'My house rules!'

In I Chronicles 28:9 David is talking to his son Solomon. The verse reads, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”

David wanted to build God a house. The tabernacle was a temporary dwelling made out of animal skins wherein was the Ark (the presence of the Lord). But it was in disrepair at this point and so David wanted a permanent dwelling place.

Jordan explains, “God told David, ‘I’m going to build a house but you can’t do it because you’re a bloody man. I’ll let your son build it.’ David got all the provisions together to build a house. God gave David the pattern for the temple. But he charged Solomon, the man of peace, with the responsibility of setting up the temple, which is a picture of the millennial kingdom.

In verse 11 you see the word “house” is plural. David gave Solomon plans for more than one house.

******

Jordan says, “In I Kings 7 Solomon is now going to build. People like to point out, it only took him seven years to build the temple but it took him 13 years to build his own house. Which one is bigger? Well, you get the idea. Solomon was much more interested in his own house than he was the house of God.

“Verse 2 shows there’s this third house: ‘He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.’

“Lebanon is north of Jerusalem, about 150 miles, and he builds a house in a cedar forest (Ezekiel 31). Just like a vine tree, a fig tree, a bramble tree and an olive tree represent the nation Israel in the Bible, the cedars represent something too.

“In verse 8 there’s another house! This a fourth house for the daughter of Pharaoh. This dude’s in the construction business.

“Cedar grows at a higher elevation so what he’s doing is going up. You read about the high places in the Scripture where the Baal worship is done and so forth. Verse 3 and 7. ‘Covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.’

“The house is 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high and on the end of it it’s got this porch where he sets up this throne and it’s the throne of judgment. Solomon is going to sit on that throne and judge from there.

“Chapter 10:14 says, ‘Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.’ Notice the number: 666. Solomon was supposed to be the wisest man in the world. He wound up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. How smart could he have been? He was foolish.

"What happened is, as the Scripture says, is he turned to ‘outlandish women.’ Outlandish means a Gentile; somebody outside of Israel. They brought the false gods of the Gentiles into Israel and took his heart away from the Lord into false religion. And Solomon literally turns from the true son of David into the counterfeit becomes literally a type of the Antichrist.

*****

“Verse 14 is where the transition takes place and in verse 15 he takes all that stuff and puts it up there in that house that he built in the cedar forest of Lebanon.

“Verse 19-20 says, ‘The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
[20] And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.’

“He’s got six steps going down from the throne. He’s got 6 lions on each side. He just keeps that 666 everywhere goes. It becomes his number, his identity.

"I love verse 21: ‘And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.’

“Just going to have gold. When it says ‘it was nothing accounted of’ that’s another way of saying there’s nothing like it anywhere to be found. They were so opulent and wealthy that they made just the ordinary little utensils out of gold.

“Some years ago was the scandal with TV evangelist Jimmy Bakker and one of the raps on him was in his bathroom all the fixtures were made of gold. I think probably it was just gilded stuff but Solomon’s plumbing--everything was made of gold! The dude’s got some money, is the idea. All that stuff was up there in that house in the forests of Lebanon.

“Verse 18 says, ‘Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.’ You remember what I Kings 7:7 said about the throne? He’s got this throne to judge from. But when you come over here in chapter 10 he says it was a great throne of ivory. What color is ivory? It’s white. There’s a great white throne of judgment. What does that bring to your mind?”