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2 Chronicles 4 - Is the Bible Inerrant? · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Hi Fai for listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explain podcasts.
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Speaker 1: On this lovely Monday morning, we're gonna be talking about
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Speaker 1: the building of the Temple today. Last week we discussed
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Speaker 1: the inside of the temple. Now we're going to discuss
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Speaker 1: the outside of the temple and also talk about copyist
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Speaker 1: errors and if there is a copyist error, does that
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Speaker 1: mean that the Bible is no longer the truth or
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Speaker 1: in errant? We'll talk about it. So let's go ahead
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Speaker 1: and read this chapter and talk about it. This is
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, chapter four, and I'll be reading the entire
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Speaker 1: thing today from the web. But of course, feel free
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Speaker 1: to pause the podcast to grab your cup of coffee
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Speaker 1: and also your Bible out of the version that you
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Speaker 1: prefer this morning, and once you're done with that, let's
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Speaker 1: go ahead and read Second Chronicles chapter four together. Then
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Speaker 1: he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long, twenty
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Speaker 1: cubits wide, and ten cubits high. Also he made the
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Speaker 1: molten sea of ten QB from brim to brim. It
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Speaker 1: was round five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference
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Speaker 1: under It was the likeness of Oxen which encircled it
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Speaker 1: for ten cubits encircling the sea. The oxen were in
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Speaker 1: two rows cast. When it was cast, it stood on
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Speaker 1: twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward
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Speaker 1: the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking
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Speaker 1: toward the east. And the sea was set on them above,
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Speaker 1: and all their hind quarters were inward. It was a
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Speaker 1: handbreadth thick. Its brim was made like the brim of
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Speaker 1: a cup, like the flower of a lily. It received
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Speaker 1: and held three thousand baths. He also made ten basins
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Speaker 1: and put five on the right hand and five on
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Speaker 1: the left to wash in them. The things that belonged
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Speaker 1: to the burnt offerings were washed in them, but the
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Speaker 1: sea was for the priests to wash in. He made
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Speaker 1: the ten lamp stands of gold according to the ordinance
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Speaker 1: concerning them, and he set them in the temple, five
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Speaker 1: on the right hand and five on the left. He
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Speaker 1: also made ten tables and placed them in the temple,
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Speaker 1: five on the right side and five on the left.
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Speaker 1: He made one hundred basins of gold. Furthermore, he made
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Speaker 1: the court of the priests the Great Court, and the
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Speaker 1: doors for the court, and overlay their doors with bronze.
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Speaker 1: He set the sea on the right side of the
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Speaker 1: house eastward towards the south. Hiro made the pots, the shovels,
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Speaker 1: and the basins. So Harim finished doing the work that
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Speaker 1: he did for King Solomon in God's House, the two
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Speaker 1: capitals which were on the top of the pillars, the
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Speaker 1: two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals
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Speaker 1: that were on the top of the pillars, and the
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Speaker 1: four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of
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Speaker 1: pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of
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Speaker 1: the capitals that were on the pillars. He also made
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Speaker 1: the bases, and he made the basins on the bases,
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Speaker 1: one sea and the twelve oxen under it. Hiram Abi
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Speaker 1: also made the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all
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Speaker 1: its vessels for King Solomon for Yahwey's house of bright bronze.
