1 Kings 7:1-12
But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
For he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was a hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
And it was covered with cedar above over the forty and five beams, that were upon the pillars; fifteen in a row.
And there were prospects in three rows, and light was over against light in three ranks.
And all the doors and posts were square in prospect: and light was over against light in three ranks.
And he made the porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits; and a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them.
And he made the porch of the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.
And his house where he might dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had taken to wife, like unto this porch.
All these were of costly stones, even of hewn stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside unto the great court.
And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
And above were costly stones, even hewn stone, according to measure, and cedar wood.
And the great court round about had three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams, like as the inner court of the house of the Lord, and the porch of the house.
Revelation 21:2, 10-12, 16, 19
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
Her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal:
Having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs; the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal.
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones.
In both of these representations, we have that which is symbolic of the place where the Lord delights and purposes to dwell.
The greater than Solomon is building His house, and a house also for His bride. The King is building the city where His throne is to be.
If we read carefully these descriptions of Solomon’s building and of the New Jerusalem, the holy city, we can clearly discern three outstanding characteristics:
These are the three major characteristics of that in which the Lord will dwell. He is most concerned for these things, and He works with deep and patient application to have them an expression of Himself, of His own nature.
Strength is very evident in Solomon’s building: the element of strength, those mighty stones, those weighty stones, and those great cedars of Lebanon—all the impressions of strength.
It has taken a long time to secure those stones. They have a long history. Indeed, it might be impossible to trace the beginning of those stones. That rock-like substance goes back a long way and has a long history.
The cedars of Lebanon were not planted yesterday. They speak of many a test and trial, many a long year of growth.
There is nothing superficial about these things, nothing light and fancy about them. Nothing will be able to carry them away. They will stand; they will endure. They are the embodiment of the very principle of patient endurance.
There is eternity in their very constitution. They have passed through many a tempestuous testing. They are here in the house because of that. The King will dwell there because of that.
They have been exposed to the elements. They have never been coddled and covered and protected from adverse elements. They have been exposed to all the forces that could destroy.
Here we have strength. Look at that mighty city: twelve thousand furlongs. That does not convey very much to our minds until we begin to sit down and remember that this is a cube.
When you sit down and think about it—and I will leave it to the mathematicians to work it out—the length, breadth, and height are equal.
Today, day by day, we are impressed and almost shocked when we read and hear of thousands of millions of pounds. You know, this city, if you work it out, runs into thousands of millions of cubits—thousands of millions of cubits.
I just mention it in order to emphasize this fact of weightiness: the substantial, the enduring, the strength.
Dear friends, I think I need hardly say any more. Your minds are interpreting and applying as I speak. Is not this the history of the true people of God? Is it not?
The Lord does not put us in glasshouses to grow us to be His trees. The Lord does not protect us from the storm, the adversity. He exposes us to the bitter wind, the scorching of adversity and trial.
The Lord is working in us that which is according to His own nature—eternity, the enduring, the everlasting God—that which will not be easily or hardly carried away. He is putting substance in.
Oh, today we fear that the appeal to become Christians is so often in terms of having an easy or a good time, being happy and enjoying yourself. Well, thank God for all divine joy.
But this is true of the house, true of the city: the first thing the Lord is working toward, and seeking to work into His people, is that substantial, steadfast, enduring faithfulness that is according to His own nature.
Substantial! Oh, for substantial Christians who do not need cuddling and nursing and running after all the time, being tendered to get them to go on or stand up.
Men and women like cedars of Lebanon, like the huge stones—weighty, accountable, responsible to carry weight: all that is meant by strength.
I can only remind you again of what a large place that has in the Word of God: “Be strong.” “Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.” “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
You want to understand why the winds are allowed to blow so fiercely, the storms to get us away from that natural easygoingness, or cheapness, lightness, and to make us people of weight, strength—through testing, through adversity, set to endure throughout all ages.
There is much which is going to be carried away in the last great testing. And if, therefore, trial and adversity are the only way to deepen us, to put calibre into us, I suppose we must expect more of it as the time shortens.
Beauty. I will not stay to say much about it, but it is so evident in these representations, is it not? Beauty.
The Lord is also at work in this matter. The Lord wants that which is His dwelling place, the place that He is making for Himself, His own habitation, to be attractive, to be admirable, to be grand, to be something to be wondered at.
I suppose the one word that covers this whole sphere of beauty is the word grace. Grace.
