saw the angels ascending and descending upon a ladder into heaven. Verse 18, and Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it and he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz of the first. And Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Now one of the things that you could criticize Jacob for here is I think he's putting the cart before the horse a little bit, he's saying well if you do all this stuff then you'll be my God, right? But he still is taking a little bit of a leap of faith here because he's saying, you know what God, I'll do this, you've called me here and I'm going to go off into this place but if you keep me and you end up, you're feeding me, you give me raiment, notice all these things that are coming up we saw in Matthew chapter 6 that he's not supposed to be worried about, okay God, basically he's saying I'm going to test you. So I am going to follow you, I am going to go where you want me to go and if you do, if you take care of me, if your word holds true then you'll be my God. This was him kind of testing him but he's also setting up a pillar and he's establishing that pillar to be God's house. So these pillars that are established in the temple are put there because they're ordaining it as God's house. This is where they want God to be and they're setting up these pillars. First Timothy 3.15, turn to Revelation chapter 3, it's the last place you'll turn tonight, Revelation chapter 3. First Timothy 3.15 says, but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Pillars are symbols of strength. They are symbols of magnificence, they're symbols of this great, it really is strength. It's probably the number one thing because pillars are made to support a lot of weight and to bear a burden. That's what the pillar is for. The church in the New Testament, God's house, the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. This is where the truth emanates from. The Old Testament in the temple, God would fill that temple with His glory when His presence would be made there. Again, that's where the truth would be emanating from. It's coming from the Lord and it's coming from His house. The pillars, I think, just symbolize God's house, God's strength. These two names, Jacob and Boaz, were pillars in the faith, were pillars and strong men of God that gave of themselves and lived the life that they were supposed to have been living. I think they were being honored in that way. They were names that meant something as, hey, you'd be a pillar like Boaz was a pillar. You'd be a man. I did an entire, we did a Bible study in the book of Ruth and Boaz was a great man. It's real interesting because you don't get that on just a cursory reading of the Bible, but the more you really look into his life and you see how he brought God, he brought the Lord into everything that he did in his own business. He had his servants would go out and everything that he did, it was with integrity and it was with the principles of the Bible, the principles behind God's word. He acted that out in his day to day life and you can see that at everything he did was just, he was following by the Lord, by God's word and applied that in his life. I believe that's why his name was chosen to be a pillar. Now I don't know that much about Jacob, but I can only assume that he's got to be the same reason that he was viewed as someone who was unmovable and steadfast in the faith and was named, a pillar was named after him. Great qualities to have. Last place I had you turn, Revelation chapter 3, look at verse number 11, Bob reads, Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is new Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. That's pretty interesting, it says him that overcometh and we know that who is he that overcometh the world but he that hath faith, he that believeth on the name of Jesus Christ, so it's believers, there's so much symbolism here and he's saying that we're going to be made pillars in the temple as we're looking at Jacob and Boaz, these pillars at the physical temple that was in Jerusalem. We need to be pillars in the faith and we need to be strong and steadfast and unmovable and it's really interesting that just the emphasis, like I said, that was put in here in 1 Kings chapter 7 to the point where he put names on these two pillars. Now there's a lot more in this chapter and we're done. We're done going through this chapter 7 for tonight but I encourage you not to just skip over these passages. There's a lot of nuggets and a lot of gems and things that you find in here that if you're reading carefully, if you're really caring about God's word and you're studying it out, God will open up the knowledge to you. There's a lot, like I said, there's a lot here and I know I am leaving a bunch on the table of wisdom that we can learn from this chapter. I just don't have that wisdom right now so I can't teach that unto you. But hopefully one day God will open more up to me and we could go back through some of these chapters and I could explain more to you. But my point is just don't just skip over it, really care about it and try and think about it. And I'll just challenge you this, even if you're a woman and you're never going to pastor, look at these chapters and think, do a Bible study, because there's a difference between reading the Bible and doing a Bible study. We all ought to be reading our Bible regularly. But I also believe we ought to be studying the Bible. Pick something out that you want to learn more about or whatever and actually now try to find where else it talks about these things and you will learn a lot more. I learn while I prepare for sermons, just in general, I usually pick up something else. Now I know what I'm going to preach, I know what I'm going to teach on, but the more I study and study things out, I end up picking up a lot and that's why I'm imparting this to you. Do the same thing. Even if you're never going to preach a sermon, who cares? Figure it out for yourself. Take these types of things and try to look them up. Keep them in your mind and search them out so you can gain this wisdom also. There's so much in God's Word and not only should we be reading, but we should be studying and just seeing what is it that we can glean from this. What can we learn from this? Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these chapters in the Bible, dear Lord, that many people find to be really boring, dear God, but I honestly don't find them boring, Lord. I pray that you would please just help us to understand more about all the reasoning behind these chapters and the details that were given, dear God. I pray that you would just open up our wisdom more and more, God, and not only give us the wisdom but help us to have the charity to use the wisdom, to use our knowledge to help others and to go out and preach the gospel. God, we pray for your blessing upon our church and steadfast while we both are attempting to do the challenge of preaching the gospel to at least one person every single day. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to cross paths with people in our daily lives. Lord, you know everyone that's participating in this. Help us all to come across people that will actually get saved, Lord, so that we're not just attempting to preach the gospel, we're actually getting people saved. We pray that you would please just bless this endeavor that we're taking this month. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.