The Cost of Glory: Building God's House Text: 1 Kings 5:13-18
Introduction: The Shadow in the Sun
We come now to the nuts and bolts of building the Temple of God. The glory of Solomon's reign is reaching its zenith. The plans are drawn up, the treaties are signed, the materials are sourced, and now the manpower must be mustered. This is a moment of high glory for Israel. The son of David, a man of peace, is building a house for the name of the Lord. This is the fulfillment of God's promise, a tangible sign of His covenant favor. The sheer scale of the operation is breathtaking, a testament to the wisdom and wealth God had poured out upon Solomon.
But we must learn to read our Bibles with both eyes open. In Scripture, glory and danger are often next-door neighbors. The brightest sun casts the sharpest shadow. And right here, in the midst of this glorious account of national unity and monumental purpose, we find the seeds of future apostasy and national rupture. The very project that was to be the centerpiece of Israel's worship would contain within its execution the political dynamite that would eventually blow the kingdom apart. The levy, the forced labor, the sheer weight of the central government's demands, all of this begins here. And the man overseeing it, Adoniram, will one day be stoned to death by a populace that has had enough.
This is not to say that the project was illegitimate. Far from it. This was God's will. But it is to say that even in the doing of God's will, our human frailties, our lust for power, and our tendency to turn a good thing into an ultimate thing, are ever-present dangers. Solomon's glory was real, but it was also a temptation. The state was strong, but that strength would be abused. The people were united in a grand purpose, but that unity would be strained to the breaking point. So as we look at this mobilization of a nation, we must see not only the glory of the type, the foreshadowing of Christ's greater temple, but also the warning signs of a kingdom that, for all its splendor, was still on this side of Eden.
The Text
And King Solomon raised up forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the forced laborers. And Solomon had 70,000 who carried loads, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, precious stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites carved them out, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.
(1 Kings 5:13-18 LSB)
The Israelite Levy (vv. 13-14)
We begin with the conscription of Israelite citizens.
"And King Solomon raised up forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the forced laborers." (1 Kings 5:13-14 LSB)
The first thing to notice is that this is a royal levy, a corvee. The Hebrew word is mas. This was a form of national service, a non-monetary tax common in the ancient world. When Samuel warned Israel about what a king would do, he mentioned this very thing: "He will take your sons and appoint them for himself... to plow his ground and reap his harvest" (1 Sam. 8:11-12). And here it is. The monarchy has come of age, and with it come the burdens of a strong, centralized state. This is not, in itself, sinful. Civil government has a legitimate claim on the resources and the time of its people for the public good. And what greater public good could there be than building a house for God?
But we must make a crucial distinction. This levy on "all Israel" is different from the slave labor mentioned in a moment. These 30,000 Israelites were not enslaved. They were conscripted citizens. Notice the very reasonable, even humane, arrangement. They worked in shifts: one month on, two months off. This allowed them to return to their homes, their farms, and their families. It was a heavy burden, to be sure, but it was an ordered and limited one. It was a civic duty, not chattel slavery. The law in Leviticus 25 was clear that Israelites were not to be made permanent slaves. Solomon, at this stage, is operating within those covenantal boundaries.
And who is put in charge? Adoniram. This man had a long career. He was over the forced labor under David as well (2 Sam. 20:24). He is the veteran Secretary of Labor. But his name should ring a warning bell for us. He is the same man whom Solomon's son, Rehoboam, will foolishly send to the northern tribes to enforce an even heavier workload. The result? The ten tribes revolt, and Adoniram becomes the first casualty of the civil war, stoned to death by an enraged populace (1 Kings 12:18). The tool of Solomon's glory becomes the flashpoint of his son's failure. This is a potent reminder that state power, even when used for righteous ends, must be handled with immense wisdom, because it can quickly become an instrument of oppression.
The Foreign Workforce (vv. 15-16)
Next, we see the distinction between the citizen levy and the much larger, more permanent workforce drawn from the resident aliens.
"And Solomon had 70,000 who carried loads, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work." (1 Kings 5:15-16 LSB)
Here we have a staggering number of men: 150,000 laborers, plus 3,300 supervisors. Where did this massive workforce come from? 2 Chronicles 2:17-18 clarifies it for us: "Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in the land of Israel... and they were found to be 153,600. And he set 70,000 of them to be bearers of burdens, and 80,000 to be hewers of stone in the mountains, and 3,600 overseers to make the people work."