If suffering is unto strength, then grace is unto beauty. If you and I have a true apprehension of divine grace, a real heart appreciation of the meaning of divine grace, there will be something about us that is not ugly or repulsive—something beautiful, something mellow.
Beauty is not fierce. Beauty is not cruel. Beauty is not hard.
Beauty is, in the right sense, soft. Perhaps mellow is the best thing.
You and I, as we go on with the Lord under His hand, are to be losing our natural hardness of judgment, of words, of attitude, taking on more and more of the mellowness of grace.
Look again at these descriptions, perhaps particularly that of the city. See how outstandingly is this characteristic of beauty—beauty.
It is a mighty thing, an almost overwhelming thing in its strength, its power to resist. Do you understand it yet?
It is one of those wonderful things about the Lord, the Lord Jesus. And it is one of those wonderful things about anything or anyone in whom He fulfils His purpose: a combination of strength and beauty.
The balance of strength—not all strength, but not all softness. Marvelous balance in the Lord Jesus. Look at Him: these two things brought together. And that is what the Lord will have.
And finally, costliness. How costly were Solomon’s buildings—the gold of Ophir! There is a great, great cost bound up with those houses that he built.
And the city: the foundations of the wall, all manner of costly stones. Something very precious, something very valuable to the Lord.
Here there is nothing cheap. There is nothing cheap in what is of God. Remember that. Everything that is of God is costly; it has a great price attached to it. Nothing here contemptible or mean.
It is the embodiment of suffering. Costly stones.
Notice that these twelve foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the first was jasper—fierce, crisp. Who was the first apostle? Simon Peter.
Jasper: clear, crystal. That is good. All the mixture has gone out. Transparent. Yes, what suffering! Look at him: he went out and wept bitterly.
Peter, in his letters, has quite a lot to say about fiery trial. Peter knew suffering. Yes, but you see, it produced something very precious, valuable, costly to the Lord. Was it not Peter who used that word: “Unto you therefore that believe is the preciousness”?
If you again think of the Lord’s ways with us, you cannot fail to see that the Lord is prepared to use a lot of time, and a lot of energy, and a lot of means, in order to get essential spiritual value.
Those of you who have read the life of Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium, will remember tons and tons and tons of stuff—men would call it rubbish—heaped in that backyard there, collected and collected: tons of it, you might say mountains of it, out of which to get the tiniest grain of radium.
When it was all reduced, just this little fragment of radium came out of tons. Ah, but look at the cost of radium in those days. Look at the power, the virtue, in radium.
The Lord, it seems, is like that. He is prepared to use tons and tons and tons of tons to get one fragment of this essential nature of Himself—preciousness, increasing energy, something about the nature of the Lord which is tremendously potent: the potency of truth, the potency of love.
Now, while the Lord wants us to be scrupulously careful about money—our use of money, our care of money—never for a moment be sympathetic toward carelessness in that realm.
He Himself sometimes seems to draw upon the resources, the material resources and the financial resources, so fully, so deeply, in order to turn to account some spiritual measure.
And this is what I am trying to say to you: you and I must look at everything in the light of spiritual value. That is how He looks at it. Nothing with the Lord is of any value except insofar as it results in something of Himself.
You may have your millions—I do not suppose any of you have—but if you had your millions, that with the Lord is nothing. He says, “How much does that represent of Me?”
You may have your little and have to look at every shilling that you spend, but there may be in your use of it something of the Lord, for the Lord.
And so the Lord looks upon a widow’s mite in the light of spiritual value, while He looks upon the Pharisees’ plenty without one atom of pleasure.
Everything is in the light of spiritual value where the Lord is concerned.
Think of the matter of time—or a lot of time. How we get upset over this matter of time! It is one of our big problems that the Lord is so slow, waits so long, takes so much time. That is real trouble with us, is it not? Always trying to hurry the Lord.
No, if it requires time to get what He is after, He will take eternity. He will take a lifetime to get it.
You see, the whole thing with the Lord is just real value—the cost of things.
We could speak much about suffering, much about suffering. How much suffering the people of God know! It is a problem, the sufferings of the Lord’s people.
But if Paul is right, here is the answer: “Our light affliction.” We take that for a moment. And you can only talk like that if you can see the other—the rest: “Worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
That is the end, the object, the goal. A light affliction—it is not light at all; very heavy affliction—unless we can see what the Lord is after. And then perhaps affliction will be seen in a different way.
Oh, here we are: costliness. The Lord is after this true value. And when He gets that—these characteristics—when He gets them: strength, and beauty, and real preciousness, costliness, the process will be fully justified.