GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 3:14-17
Click to listen to this devotion.
14 He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.
The account of the entrance into the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies is described as a special set of paneled doors made of olive wood and with five-sided jambs in 1 Kings 6:31-32. These doors are also referred to here in 2 Chronicles as “the inner doors to the Most Holy Place” (4:22). This is the only reference in the Old Testament to a curtain in the temple of Solomon. The tabernacle of Moses had such a curtain, which is described in exactly the same terms that we have here in verse 13 (Exodus 26:31; 36:35). And we know that after the temple was destroyed and rebuilt, the second temple (“Herod’s temple”) had a curtain like this one, which is the curtain that was torn in half when Jesus was crucified (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Solomon’s temple, extra large and more lavish than either the earlier tabernacle or the later second temple, appears to have had both doors and a curtain covering the doors.
This makes sense when we remember David’s fear and respect for the ark of the covenant. After the incident with Uzzah while the ark was being brought to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 3:6-10), David became angry and refused to bring it any further for the time being. He “took the ark aside to the house of Obed Edom” and it remained there for three months, until David, certain that the Lord’s blessing was not removed, brought it carefully and correctly (carried on poles) into the city and into the special tent that David had set up for it. He did not take it back to the tabernacle, but kept it in the city, tended and guarded by Levites (1 Chronicles 16:4-6; 16:37-38). When we consider his special concern that no one else would die because of carelessness (like Uzzah) or sin (like Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu), he made it more difficult to enter into the Most Holy Place by placing doors behind the curtain. Only the High Priest would be able to enter on the correct day and in the correct way. His caution was approved by the Lord’s consent to the plans he made.
15 In the front of the temple he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits long (together), each with a capital on top that was five cubits. 16 He made chains like a necklace and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. 17 He set up the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
These pillars stood in front of the Holy Place. Sometimes it is thought that they supported an extended roof of some kind, but they might have been free-standing. The description of their “length” not “height” is curious, but we are told in 1 Kings that they were each 18 cubits tall, and end-to-end they would have been about 35 cubit long, just as they are described here. The text is not corrupt; it just isn’t the way we might usually think of things. The pomegranates hanging from golden chains around their capitals is a lovely detail. Just as with the palm trees and chains inside the building, we have God’s blessing and protection depicted at the same time. This is his divine providence.
The names of the pillars are references to God: “He establishes” (Jakin) and “In him is strength” (Boaz). Once again, God’s providence is depicted. While “establish” and “strength” might seem like the establishment and strength of a nation and its government, these were emblems on the temple of the LORD. They were a reminder of God’s spiritual kingdom, and of his almighty power and strength. Physical blessings and spiritual ones were both being depicted in the same language and imagery. There is a similar theme in the artwork in modern churches. Many churches (not all) have windows or banners depicting the Lord’s Supper, often with clusters of grapes and sheaves of grain to stand in for wine and bread. These things simultaneously show God’s blessing of material things (harvests) alongside the spiritual blessing of the forgiveness of sin in the sacrament. God provides for our physical and spiritual needs day by day, blessing by blessing. This combined way of blessing us is remembered in the Psalms: “He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever” (Psalm 111:5; also Psalm 147:7-11). His mercy endures forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online.
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel:
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 3:14-17 The Pillars