The Temple that Solomon Built for God - General Outline

In this chapter I want to briefly discuss the outside of the Temple, just to get a general outline of what the outside of the temple looked like. As we go through the Temple we will discuss the various items in the temple and some of the reasons for having the item in the temple. All of these qualities were to tell us something about the great temple built in heaven, not by the hand of man but by the hand of God. Hebrews 8:1-2

Before we continue with this brief description of the outside of the temple it will be helpful to know that there are 4 temples in the Bible that have specific dimensions. This is the temple that Noah built (Genesis 6:14-16); the temple that Moses built (Exodus 25-28), the temple that Solomon built (I Kings 6; II Chronicles 3) and the temple described in Ezekiel in chapters 40-43. The temple that Joshua and Zerubbabel built we do not have the specific measurements Haggai 1-2. The temple that was enhanced by Herod did not have specific measurements either. In addition, we are not given the measurements of the temple in heaven, but since the earthly temples were patterned off of the heavenly temple, we would have to assume that there is a general similarity in outline and we can assume that the outline is similar to each of the earthly temples.

The temple that Solomon built was 60 cubits long and 20 cubits wide, and the height of the temple was 30 cubits. In Moses temple the outside of the courtyard enclosure was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide and 5 cubits high. A cubit by the way is about 18 inches. For the temple that Noah built the length of the Ark (temple) 300 cubits, the width of the Ark was 50 cubits and the height was 30 cubits. So each structure was in a rectangle shape, not a square.

In the Noah example and the Mosaic example there is one door for an entrance and both had various ways of getting light into the sanctuary. In the temple Solomon built there were windows and clearly a primary entrance but it also had various doors out to side chambers. In the temple that Ezekiel sees there are also side doors as well as a primary entranceway.

In the Moses model there is a single entrance into the courtyard, some furniture in the court yard and then a special section of the temple called the Holy Place and then the inner apartment called the Most Holy Place. Each apartment had special furniture to perform various tasks and to teach various object lessons. Each of the other temple models had their similar apartments and functions each to teach their lessons to the worshippers who would come to the temple and participate in the temple rites.

The inner most section of the temple was called the Most Holy Place, also called the oracle in the temple that Solomon built (I Kings 6:15-36). This inner section was where the presence of God came to meet with the High Priest. In this component the Garden of Eden could also be considered a temple outline with the innermost section where God came to meet with the High Priest of the family of man – Adam.

As we have discussed in the chapter on the history of the Sanctuary Service in the Bible, this doctrine of the temple runs from Genesis to Revelation and is such an important concept for us to understand. It will be this writer’s intent to take each section and discuss the reason for these sections and to attempt to explain the purpose of God in building the temple this way. It appears that each section is important to the mind of God and necessary to help human beings grasp the teachings He has been kind enough to present to us.

To summarize, it has been the purpose of this chapter to discuss the general configuration of the temple and to show that all of the temples described in the Bible have this similar outline and thus what we learn in one temple we can apply, in general, to the other temples.