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Speaker 1: The king cast them in the plain of Jordan, in
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Speaker 1: the clay ground between Saccoth, and thus Solomon made all
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Speaker 1: the vessels in great abundance, so that the weight of
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Speaker 1: the bronze could not be determined. Solomon made all the
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Speaker 1: vessels that were in God's House the golden altar, the
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Speaker 1: tables with the show bred on them, and the lamp
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Speaker 1: stands with their lamps to burn according to the ordinance
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Speaker 1: before the inner sanctuary of pure gold, and the flowers,
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Speaker 1: the lamps and the tongs of gold that were the
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Speaker 1: purest gold, and the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and
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Speaker 1: the fire pans of pure gold. As for the entry
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Speaker 1: of the house, its inner doors for the most holy place,
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Speaker 1: and the doors of the main hall of the temple
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Speaker 1: were of gold. So in the last chapter we talked
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Speaker 1: about Solomon building the temple, the structure of the temple,
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Speaker 1: and also the inside of the temple, and just how
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Speaker 1: beautiful everything on the inside of the temple was supposed
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Speaker 1: to be. But the inside of the temple was not
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Speaker 1: for the average person. Only the priest was allowed on
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Speaker 1: the inside. Everybody else had to be on the outside
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Speaker 1: of the temple, and that was where the common person
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Speaker 1: could come and worship was in the courtyards of the temple.
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Speaker 1: So it says right here that Solomon made an altar
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Speaker 1: of bronze, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten
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Speaker 1: cubits high. So this altar was big, and it kind
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Speaker 1: of had to be. If you think about how used
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Speaker 1: this altar was going to be. You know, people day
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Speaker 1: by day, hour by hour were probably coming to the
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Speaker 1: temple to bring their sacrifices to God. You know, sacrificing
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Speaker 1: the cattle to God was a very important part of
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Speaker 1: an Israelite person's life. That was how they had their
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Speaker 1: sins forgiven before Jesus came down to earth and became
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Speaker 1: the perfect sacrifice. People would have to bring their sacrifices
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Speaker 1: to the temple in order to be forgiven from their sins.
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Speaker 1: So this means that the altar had to be big.
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Speaker 1: It had to be able to handle a lot of
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Speaker 1: different sacrifices at the same time as people were coming
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Speaker 1: and going into the temple to bring their sacrifices to God. Now,
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Speaker 1: the altar was likely placed right outside the temple where
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Speaker 1: people had easy access to it. It was kind of
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Speaker 1: like the heart of the outside of the temple. And
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Speaker 1: on the other side of the temple, it says there
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Speaker 1: was this molten sea is what it was called. It
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Speaker 1: was called the sea, but basically what it was was
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Speaker 1: a giant bath. It was a big bath where the
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Speaker 1: priests would go and wash themselves before they went and
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Speaker 1: did their work inside the temple. Being clean physically and
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Speaker 1: spiritually was very important for the Israelite person. If you
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Speaker 1: go back and read through the law, God was very
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Speaker 1: clear with his people that yes, they needed to have
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Speaker 1: a pure heart, but they also needed to be physically
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Speaker 1: clean as well. Now, being physically clean was an analogy
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Speaker 1: of having your heart be clean, but also the physical
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Speaker 1: cleanliness that God put in place had like practical application
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Speaker 1: as well. In a time when people did not understand disease,
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Speaker 1: having the Israelites be very clean was going to behoove
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Speaker 1: them naturally so that they don't get a bunch of
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Speaker 1: diseases that were common due to uncleanliness in the ancient days.
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Speaker 1: So yes, there was a practical matter for it as well,
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Speaker 1: but more than anything, it was an analogy of the spiritual.
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Speaker 1: So the priests would have to wash their hands and
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Speaker 1: their feet before doing the service inside the temple. And
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Speaker 1: that was the point of the sea. So it says
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Speaker 1: the sea was made of cast bronze. I mean, this
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Speaker 1: thing was probably very beautiful, and it says that oxen
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Speaker 1: were holding it up. There were twelve oxen, three facing south,
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Speaker 1: three facing to the east, and three to the west. Now,
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Speaker 1: of course, twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel. However,
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Speaker 1: as always, there is an argument that can be made
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Speaker 1: that these oxen were kind of like graven images and
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Speaker 1: idolatry in a way. A lot of times when you
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Speaker 1: see Israel falling for graven images, they're in the shape
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Speaker 1: of a calf or an oxen or a cow of
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Speaker 1: some sort. The most famous example is, of course, the
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Speaker 1: idolatry that happened in the wilderness when Moses was up
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Speaker 1: on the mountain talking with God. The people were down
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Speaker 1: in the valley worshiping this golden calf that they had made,
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Speaker 1: and they were like partying it up and getting all
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Speaker 1: drunk and doing weird sex things. And God was very
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Speaker 1: angry at his people because he had literally just spoken
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Speaker 1: to them like with his own mouth, only the chapter
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Speaker 1: before that, and yet his people completely forgot him, Like
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Speaker 1: several weeks later they were like, oh, God doesn't exist, Moses.