This was the remnant of the Canaanite peoples whom Israel had failed to drive out of the land. They were not citizens with the same covenant rights as the Israelites. They were subjects of the king, and they were put to permanent, hard labor. This was in keeping with the laws of conquest (Deut. 20:11) and was seen as a fulfillment of Joshua's curse on the Gibeonites, who were made "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God" (Josh. 9:23, 27). So, there is a clear biblical and covenantal distinction being made. The Israelites perform a rotating national service; the foreigners perform the grueling, permanent labor of slaves. This is the muscle behind the project.
And notice the organization. Solomon's wisdom wasn't just in proverbs; it was in project management. He has a hierarchy of deputies and officers to rule over the people doing the work. This is a picture of dominion. God brings order out of chaos, and He delegates that task to man. Building a temple, or a civilization, requires this kind of structure, authority, and division of labor. It is a glorious thing to see humanity, made in God's image, organizing itself to build something beautiful for the glory of God.
The Foundation of Precious Stones (v. 17)
Now we come to the foundation itself, and the materials used are deeply significant.
"Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, precious stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones." (1 Kings 5:17 LSB)
The foundation of God's house is not laid with common fieldstones. It is laid with "great stones, precious stones." This speaks, first, to the sheer excellence of the work. Nothing is too good for God. The very foundation, which would be unseen for the most part, was to be made of the best, most costly materials. This is a rebuke to all our shabby, corner-cutting service to the Lord. Our devotion must run all the way down to the foundation.
But the typology here is what should arrest our attention. What is the foundation of the true Temple, the Church? The apostle Paul tells us it is "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone" (Eph. 2:20). And what is this cornerstone? He is the "precious cornerstone" (Isa. 28:16), the "living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious" (1 Pet. 2:4). Christ Himself is this great and precious stone. The entire weight of the household of God rests upon Him.
And what of the other foundation stones? We who are in Christ, Peter says, "like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house" (1 Pet. 2:5). We are quarried out of the pit of our sin, hewn and shaped by the hard providences of God, and fitted into place upon the great foundation, Christ. The work is hard. The quarry is a place of violent, noisy work. But in the end, we are made "precious stones" in His sight, fit for His dwelling. The foundation of Solomon's temple, laid with great and costly stones, was a magnificent shadow of the far more glorious reality: the Church, founded upon Christ and built up of His redeemed people.
A United Effort (v. 18)
The final verse highlights the cooperative nature of this grand undertaking.
"So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites carved them out, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house." (1 Kings 5:18 LSB)
Here we see a remarkable collaboration. You have Solomon's builders, who were Israelites. You have Hiram's builders, who were Phoenicians from Tyre. And you have the Gebalites, who were from Gebal, or Byblos, another Phoenician city renowned for its skilled craftsmen. In other words, the house of God for Israel is being built by both Jews and Gentiles.
This is a stunning preview of the gospel. The temple was not just for Israel, but was to be "a house of prayer for all nations" (Isa. 56:7). And here, in its very construction, the nations are involved. The skill of the Gentiles is brought into the service of the God of Israel. This points directly to the mystery revealed in the New Testament, that the Gentiles are "fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph. 3:6). The middle wall of partition is torn down, and Jew and Gentile are built together into one new man, one holy temple in the Lord.
The Church of Jesus Christ is not a Jewish sect. It is a catholic, which is to say, universal, body. It is made up of men and women from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The skill, the wealth, the glory of the nations is to be brought into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24). This little verse, tucked away in a construction report, is a beautiful glimpse of that final reality. Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites, all working together on God's house. What a picture of the Church.
Conclusion: The Greater Temple
So what do we take from this? We see the glory of a nation mobilized for a great and godly purpose. We see the wisdom of a king organizing a monumental task. We see the typological beauty of a foundation of precious stones and a workforce of Jews and Gentiles, all pointing to Christ and His Church.
But we also see the warning. We see the immense power of the state being brought to bear, a power that would later be abused and lead to ruin. Solomon's kingdom, for all its glory, was a temporary and flawed picture. It points us forward to a greater King and a greater Temple.
The greater Solomon is Jesus Christ. He is building His temple, the Church. And He does not use a corvee or a forced levy. He builds His church with volunteers. "Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power" (Ps. 110:3). He calls us to take up His yoke, which is easy, and His burden, which is light (Matt. 11:30). The service He requires is not a burdensome duty, but a joyful response to His grace.
He is the precious cornerstone, and we are the living stones being built upon Him. He is the one who unites Jew and Gentile into one body. The glory of Solomon's temple was a thing of cedar and gold and stone, and it was destroyed. But the glory of Christ's temple is a thing of redeemed souls, and it will stand forever. The cost of Solomon's temple was a heavy tax on the people. The cost of our redemption, the price of building the true temple, was the precious blood of Christ Himself. Let us therefore marvel at the shadow, but rejoice all the more in the substance.