Commentary - 1 Kings 6:14-22

Bird's-eye view

In this section of 1 Kings, we are given a detailed account of the interior finishing of the Temple built by Solomon. This is not simply an architectural record; it is a theological statement written in wood, stone, and gold. The construction moves from the general to the specific, from the main hall of the Temple to its innermost heart, the Holy of Holies. The passage emphasizes a complete covering: the raw, structural stone is entirely hidden by fragrant, carved cedar, and the cedar, in turn, is entirely overlaid with pure gold. This layering is profoundly significant. It speaks of a created world (stone) being completely enveloped by a redeemed and glorified humanity (cedar, a noble wood), which is then entirely consecrated and covered by the manifest glory and holiness of God Himself (gold). The ultimate purpose of all this lavish work is to prepare a fitting place for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, the very footstool of God's throne. This house is a picture, a type, a foreshadowing of the greater temple to come, which is the body of Christ, and by extension, His Church.

The sheer opulence described here is not a display of worldly excess but rather a calculated depiction of transcendent value. The glory of this house was to be a foretaste of the glory of the age to come. Every detail, from the dimensions of the inner sanctuary to the carvings of gourds and flowers, points to Edenic themes of life, fruitfulness, and God's glorious presence with His people. This is God's house, and Solomon, as the son of David, is sparing no expense to build a house worthy of the name of the God who condescends to dwell with men.

Outline

Context In 1 Kings

This passage is the centerpiece of the account of Solomon's reign. After securing the kingdom and receiving wisdom from God, Solomon's great work, the work his father David longed to do, is the construction of a permanent house for Yahweh. This chapter follows the establishment of Solomon's administration and his treaty with Hiram of Tyre, which secured the necessary materials and craftsmen. The building of the Temple is the high point of Israel's national history under the monarchy. It represents the fulfillment of God's promise to David that his son would build a house for His name (2 Samuel 7:13). The detailed description serves to underscore the glory of God and the faithfulness of Solomon in executing this God-ordained task. However, this glory is tragically temporary. The very same book of Kings will later narrate the Temple's desecration and destruction because of Israel's apostasy, making this account of its pristine glory all the more poignant.

Key Issues

Commentary

14 So Solomon built the house and completed it.

The verse begins with a summary statement that is both simple and profound. The task given was a task accomplished. This is the way God's economy works. What God purposes, He brings to pass through His appointed means. Solomon, whose name means "peace," is the one to build the house, not David, the man of war. The kingdom had to be established in peace before the house of God could be built. This is a pattern. Christ, our Prince of Peace, first secures the victory and establishes His kingdom, and then He builds His church, the true temple. The verse states it as a fact: he built it, and he finished it. There is a finality here, a completeness that points to the finished work of Christ. When He declared from the cross, "It is finished," He was declaring the completion of the true temple's foundation.

15 Then he built the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the ceiling he overlaid the walls on the inside with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

Now we move from the exterior to the interior. What matters most in God's house is what is on the inside. The first thing to note is the complete covering of the stone. Stone is what the earth is made of; it represents the foundation of the created world. But in a fallen world, that creation is subject to the curse. Here, the raw stone is entirely hidden. No stone was to be seen. It is covered with wood, which in Scripture is a symbol of humanity. Christ was a carpenter, and He was crucified on a tree. This cedar and cypress, fragrant and noble woods, represent a glorified humanity. From floor to ceiling, the raw creation is covered by this redeemed substance. This is a picture of the New Covenant reality. In Christ, we who are "living stones" are built up into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), but our rough, stony nature is covered entirely by the righteousness of the Man, Christ Jesus.

16 And he built twenty cubits on the rear part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built them for it on the inside as an inner sanctuary, as the Holy of Holies.

Here we see the construction of the heart of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. The dimensions are significant. The main hall, or nave, was forty cubits long, and this inner sanctuary is twenty cubits. It is a space set apart, a room within a room. This division of space teaches a crucial lesson about the holiness of God. Not all places are the same. God is holy, and access to Him is mediated and restricted under the Old Covenant. This room, the "debir" or inner sanctuary, was the place of God's concentrated presence. It was where heaven and earth were to meet. The separation of this space by a wall of cedar illustrates the barrier that sin creates between God and man, a barrier that would only be torn away when the veil of the greater temple was rent from top to bottom.

