Solomon’s reign as king over Israel, though started with bloodshed, experienced the longest peacetime in Israel. Nearly half of his reign of forty years was spent in constructing two separate buildings, one was the temple of the LORD and the other the king’s palace. Solomon wanted to accomplish all of his father’s desires. He had already killed the people that his father wanted dead and now he turned his attention to his father’s desire to build a temple for the LORD in Jerusalem. David had already made this request known to the prophet Nathan, yet he did not get a green signal from God. Instead, God told him it would be his son who would get the privilege to build the house of the LORD.
He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
2 Samuel 7:13 (NIV)
Motivation for Building the Temple
In those days, Israel was on good terms with the region of Tyre. The king of Tyre, Hiram, favoured David and extended the same to his son Solomon when he took his place. Thus, Solomon sought help from his neighbour Hiram as he wrote to him asking for timber from the forest of Lebanon to build the temple of the LORD. When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased that David’s son was reaching out to him for this favour. He offered to transport the logs from the cedar and juniper trees from the Mediterranean Sea in return for food supplies. Solomon agreed with the transactional value of the logs but had his own idea about the transportation.
King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men. He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
1 Kings 5:13-14 (NIV)
It seems that Solomon did not have a real relationship with God and was blindly following his father’s instructions in building the temple of the LORD. He depended on professionals and influential members of the society like Hiram rather than asking God for guidance. He spent the better part of seven years building the temple as he followed his father’s blueprint in great detail. However, at the same time, he was building his palace that would house all his wives and would be his throne from where he would judge the people of Israel. It seems that his focus was on building his palace more than it was on building a house for his people. He spent thirteen years constructing his palace, nearly double the time he devoted to building the temple of the LORD.
The Cost of Building the Temple
Solomon had conscripted forced labourers to undertake these two construction projects. Though outwardly it seems that the desire for the house of God would overshadow the mammoth effort it took to build the temple but that was not the case. The people were not happy under Solomon’s regime as they made it known to his son after his death. Solomon thought that he was building the temple for the people, but amalgamating its efforts with the construction of his own palace would have irked them.
The land experienced great peace during Solomon’s reign and while he attributed it to God’s grace on him, the deals he made with the kings around him could be the reason. Solomon made deals with the neighbouring kings for raw materials for the construction of his buildings and in return, he offered them grain and oil. Biting the hand that feeds them would not have been wise by the neighbouring kings and thus would have remained on friendly terms with Solomon till at least the construction work was going on. Moreover, Solomon’s numerous marriages with the daughters of the neighbouring kings guaranteed a truce with those nations. Rather than being a people of God, set apart from the world, Solomon became one with the pagan world around him.
The world around us will try to pull us away from God. In following the pagan ways of the world, we might experience peace with the people around us at the cost of our relationship with God. God chose us and set us apart to carry out His will and to shine His light on this earth. Like Solomon, our desire to fit in makes us adopt the pagan ways of the world. Let us not be fooled into accepting the peace of the world and forego the everlasting peace that comes from God.
Solomon spent nearly twice as much time building his own palace. Oftentimes, we too get diverted from God’s path in pursuit of fulfilling our desires. In the name of doing something for God, we end up following our selfish pursuits. While Solomon claimed that his focus was on building the temple of the LORD, it is obvious that he paid more attention to building his own palace and the palace of Pharaoh’s daughter. Let us not conflate our desires with God’s plan for our lives. We must allow Him to direct our paths else we may end up like Solomon, a man with all the wisdom and wealth in the world but lacking direction from God.
Discussion Questions
- What is Solomon’s motivation for building the temple of the LORD?
- Was there peace in the land because of the deals Solomon had struck with his neighbours?
- Solomon spent nearly twice as much time building his own palace. How do we get diverted from God’s path in pursuit of fulfilling our desires?
The Jordan Valley 
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