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| Dome of Rock Jerusalem (Temple Mound) |
The story of the building of the temple for many isn’t very exciting. It is after all just measurement and descriptions. Yet there is something interesting at the beginning of chapter three which makes me wonder. Why here?
It says that David began the preparations for building the temple on the very place where David had seen a vision of the angel of God. This might sound nice except the angel standing there wasn’t being friendly, it had just brought death upon 70,000 people in Israel because of David’s presumption (1 Chronicles 21). The angel was standing there ready to strike Jerusalem when David offered sacrifice and repentance to God.
My own thought is that David realized this place was where God had accepted the sacrifice for him and it was a reminder that God was a God of mercy and forgiveness, yet also a God of judgment. This was in essence what the tabernacle was, a place where they could see both the judgment and mercy of God. It was what the temple was supposed to be, a place where people who had done wrong could go and call out for forgiveness.
Today we don’t necessarily have a place that we have to go to, but once we have accepted Christ we are the temple of God. The place where the judgment and mercy of God are shown forth. Not just mercy or just judgment, but both.
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