The Architecture of Our Approach: Text: 1 Kings 6:8-10
Introduction: God is in the Details
We live in an age that despises details. Our culture values broad, sentimental strokes. It wants a god of vague benevolence, a spirituality of personal feeling, and a morality of whatever seems right at the moment. But the God of the Bible is not like that. He is a God of intricate, glorious, and meaningful detail. When He gives instructions for the tabernacle, and later for the Temple, He does not simply say, "Build me a nice worship center." He specifies the cubits, the materials, the layout, the furniture. Every detail is pregnant with meaning.
And so, when we come to a passage like this in 1 Kings 6, describing the side chambers and winding stairs of Solomon's Temple, our modern temptation is to skim. We think, "These are just architectural notes, the blueprints of an ancient building. What does this have to do with my life, my salvation, my struggles?" But to think this way is to miss the point entirely. It is to read the Bible with secular eyes, as though it were a mere historical artifact. We must resist this impulse with all our might.
These are not just construction details; they are revelation. This is God teaching us about Himself, about the nature of true worship, and about the structure of the spiritual reality that this physical temple merely foreshadowed. The Temple was a massive, stone-and-cedar sermon. It was a typological model of the cosmos, with its three levels corresponding to the heavens, the earth, and the sea. More importantly, it was a type of Christ, the true Temple, and a type of the Church, which is His body, the household of God. As Peter tells us, we are "living stones... being built up as a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). Therefore, the way this house was built tells us how we are to be built.
The world wants to believe that all paths lead to God, that you can just barge into His presence any old way you please. But the architecture of the Temple screams, "No!" There is a prescribed way. There is an order. There is a pattern for approaching the Holy One. These verses about doorways, side chambers, and winding stairs are not incidental. They are a lesson in the grammar of our access to God. They teach us about our place in His house, the nature of our spiritual growth, and the glorious end of our journey.
The Text
The doorway for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. So he built the house and completed it; and he paneled the house with beams and planks of cedar. He also built the stories against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were fastened to the house with timbers of cedar.
(1 Kings 6:8-10 LSB)
The Appointed Entrance (v. 8a)
We begin with the entrance to these chambers.
"The doorway for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house..." (1 Kings 6:8a)
The first thing to notice is that there is one doorway. There are not multiple entrances, conveniently located wherever a priest might feel like entering. There is one appointed way in. This is a fundamental truth about our access to God. Jesus does not say, "I am a way," but rather, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). The modern world detests this exclusivity, but it is the bedrock of the gospel. God has established the terms of access. We do not get to invent our own.
This doorway was on the "right side" of the house. In Scripture, the right side is consistently the place of honor, strength, and blessing. The sheep are placed on the right hand of the King (Matt. 25:33). Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 1:3). The blessing is given with the right hand. To enter God's house through the right side is to enter through the place of divine favor and power. Our entrance into the household of God is not something we achieve by our own strength, coming in through a side door of our own making. It is a gift of grace, an entrance granted to us by the mighty right hand of God.
These side chambers were for the priests. They were places for storage, for preparation, for service. They were integral to the functioning of the Temple. To be a priest in God's house is to be brought into the very structure of His dwelling place. This is now true of every believer. We are a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). We do not just visit the church; we are the church. We have been incorporated into the very walls of God's new and living Temple. And our entry point is always Christ, the door on the right side.
The Winding Ascent (v. 8b)
Once inside, the path upward is not a straight shot. It is a winding one.
"...and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third." (1 Kings 6:8b LSB)
The Christian life, our sanctification, is an ascent. We are called to grow up into maturity in Christ (Eph. 4:15). But this growth is not a simple, linear progression. It is not like climbing a ladder. The text says the priests went up by "winding stairs." A spiral staircase is a marvelous picture of the Christian life. You are constantly turning, often facing a different direction than you were a moment before. Sometimes it feels like you are going backward, looking out a window you passed before, only to realize you are now a level higher.
This is how sanctification works. We revisit the same struggles, the same sins, the same doctrines, but each time, by God's grace, from a higher vantage point. We learn patience in one trial, and then we are brought around to another situation that requires patience again, but this time we are on the second story, not the first. The path winds, but it always winds upward. This is a great encouragement. When you feel like you are wrestling with the same old things, do not despair. You are not stuck on a hamster wheel; you are climbing a winding stair. The scenery may look familiar, but you are making progress.
These three stories represent levels of maturity, of closeness to the central reality of the Holy Place. All believers are in the house, having entered through the one door. But we are all at different points on the ascent. The goal is to keep climbing, moving from the first level of basic understanding to the deeper wisdom of the third story. This requires effort. You have to climb the stairs. It is not a passive float to the top.
The Finished and Fastened House (v. 9-10)
The passage concludes with a summary of the work and how it all held together.
"So he built the house and completed it; and he paneled the house with beams and planks of cedar. He also built the stories against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were fastened to the house with timbers of cedar." (1 Kings 6:9-10 LSB)
Solomon "built the house and completed it." This points to the sovereign faithfulness of God. What God starts, He finishes. The true builder of the Temple is not Solomon, but God Himself. And the true builder of the Church is Christ. He declared, "I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it" (Matt. 16:18). This is our confidence. The project of our salvation, and the project of building the Church, will not be left half-done. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).
The house was paneled with cedar. All the stone was covered. In the previous verse, we are told that the stone was cut and prepared off-site, so that no hammer was heard in the house while it was being built (1 Kings 6:7). This is a picture of the peace and quiet perfection of God's work. But inside, the beauty was that of fragrant, glorious cedar. This speaks of the righteousness of Christ that covers us. We are the stones, quarried from the pit of sin, shaped by the hard providences of God. But within the house, we are covered by the beauty and fragrant aroma of Christ. God does not see our rough, stony exterior; He sees the perfect paneling of His Son.
Finally, notice how these side-chambers were attached. They were "fastened to the house with timbers of cedar." They were not free-standing structures. Their stability, their very existence, depended on their connection to the main house. This is a crucial point. We, as living stones and priests in God's house, have no stability in ourselves. Our spiritual life is not an independent project. We are fastened to Christ. Our security, our strength, our purpose, all derive from our union with Him and with His body, the church. To attempt to be a lone-ranger Christian is to build a chamber that is not fastened to the house. It will inevitably collapse.
Conclusion: Finding Your Place in the House
So what do we take from these architectural notes? We learn that God's plan is one of glorious and detailed order. He has provided one way of access to His presence, the door of Jesus Christ, set at the right hand of honor. Once we are in His house, He calls us to a life of upward growth, a sanctification that winds and turns but always ascends.
We are not just random individuals milling about; we are priests with a place and a function, part of the very structure of God's dwelling. Our identity is not in ourselves, but in being fastened to the main house. We are secured by the same fragrant cedar, the righteousness of Christ, that makes the whole house glorious. Our rough edges, shaped in the noisy quarry of the world, are covered. Inside the house, all is peace.
This Temple of stone was a magnificent shadow. But it was destined to be torn down. The reality has come. The true Temple is the Lord Jesus Christ, and by faith, we are built into Him. You are a chamber in the house of God. You entered through the one door. You are climbing the winding stairs. And you are fastened to the house by timbers that can never break. This is your security. This is your identity. This is the architecture of your salvation.