1 Kings 8

Also known as the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s most sacred relic.

Ethanim falls somewhere between late September and early November. Jews followed the lunar calendar. Then and now, observant Jews celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters on the 15^th of Ethanim. The festival is often called the Festival of Shelters or Festival of Booths—or Sukkot, among Jewish people today. This was the last harvest festival of the year. That’s when farmers harvested late-season crops such as grapes, figs, and olives (Exodus 23:16). The Hebrew word describing the festival, sukka, can mean tent, canopy, or temporary shelter. Moses said God wanted the Israelites to observe this festival by building temporary shelters and living in them for seven days “so you and your descendants will remember that the people of Israel I led out of Egyptian slavery once lived in shelters like this” (Leviticus 23:43).

These cherubim stood 15 feet high (4 ½ meters) with a wingspan as wide as they were tall. Each wing, to the tip, measured 7 ½  feet, which is about 2 meters (6:23). “Cherubim” is Kerubim in Hebrew. These are celestial beings mentioned throughout the Bible. Ancient Middle Eastern creatures with similar names, such as kirubu, reportedly served other gods. The creatures were portrayed in statues of beings such as human-headed lions with wings. These statues guarded entrances to cities and palaces. Jews taught that God’s footrest was the lid on the Ark of the Covenant, the gold-covered chest that held the Ten Commandments (1 Chronicles 28:2). Two smaller winged cherubim rested on top of the lid, one at each end. That’s in addition to the pair of huge cherubim in the room, standing as though on guard duty for God. Or perhaps waiting for orders to deliver a message.

Bible writers never mentioned how long the poles were. But if they were visible from outside the room where they were kept, they must have been close to 10 yards/meters long. The room was a cube of 30 feet in all directions (6:16).

A New Testament writer said the chest originally held more than the stones. “Inside that chest was a golden jar with some manna, Aaron’s almond wood staff that budded, and stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments” (Hebrews 9:4).

The Hebrew word is anan. It can mean: cloud or smoke or morning mist. It seems unclear where the cloud or smoke came from. Perhaps from too much incense or a problem with lamp lighting? Whatever the case, the writer says God somehow used the occasion to let the priests know they weren’t alone.

Priests in the Holy Place, the largest room in the Temple, maintained the menorah—the seven branch array of lanterns. That involved filling the lamps with olive oil and trimming the wicks. They ate the sacred bread once a week—12 loaves representing the 12 tribes of Israel communing with God as God lives among them. They also made offerings to God by burning fragrant incense.

Compare the “darkness” with “Moses walked toward the dense cloud where God was” (Exodus 20:21). See also Exodus 34:5; Deuteronomy 4:22; 5:22.

Well, not quite forever. Six hundred years, though. Babylonian invaders leveled it in 586 BC and deported the Jewish survivors as captives. Jews later rebuilt it, but Romans leveled it once and for all in AD 70, while crushing a Jewish revolt for independence. Muslims later built the Dome of the Rock shrine over the site. It has served as Jerusalem’s most recognized landmark for the past 1,400 years.

See verses 41-42. This sounds like a bridge to the New Testament idea that God loves non-Jews just as much as Jews. New Testament writers say Jesus opened the door further to non-Jews, to the point of suggesting it was no longer correct to think of the Jews as the only people of God. “People don’t become children of God because they have Abraham’s blood in their veins. They become children of God because of the promise God made to Abraham. Those are the genuine descendants of Abraham” (Romans 9:7).

Deuteronomy 28:9.

A peace offering, described in Leviticus 3, is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition. When Jewish people wanted to give thanks to God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

That’s a lot of zeros. Some scholars describe the numbers as fantastic. What’s a bit odd is that earlier, in verse 5, the writer said Solomon sacrificed too many animals to count. Then someone counted them. It leaves some wondering who edited this book. Others wonder how long it would take to sacrifice 142,000 animals. They only had a week in which to do it. Here’s the math: 20,000 animals a day, which is one animal every four seconds. On the one hand, some would say, God can do anything. On the other, so can an editor.

A burnt offering was the most common animal sacrifice. Worshipers burned the entire animal. See Leviticus 1.

Sweet, juicy fat was considered a delicacy—one of the best parts of a meal with meat on the table. “Here’s what you need to give the priest to burn in this peace offering to the LORD. Give him the animal’s fat. That includes all the fat on a thick tail, which you need to cut off at the backbone” (Leviticus 3:9).

Lebo-hamath is a town in Lebanon, near where the Orontes River begins at the foot of Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon. Or it could mean “entrance into Hamath” since lebo means “entrance.” Hamath was the name of a gateway into a mountain pass near Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon.