Purpose 1 Continued - Solomon's Temple

We can see the same again with the temple of Solomon. Just turn, for a moment, to 1 Samuel 16 and just read the beginning of the life of David. Samuel had come to Bethlehem to the home of Jesse to get the next king of Israel. And he’d seen all Jesse’s sons and the Lord said none of those is the one.

In verse 11:
“Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.”

He was so unimportant they didn’t even count him.

“And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.”

That’s a picture of David’s beginning. The youngest son in a not very wealthy family, out on the rather barren mountains of Judah looking after his father’s sheep. And yet, before the end of his life David had come to a place where he disposed of the equivalent of many millions of dollars. A fantastic sum of wealth which accrued to David in less than 70 years because he died at age 70. Yet, when he died he bequeathed to the house of God, to the temple that Solomon was to build, probably the equivalent of about a hundred million dollars of his own private fortune.

One thing we have to see, and it’s very significant, is during the reign of David there was a fantastic increase in the wealth of Israel. I don’t know of any way to calculate it but it must have been multiplied, I would think, hundreds of times over. What was a poor little struggling nation that made its living out of agriculture and husbandry and cattle and sheep, by the end of David’s reign was fantastically wealthy. That was no accident. Partly it was the result of God’s blessing on David because whenever God finds a man after his own heart to lead his people, he will bless his people through that man. But apart from that it had a further purpose. At the end of David’s reign God wanted Israel to be ready for the construction of the temple that Solomon was to build. Again, God’s purpose was a dwelling place where he could be amongst his people. And again, every detail of that dwelling place was precisely defined. Nothing was left to the imagination of the builders.

Turn on to 1 Chronicles 29 and look at the figures of what was given for the construction of Solomon’s temple. I really suggest that it would bless you to read 1 Chronicles 28 and 29 through by yourself. They contain some of the most glorious language found anywhere in writing. There’s a kind of wealth and a beauty about this language that is really staggering. I’ll read it in the King James Version beginning in verse 2. David said:

“Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God . . .”

One of the things I notice about David was whatever he did he did it with all his might. When he danced he danced with all his might. When he prepared the house of God he didn’t do it half-heartedly, he did it with all his might. I think God is turned off by halfhearted people. It grieves me to see people half-heartedly praising the Lord. Either praise him or don’t praise him. If you’re going to praise him, praise him with all your might.

“Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, the silver for things of silver, the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistening stones, and of diverse colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.”

That may not be the most accurate translation but you’ll have to agree with me for language it’s beautiful. I read that and I just get blessed. “Onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones, and of diverse colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.” Note the word abundance. God is not stingy. “Moreover . . .” Now that’s what David had prepared in general. Now he says moreover.

“. . . because I have set my affection to the house of my God . . .”

And again, that’s a key phrase. What you set your affection on is what you’re going to do properly.

“. . . I have of my own proper good [my own private fortune], of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir . . .” Then he goes on to list the silver and so on. It’s difficult to find an accurate equivalent in modern monetary system for a talent. I would say that a talent of pure gold of Ophir was worth at least $25,000. Probably a good deal more because every time we turn around the dollar has gone down in value. So, David provided in gold the equivalent of 75 million dollars. That doesn’t include the silver. I suppose probably everything he gave out of his own private fortune, not out of the state treasury, out of his own private fortune probably amounted to a hundred million dollars.

Do you remember what he said earlier? Presumably when he was still a shepherd. He said, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” And God surely honored that confession!

Then in verse 6 we read what the chief of the fathers gave out of their own private possession.

“Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king’s work, offered willingly [this is entirely a freewill offering], and gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents . . .”

According to my calculations that’s 125 million dollars worth of gold. David and the elders between them gave the equivalent of 200 million dollars of gold apart from silver and precious stones, wood, marble and all those little odds and ends. Out of their own private fortunes. That’s staggering! And remember, David started as a little shepherd boy on the barren hills of Judea. All that developed in less than 70 years. Practically, you could say, in one generation.

I want to suggest to you that something very similar is happening in our world today. You can talk about inflation and you can moan about prices but the fact of the matter is there has never been so much money available anywhere in the world, I would guess, as there is in modern America today. The amount of money in this nation I don’t believe anybody could count it.

 

I live on a small little island in the center of Fort Lauderdale called Sunrise Key. It’s got about 50 houses on it. I just sometimes sit down and try to think what those houses and the property there is worth. There’s not a house on that island that would sell for less than $200,000. The man opposite me — this is good news for me — he refused $100,000 for a vacant lot. The man kitty-corner from me offered his house for $495,000 for quick sale! Did I ever do myself good when I moved there! I have to say that again. Did the Lord ever do me good when he moved me there!

I don’t want in any way to seem boastful or arrogant. I acknowledge it’s all the Lord’s doing. I find that across this nation God is beginning to prosper his people in a staggering way—if we’ve got the faith to plug in. If we’ve got the vision.

On my way back from the mission field in Kenya in l962 as a humble, poor missionary with my late wife Lydia, we stopped off in London. I was asked to give a talk to the students of a certain Pentecostal Bible college. I had just begun to read these scriptures and believe what they meant. I told those good, nice Pentecostal Bible students that I believed at the close of this age God was going to release unimaginable sums of money to his people on the basis of what he did for David. They looked at me in blank unbelief. I mean, it didn’t even register. I said to myself, “All right. If they won’t believe, I’m not going to waste my efforts on them. I’ll find people that will believe.” I believe I’ve found them! I believe that God is paralleling in our day what he did for Israel in the day of David. Because, God has got a purpose.

What’s the purpose? Well, we’ve always seen it never changes. It’s a dwelling place. God wants a dwelling place. He wants to dwell with man. And he’s very precise, he never varies in the specifications of his dwelling place. He’s not stingy. He wants everything of the highest quality. Relax, I’m not talking about building a super auditorium.

Incidentally, one of the brothers related to me out of sheer pressure because they have nowhere to put the people who were coming, a five or six thousand seat auditorium. They’re buying property all around as if it was going out of style. Every time you turn around they’ve bought a new house. They need several acres of parking and they reckon that it’s going to cost between five and six million dollars and they intend to do it cash. Praise God, I found a man!

It’s faith. Now, you can borrow that money. If you borrow five million dollars you’ll end up by paying ten million dollars in interest. Why do that? I mean, again I don’t want to be legalistic. Far from it. But the Bible says the borrower is servant to the lender. When we borrow we become servants. God said to Israel, “If you will obey me you’ll be the head and not the tail, you’ll lend and never borrow.” Please don’t run away and make a doctrine of that but I do believe that if God could find people that would believe him, we would be astonished at what he would do.