17 And the house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

The nave, or the Holy Place, was the larger room that the priests would enter daily. It was forty cubits, double the length of the Holy of Holies. This is where the table of showbread, the lampstand, and the altar of incense were located. It was a place of priestly service, a place of preparation before the presence of God. But it was not the final destination. It was the "in front of" place. All the service in the Holy Place was oriented toward the Holy of Holies, just as all our worship and service is oriented toward entering the presence of God through Christ.

18 And there was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen.

The narrator repeats the crucial detail: "no stone was seen." The entire interior was a world of wood. And this wooden world was not plain; it was carved with images of life and fruitfulness. Gourds and open flowers. This is Edenic imagery. The Temple is a microcosm of a restored Garden of Eden. It is a place where God walks once again with man. The carvings are not just decoration; they are a proclamation. They declare that the purpose of God's dwelling is to bring life, beauty, and fruitfulness out of a barren world. This is what Christ does in the lives of His people. He takes our stony hearts and carves upon them the fruit of the Spirit.

19 Then he prepared an inner sanctuary within the house in order to place there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

Here is the ultimate purpose of the entire structure. All this work, all this cedar and gold, was to house one object: the ark of the covenant. The ark was the footstool of God's throne. It contained the tablets of the Law, the testimony of God's covenant with His people. The entire Temple complex existed to guard and honor the covenant. This teaches us that God's presence is a covenantal presence. He does not dwell with men arbitrarily, but on the basis of His sworn oath and promise. The center of our worship must likewise be the covenant, fulfilled in the blood of Jesus Christ.

20 Now the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar with cedar.

The Holy of Holies was a perfect cube: 20x20x20 cubits. This perfect symmetry speaks of divine perfection and stability. This is the shape of the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven in the book of Revelation (Rev. 21:16). Solomon's temple was a trailer for the movie that is the New Creation. And this perfect space was overlaid with pure, unadulterated gold. Gold, in Scripture, is the metal of divinity, of glory, of utter holiness. The inside of this room was a dazzling, overwhelming display of the sheer weight of God's glory. The altar mentioned here is likely the altar of incense which stood just outside the inner sanctuary, its smoke wafting into the presence of God, and it too was part of this glorious scheme, first covered in cedar and then, as the next verses clarify, in gold.

21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

The gold treatment continues. The entire inside of the house, not just the Holy of Holies, was covered in gold. This was a house of gold. Imagine the light from the lampstands reflecting off every surface. It would have been a breathtaking sight. The chains of gold across the front of the sanctuary served as another barrier, another demarcation of the holy. This was not a space to be entered lightly. The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest (Hebrews 9:8). Access was forbidden, guarded by gold chains, until the one who is more precious than gold came to grant us bold access to the throne of grace.

22 So he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

The summary is emphatic. The whole house. All the house. Nothing was left uncovered. The project was brought to total completion. This is how God works. He does not do things by halves. His salvation is total. His sanctification is comprehensive. The work He begins, He will bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). The altar, the place of prayer and intercession, was also completely covered in gold. This signifies that our prayers, to be acceptable, must be offered in a way that is consistent with the divine glory. They must be prayers offered in the name of the Son, covered by His worthiness, rising up as a sweet-smelling savor into the very throne room of God.

Application

We are not called to build a physical temple of wood and stone and gold. That temple was a shadow, and the reality has come in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul tells us that we, the Church, are the temple of the living God (2 Cor. 6:16). This passage, then, is not a blueprint for architects but a lesson for saints.

First, we must understand the principle of covering. The raw stone of our sinful nature, our fallen creatureliness, must be completely covered. "No stone was seen." In our lives, no justification for sin, no remnant of the old man, should be visible. We are to be paneled with the cedar of the humanity of Christ. We are in Him, and His life must cover ours from top to bottom.

Second, we must appreciate the value God places on His own glory. The lavish use of gold teaches us that nothing is too costly to give to God. Our worship, our service, our lives must be overlaid with the pure gold of sincere devotion to Him. We are to do all things for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). This means our motives, our actions, our words should reflect His divine character. There is no room for cheap, shoddy, or half-hearted service in the temple of God.

Finally, we must remember that the center of it all is the covenant. The whole temple was built for the ark. Our whole Christian life is built upon the covenant promises of God in Christ. The Word of God must be at the center of our church, our homes, and our hearts. Like the Holy of Holies, our hearts are to be a sanctuary for His presence, a place where His word dwells richly, a space made perfect and overlaid with the gold of His manifest glory.