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the glory that was

2 Chronicles 4:1-22

2 Chronicles 4:1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
2 Chronicles 4:2 He made the cast metal basin, ten cubits from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference.
2 Chronicles 4:3 The likeness of oxen was below it, completely encircling it, ten every ten cubits, completely surrounding the basin. The oxen were cast in two rows when the basin was cast.
2 Chronicles 4:4 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them, and all their hindquarters were toward the center.
2 Chronicles 4:5 The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold 3,000 baths.
2 Chronicles 4:6 He made ten basins for washing and he put five on the right and five on the left. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the basin was used by the priests for washing.
2 Chronicles 4:7 He made the ten gold lampstands according to their specifications and put them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left.
2 Chronicles 4:8 He made ten tables and placed them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold bowls.
2 Chronicles 4:9 He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court, and doors for the court. He overlaid the doors with bronze.
2 Chronicles 4:10 He put the basin on the right side, toward the southeast.
2 Chronicles 4:11 Then Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in God’s temple:
2 Chronicles 4:12 two pillars; the bowls and the capitals on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;
2 Chronicles 4:13 the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars).
2 Chronicles 4:14 He also made the water carts and the basins on the water carts.
2 Chronicles 4:15 The one basin and the twelve oxen underneath it,
2 Chronicles 4:16 the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all their utensils — Huram-abi made them for King Solomon for Yahveh’s temple. All these were made of polished bronze.
2 Chronicles 4:17 The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.
2 Chronicles 4:18 Solomon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.
2 Chronicles 4:19 Solomon also made all the equipment in God’s temple: the gold altar; the tables on which to put the Bread of the Presence;
2 Chronicles 4:20 the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn in front of the inner sanctuary according to specifications;
2 Chronicles 4:21 the flowers, lamps, and gold tongs– of purest gold;
2 Chronicles 4:22 the wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans — of purest gold; the entryway to the temple, its inner doors to the most holy place, and the doors of the temple sanctuary — of gold.

the glory that was

Reading these descriptions of the temple is like watching the special features of an epic movie. You can’t really appreciate the “how we made it” if you did not see the movie itself. The readers who first read this description were in a similar situation. They probably never beheld the magnificence of the temple. They certainly never saw it in Solomon’s days. Why does the scripture writer “bore” us with all these details? The Holy Spirit is reminding them of the glory that was, and hinting of a future glory that will be even greater.

LORD, give us a glimpse of our future glory, and remind us how you have manifested your glory in our past.