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Speaker 1: He disappeared up on this mountain. He's never coming back down,
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Speaker 1: So we're gonna worship this golden calf. That's our God now.
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Speaker 1: And of course that made God very angry. And then
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Speaker 1: the other time that Israel fell prey with idolatry to
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Speaker 1: calves is actually right after Solomon died. Solomon died and
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Speaker 1: this guy named Jereboam really wanted the throne for himself,
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Speaker 1: and that was when Israel split off. Jeroboam became the
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Speaker 1: king of the northern tribes of Israel, and Rayeo, Solomon's son,
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Speaker 1: became the king of Judah. And when Jeroboam became the king,
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Speaker 1: the one thing he did not want his people doing
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Speaker 1: was traveling down into Judah to worship God at the temple,
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Speaker 1: because he saw that as weakening to his position as king.
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Speaker 1: He was like, no, no, no, the Israelites cannot travel
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Speaker 1: down to Judah. That is a very bad thing. We
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Speaker 1: have to make a temple or something up here that
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Speaker 1: the people can worship so that they don't ever leave
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Speaker 1: Israel and believe that God is not in Israel but
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Speaker 1: is down in Judah. We can't have that happen. And so,
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Speaker 1: for political and selfish reasons, Raya Boam makes these two
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Speaker 1: golden calves and he places them in Dan and somewhere
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Speaker 1: else one of the other tribes. I can't remember where,
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Speaker 1: but he placed these two calves in locations that were
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Speaker 1: convenient to the average person and he's like, hey, Israel,
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Speaker 1: these two calves are perfect for you to worship at.
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Speaker 1: You know, you can worship Yahweh when you go to
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Speaker 1: these calves. But you know, just don't travel down to
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Speaker 1: Judah to the temple anymore because we've got these calves
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Speaker 1: and these are just as good. And then of course,
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Speaker 1: you know, the people start worshiping the calves themselves instead
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Speaker 1: of actually worshiping God. So anytime we see Israel, you know,
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Speaker 1: making images of calves or oxen, I suppose in this
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Speaker 1: case it's generally not a good thing. But I'm not
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Speaker 1: going to say that Solomon's heart was necessarily wrong when
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Speaker 1: he made this sea for the pre to bathing, because
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Speaker 1: everything that Solomon was doing was trying to beautify the temple.
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Speaker 1: He was trying to make the temple a place that
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Speaker 1: people would want to go to worship Yahweh, And in
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Speaker 1: some ways that's a really good motivation. I do think
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Speaker 1: that there should be beauty when it comes to worshiping God.
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Speaker 1: There should be excellence in worshiping God. But that becomes
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Speaker 1: a problem when it's only focused on the excellence, when
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Speaker 1: it's only focused on the show or how beautiful something is.
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Speaker 1: Rather than actually worshiping God. That is when things become
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Speaker 1: problematic in churches. But overall, making something beautiful for Yahweh
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Speaker 1: is not a bad motivation. But moving forward, in verse five,
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Speaker 1: it says that the sea was a handbreadth thick. So
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Speaker 1: that is a very very thick basin. I don't even
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Speaker 1: want to imagine how heavy. This thing was. Heavy and
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Speaker 1: thick and made completely of cast bronze. It was beauty.
