PREPARATION FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF GOD

1 Chronicles 23-27

Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine,

and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man,

which built his house upon a rock.

~Matthew 7:24

King David wanted to build a house for God and was denied, so before his death, he prepared the plans for the construction of the House of God, which his son Solomon would eventually carry out.

Workmen by the thousands were enlisted to accomplish this great task, and great care was taken to obtain everything needed for the sons of Levi to carry out their ministry and prepare for the various offerings required. Every detail was carefully planned and executed, and the temple was established as a place where praise and thanksgiving were to be continually offered to the Lord at morning and evening.

As living temples of the Holy Spirit, our lives should reflect the kind of care and order David showed in preparing the temple. Like the temple, our lives should be marked by order and purpose, obedience and worship. All of this begins in our minds and hearts as we build our lives upon the Rock and that is Christ. “ (1 Corinthians 10:4).

The Lord is building His temple, which cannot be built by hand. 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 1 Peter 2:5 both describe this concept. Ephesians 2:10 also provides an image of our purpose under God’s authority:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them.

Knowing that we are in the last days, we must be on guard against falling away from the faith (see 1 Timothy 4:1. Like the wise man in Matthew 7, who not only hears the words of Christ, but does them, we should remember Samuel’s admonition to Saul in 1 Samuel 15: 22 — “To obey is better than sacrifice.”

Over the last several weeks of study, we saw that God provided Saul and David with wise counsel through Samuel, Nathan and others. David’s son Solomon would later write Proverbs, which emphasizes the importance of wise counsel: “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.” (Proverbs 19:20)

Where do we seek and find this wise counsel? God has provided us with His Holy Spirit as our Counselor, and He has also given us pastors, teachers and fellow believers to help us live in a way that glorifies God, who gave us our very existence. Those who have been given gifts to study and teach and prepare spiritual meals for others help us grow, together becoming like the temple that David planned—a house of the Lord.