1. Sacrifices.

2. Types.

3. Observances.

4. Priestly caste.

5. Sacred buildings.

II. REASONS FOR THIS.

1. Early age of the world, revelation, and human thought.

2. Necessity of strong stamps to impress the nation in its youth, and keep it separate from heathendom.

3. Consequent necessity of indulging it in manifold visible symbols.

4. The repetition and induration of signs prepared the way for the purely mental reign of the Messiah.

III. HENCE THE FUNCTION OF THE TABERNACLE AND THE TEMPLE.

1. As the place where God had demonstrably set His name.

2. Where the visible glory had been and could be seen at a due crisis.

3. Where the embodied signs of the covenant were stored.

4. As the house of sacrifice (2 Chronicles 7:12).

5. As the house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7).

6. As the symbol of unity in worship (2 Chronicles 32:12).

7. As God's own dwelling-place (1 Kings 6:12, 18).

IV. AFTER ITS POLLUTION AND PILLAGE.

1. By Shishak (1 Kings 14:25, 26).

2. Under Jehoash (2 Kings 12:17).

3. Under Ahaz (2 Kings 16:14).

4. Under Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:13).Its sanctity had been impaired through the defections of the people. Spiritual religion began afterwards to grow, so that Isaiah was able to proclaim before the captivity (Isaiah 66:1, 2). "Heaven is My throne... what house will ye build Me? saith the Lord"; Malachi was able decisively to prophesy (Malachi 1:11), "In every place incense shall be offered to My name." The old worship was gradually ceasing to fulfil its function; the new dispensation of the law of the Spirit and of liberty was coming in; and at last the Messiah declared irrevocably that old things were passed away, and that the hour was coming when neither in Gerizim nor in Jerusalem the Father should be worshipped, no more for ever, locally or visibly, but only truly with the inner worship of spirit and of truth. This was a great point with St. Stephen (Acts 7:48) and St. Paul (Acts 17:24).

V. WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE BY WHICH CHRIST REPLACED THE OLD HONOURED VISIBLE SIGN?

1. The whole invisible company of those who are righteous through faith (1 Peter 2:4; Isaiah 57:15; 1 Corinthians 3:16).

2. The body of every true son of God (1 Corinthians 6:19; John 14:13).

3. In heaven, the special pervading presence of the Almighty (Revelation 21:22; Acts 17:28).

VI. WHAT, THEN, ARE CHRISTIAN PLACES OF WORSHIP?

1. Not representatives of the temple, but of the synagogue.

2. In all places where Christians meet for meditation and prayer Christ is equally present (Matthew 18:20).

3. Venerable and solemn merely from association, intention, and consent.

4. All adornment of them a question of edification for the congregation.

5. No one part of them more holy than another except by association.

VII. MORAL REASONS OF THIS IN THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMY.

1. Danger of putting trust in anything short of God Himself in His own immediate moral relations to the soul.

2. Temptation to set our affection on things below instead of things above, and making our worship one of act instead of disposition and the intelligence.

3. Tendency of all religious bodies to idolatrise their symbols.

VIII. LESSON: TO AVOID SUPERSTITION.

(W M. Sinclair, M. A.)

I. THE ESTATE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH IS AN INHERITANCE. It consists of the knowledge of the triune God, our relations to Him and our obligations as revealed to us in His Word.

II. THIS INHERITANCE IS YOURS.

III. THE FORCES WHICH WOULD BRING WRECK AND RUIN TO THIS INHERITANCE. Sacerdotalism on the one hand, rationalism on the other.

(Bp. Baker.)

     1655   hundreds and thousands
     5261   commander
     5489   rank

David's Charge to Solomon
'And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem. 2. Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

December the Seventh Chosen as Builders
"Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build." --1 CHRONICLES xxviii. 1-10. And how must he take heed? For it may be that the Lord hath also chosen me to build, and the counsel given to Solomon may serve me in this later day. Let me listen. "Serve Him with a perfect heart." God's chosen builders must be characterized by singleness and simplicity. He can do nothing with "double" men, who do things only "by half," giving one part to Him and the other part to Mammon. It is like offering …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

An Exhortation to Love God
1. An exhortation. Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints" (Psalm xxxi. 23). There are but few that love God: many give Him hypocritical kisses, but few love Him. It is not so easy to love God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace is not. Men are by nature haters of God (Rom. i. 30). The wicked would flee from God; they would neither be under His rules, nor within His reach. They fear God, …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Never! Never! Never! Never! Never!
Hence, let us learn, my brethren, the extreme value of searching the Scriptures. There may be a promise in the Word which would exactly fit your case, but you may not know of it, and therefore miss its comfort. You are like prisoners in a dungeon, and there may be one key in the bunch which would unlock the door, and you might be free; but if you will not look for it you may remain a prisoner still, though liberty is near at hand. There may be a potent medicine in the great pharmacopia of Scripture, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 8: 1863

The Promise in 2 Samuel, Chap. vii.
The Messianic prophecy, as we have seen, began at a time long anterior to that of David. Even in Genesis, we perceived [Pg 131] it, increasing more and more in distinctness. There is at first only the general promise that the seed of the woman should obtain the victory over the kingdom of the evil one;--then, that the salvation should come through the descendants of Shem;--then, from among them Abraham is marked out,--of his sons, Isaac,--from among his sons, Jacob,--and from among the twelve sons …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Covenanting Performed in Former Ages with Approbation from Above.
That the Lord gave special token of his approbation of the exercise of Covenanting, it belongs to this place to show. His approval of the duty was seen when he unfolded the promises of the Everlasting Covenant to his people, while they endeavoured to perform it; and his approval thereof is continually seen in his fulfilment to them of these promises. The special manifestations of his regard, made to them while attending to the service before him, belonged to one or other, or both, of those exhibitions …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament