seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Chronicles 1:1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lordhis God was with him and made him exceedingly great.
2 Then Solomon spoke to all Israel—to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families— 3 and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses the Lord’s servant had made in the wilderness. 4 Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the Lord; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
A thousand burnt offerings.... that's a lot of work!
This commentary is from the easy English site.
King David died in 970 BC. A short time before his death, he made Solomon king of all Israel. David made sure that all the leaders of Israel would support the new king (1 Chronicles 29:22-24).
So, when his father died, Solomon established his rule. God had chosen him to be king. And God made him to be a great king.
In the second year of his rule, Solomon spoke to the leaders of all Israel. Then they went with him to Gibeon. Gibeon was about 7 miles (11 kilometres) to the north and west of Jerusalem. They went to give sacrifices to the LORD.
The holy tent that Moses made for the worship of God was there. That tent was where the LORD met with his people. In front of that tent, there was the bronze altar (Exodus 25:40 and Exodus chapter 26). God told Moses to make the tent while the Israelites were in the desert. The temple that Solomon built had the same basic design as that tent.
A man called Bezalel had made the bronze altar. God chose him to make many things for the holy tent. Bezalel had the skill to work with all kinds of metals, stone and wood. He made this altar with a hard wood and he covered it with bronze (Exodus 38:1-2).
God’s ark had been in the holy tent. Later, the Israelites took the ark with them into a battle against the Philistines. The Israelites lost the ark in the battle. The Philistines took the ark to their own country. But the LORD punished the Philistines because they had taken the ark. So, they sent it back to Israel. The ark remained in the town called Kiriath Jearim for a long time. Then King David brought the ark to Jerusalem. There, he made a special place and a tent for the ark. So, at that time, there were two places for the worship of God. These were at the ark in Jerusalem and at the holy tent in Gibeon.
Solomon came to Gibeon. There he burnt 1000 sacrifices on the altar. Solomon probably used the priests to give the sacrifices on his behalf. Zadok was the chief priest in Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39)
My son-in-law smoked ribs yesterday.... oh they were delicious... nice smoke ring and they were so tender.... but they took all day to smoke. My son-in-law didn't have to kill the meat, skin it, or clean it. He didn't have to drain the blood and then sprinkle it on the alter. He didn't have boil the organs so he could slam a fork down in the boiling organs and glam his portion. He didn't have to portion out the animal. He started up the smoker, prepped his ribs, and the smoker took care of the rest. It took all day and he only used a portion of one animal. It must have taken a while to sacrifice 1,000 animals. On top of that... the original tent and other instruments were made by God's instruction back in 1592BC. That's almost 1600 years before Jesus was born. David died around 837BC, almost 900 years before Jesus died. The tent of meeting still existed!!!! Now that's a well made tent! If even a shred of it lasted 600 years it would have been miraculous.
I found this at enduringword.com.
We can track the progress of tabernacle and the ark of the covenant in the Promised Land:
· Joshua brought both the ark and the tabernacle to Shiloh (Joshua 18).
· In the days of Eli the ark was captured and the tabernacle wrecked (1 Samuel 4, Psalm 78:60-64, Jeremiah 7:12 and 26:9).
· The ark came back to Kiriath-Jearim (1 Samuel 7:1-2).
· Saul restored the tabernacle at Nob (1 Samuel 21).
· Saul moved the tabernacle to Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39-40).
· David brought the ark to Jerusalem and built a temporary tent for it (2 Samuel 6:17, 2 Chronicles 1:4).
There are several reasons to explain why David did not bring the tabernacle from Gibeon to Jerusalem.
· He may have believed if the tabernacle was there the people would be satisfied with that and they would lose the passion and vision for the temple God wanted built.
· It may be that the tabernacle was only moved when it was absolutely necessary – as when disaster came upon it at Shiloh or Nob.
· David simply focused on building the temple, not continuing the tabernacle.
So.... Solomon has a $4 Billion erector set.... and he's slaughtered a thousand animals and offered them up. He's an extravagant sort.
