The Quiet Temple Construction

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fralo4truth

Puritan Board Freshman
I've always been a sucker for wanting to see shadows and types under the Old Testament. I'd like to know what you all feel is the fundamental significance behind the quietness which shrouded the temple's construction? The text says in 1 Kings 6:7 that no tool was heard as the stones were already prepared prior to being set in place.

There's something here for us to see...:think:
 
Ex.20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

Dt.27:5 And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them;

1Ki.6:7 When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.​
I might be wrong, but I think the idea behind this was an extension of the altar-building prohibition. Practically, the stones used in an inhabited building required dressing; however the stones could be prepared afar off, and brought to the site and there the principle enlarged. :2cents:
 
The temple is the place where God condescends to man and forgives his sins. By preparing the stones away from the site, the symbolic message is that human labor has no part in bringing God and man together. It's similar to the symbolic cleansing of the temple - Ex. 30:23-30 - in which, even after doing everything just exactly as God has prescribed, the instruments still need cleansing. Everything we do is defiled and in need of cleansing.
 
The temple is the place where God condescends to man and forgives his sins. By preparing the stones away from the site, the symbolic message is that human labor has no part in bringing God and man together. It's similar to the symbolic cleansing of the temple - Ex. 30:23-30 - in which, even after doing everything just exactly as God has prescribed, the instruments still need cleansing. Everything we do is defiled and in need of cleansing.

I agree. I have looked at it as exhibiting how man would not be involved in building the church. This would be done by Christ alone.

Nevertheless, men were still involved as instruments, but only until the stones had already been prepared! Do you think that this perhaps could be teaching that human instrumentality can only be effective after God has put forth his first action upon the soul, quickening the individual unto life? In other words, regeneration before conversion through means?
 
It was an act of reverence that showed the Temple to be holy, related to the altar stuff Bruce brought up although not necessarily identical in every way. That's the most plain message in the text, and therefore the strongest and most certain.

Your idea that human labor has no part in bringing God and man together is also true, of course, but it's more of a stretch to say this particular text is teaching that point. The fact that God's dwelling among us is an occasion for reverence and holiness is by itself a strong message. If you're looking for a shadow of Christ, consider how he is the Holy One of God, in whom is found no sin and to whom is due all reverence.
 
Ex.20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

Dt.27:5 And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them;

This also reminds us - once again, in another context - that the debate between the Reformed over whether or not to use hymns and musical instruments in worship is not unimportant.
 
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