Established in Strength: The Gospel in Bronze Text: 2 Chronicles 3:15-17
Introduction: Architecture as Theology
We live in an age that builds disposable buildings. Our architectural philosophy, if you can call it that, is driven by pragmatism, efficiency, and a low-grade utilitarianism. A church building is just a box to keep the rain off while we do the Jesus stuff. It is a multi-purpose facility, suitable for a sermon, a potluck, or a basketball game, signifying nothing in particular. But our forefathers in the faith understood something we have forgotten: architecture is theology. Form follows function, and when the function is the worship of the Triune God, the form ought to say something true about Him. Every line, every stone, every window is an opportunity to preach.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the construction of Solomon's Temple. This was not just a building project; it was a revelation in stone and bronze. God gave His people a tangible picture of His glory, His holiness, and His covenant faithfulness. And as we come to our text today, we are confronted with two of the most prominent, and frankly, bizarre, features of this temple: two colossal bronze pillars standing at the entrance. They held up nothing. They were not structural supports for the roof. They were pure proclamation. They were a sermon in bronze, standing at the very threshold of God's house, declaring two foundational truths to everyone who would enter to worship.
These pillars were not mere decoration. They were not the result of an architect's creative whim. They were named, and their names, taken together, form the bedrock promise of the gospel. In a world that feels unstable, chaotic, and weak, these pillars thunder a different message. They declare that the house of God, and by extension the people of God, are established in the strength of God alone. They are a permanent rebuke to all humanistic self-reliance and a glorious invitation to find our stability and strength in Him.
The Text
He also made two pillars for the front of the house, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits. And he made chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on the top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. Thus he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.
(2 Chronicles 3:15-17 LSB)
Monuments of Promise (v. 15)
First, we see the sheer scale of these pillars.
"He also made two pillars for the front of the house, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits." (2 Chronicles 3:15)
Let us not read this like it is simply a contractor's invoice. A cubit is roughly eighteen inches, the distance from a man's elbow to his fingertip. So these pillars were over fifty feet tall. The capitals, or decorative tops, were another seven and a half feet. These were monstrous, towering structures of polished bronze, flanking the entrance to the temple. They would have dominated the view of anyone approaching. You could not miss them. They were designed to make a man feel small and to make him ask, "What is this?"
And the answer is that they are monuments to God's promise. They were not functional in the way a load-bearing column is functional. Their function was to testify. They stood as silent, immovable witnesses to the character of the God who dwelt within. In a world of flimsy promises and shifting loyalties, God sets up two immovable declarations of His own faithfulness. Before you even entered the place of worship, you were confronted with the reality that what happens inside is based on something solid, something permanent, something divinely established.
This is a direct assault on the modern therapeutic view of religion, where God is whatever we need Him to be and worship is about our feelings. The pillars say otherwise. They say that our worship is grounded in objective, unshakeable truth. God's house is not built on the sand of our subjective experiences, but on the bronze of His eternal character and unbreakable promises.
Fruitfulness and Sovereignty (v. 16)
The description continues with the ornate details on the capitals.
"And he made chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on the top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains." (2 Chronicles 3:16 LSB)
On top of these massive pillars were intricate chains, like a net, and attached to these chains were one hundred pomegranates. Again, this is not just aesthetic flair. This is theology. The chains speak of binding, of sovereignty, of God's unbreakable covenant that holds all things together. It is a picture of His divine order, the beautiful and intricate way He has woven all of reality together for His purposes.
And from these chains of sovereignty hang pomegranates. Throughout Scripture, the pomegranate is a symbol of overwhelming fruitfulness, abundance, and blessing. It is one of the fruits the spies brought back from the Promised Land to show its richness. A single pomegranate is filled with hundreds of seeds, a picture of explosive life and generational faithfulness. So what is being preached here? The message is that God's sovereign, covenant rule is not a sterile, oppressive thing. It is the very source of all life, all blessing, all fruitfulness. True abundance does not come from breaking God's chains, but from living within them. The world thinks freedom is the absence of chains; the Bible teaches that true freedom and fruitfulness are found when we are bound to the right thing, which is the covenant of God.
This is a picture of the Christian life. We are bound to Christ. We are His slaves. And it is in that glorious bondage that we find true, abundant, pomegranate-like fruitfulness. The world, which chases after its own autonomy, ends up sterile and barren. The Christian, who submits to the sovereign chains of grace, finds his life bursting with fruit.
The Gospel Names (v. 17)
Finally, and most explicitly, we are told the names of these pillars.
"Thus he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz." (2 Chronicles 3:17 LSB)
Here the sermon is made plain. The pillar on the right, the position of favor and authority, was named Jachin. This name means "He will establish." The pillar on the left was named Boaz, which means "In Him is strength."
Put them together. As a worshipper walked between these two pillars into the house of God, he was walking through a sentence. He was being enveloped by a promise: "He will establish in strength." What will He establish? His house. His people. His kingdom. His promises. And how will He do it? Not by our cleverness, not by our political maneuvering, not by our moral striving. He will do it "in strength," and that strength is His own.
This is the gospel in two words. Our salvation is not a cooperative venture. God does not start it and then hand it off to us to finish. Jachin: He will establish it. It is His work from beginning to end. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. And Boaz: The strength required for this establishment is found in Him alone. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Every time an Israelite went to worship, he was reminded that his entire relationship with God was founded on this twofold truth. It is all of God. It is all by His strength. This is the death of all pride. This is the foundation of all true worship. We do not come into God's presence because we are strong, but because He is. We do not remain in His presence because we are stable, but because He establishes us.
Christ, Our Jachin and Boaz
Like everything else in the Old Testament, these pillars were a shadow, a type, pointing forward to the ultimate reality in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true Temple of God, the place where God meets with man. And He is our Jachin and our Boaz.
He is Jachin. God promised to establish the throne of David forever. He has fulfilled that promise in Jesus Christ, the Son of David, whose kingdom shall have no end. God has established His church, and Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. When you feel that your faith is weak, that the church is failing, that the culture is collapsing, look to Christ, your Jachin. He will establish His purposes. His kingdom is the one thing in all of history that cannot be shaken.
And He is Boaz. Where does this strength for establishment come from? It comes from the cross and the empty tomb. The strength of God was displayed in the weakness of the crucifixion. The power for our salvation was unleashed in the resurrection. Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the "power of God for salvation" (Romans 1:16). The strength is in Him. When you are tempted to despair at your own weakness, your repeated failures, your lack of spiritual muscle, look to Christ, your Boaz. Your standing before God does not depend on your strength, but on His. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).
The apostle John gives us a glorious picture of this fulfillment in the new covenant. To the one who overcomes, Christ promises, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore" (Revelation 3:12). Through faith in Christ, we who were unstable and weak are made into permanent pillars in the very house of God. We are made Jachin and Boaz in Him. We are established in His strength, not as silent bronze monuments, but as living stones, built into a spiritual house, to the praise of His glorious grace forever.