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Speaker 1: And it says the brim was made like the brim
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Speaker 1: of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It
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Speaker 1: received and held three thousand baths. So that verse right
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Speaker 1: there is the one that many people say is a
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Speaker 1: copyist error. Okay, because if you go back and read
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Speaker 1: First Kings, chapter seven, we're also talking about Solomon building
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Speaker 1: the sea and the temple and everything. It mentions that
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Speaker 1: the sea only held two thousand baths of water, not
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Speaker 1: three thousand like we see right here. So how do
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Speaker 1: you rectify those two things? And is this a copyist error?
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Speaker 1: So when reading the Bible, whenever we see something that
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Speaker 1: looks like a copyist error, there's often a very simple
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Speaker 1: explanation for it, Like, for example, we saw something like
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Speaker 1: this just recently. Actually back in First Chronicles, when we
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Speaker 1: first talked about David purchasing Mount Mariah for the temple location,
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Speaker 1: it mentioned in First Chronicles that Day paid this huge
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Speaker 1: sum of money for Mount Mariah. But if you go
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Speaker 1: back to Second Samuel and read about it there, it
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Speaker 1: mentions that David paid very little money for that area
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Speaker 1: that he purchased. And so how those two things are
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Speaker 1: rectified is that First Chronicles was talking about David purchasing
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Speaker 1: the entire mountain, whereas in Second Samuel it was only
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Speaker 1: talking about David purchasing the one little spot, the threshing
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Speaker 1: floor itself, And so that could be actually what we're
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Speaker 1: seeing right here. With Solomon building this sea, it mentions
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Speaker 1: that it held three thousand baths of water, and a
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Speaker 1: bath was just a unit of measurement. It says a
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Speaker 1: bath was about five point six US gallons or twenty
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Speaker 1: one point one leaders, so three thousand baths would be
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Speaker 1: about sixteen eight hundred gallons or sixty three point three
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Speaker 1: kila leaders. But again, if you go back to First
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Speaker 1: Kings with the similar account, it mentions that the sea
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Speaker 1: only held two thousand baths of water. And a lot
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Speaker 1: of people will look at this and be like, well,
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Speaker 1: one of them is a copyist error. One of the
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Speaker 1: scribes that copied this throughout the generations accidentally wrote the
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Speaker 1: wrong number. And I'm not saying it isn't possible that
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Speaker 1: that happened. You know, human error does take place, and
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Speaker 1: I will get into scribal errors here in just a minute.
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Speaker 1: But I think there's an even more simple explanation than
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Speaker 1: this being a scribal error. I think this sea was
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Speaker 1: so big that it could hold both two thousand baths
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Speaker 1: of water and also three thousand baths of water, depending
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Speaker 1: on how much water was available in the area. Don't forget,
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Speaker 1: people didn't have running water back in these days. This
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Speaker 1: would have had to been filled up by hand or
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Speaker 1: by rain water. And it could be that at certain
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Speaker 1: times it was filled up higher due to rain water,
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Speaker 1: and at other times it held less water. So that's
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Speaker 1: the explanation I would go with. But I do want
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Speaker 1: to talk about copyist errors because people have questions about them,
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Speaker 1: and you might be like, well, Jen, if there's a
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Speaker 1: copyist error, then how do we know that the Bible
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Speaker 1: is the truth? How do we know that other things
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Speaker 1: aren't copyist errors, that there aren't tons and tons of
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Speaker 1: copyist errors in the Bible, like how do we know
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Speaker 1: what we're reading is the truth? Well, let me give
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Speaker 1: you a little bit of history of how the Bible
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Speaker 1: was copied. So back in AD five hundred, there were
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Speaker 1: these guys called the Masertes, if I'm saying that correctly,
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Speaker 1: They were basically scribes on steroids. They understood Greek and Hebrew,
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Speaker 1: and they were perfectionists to the extreme. So they would
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Speaker 1: write down scripture by hand, using painstaking methods and extreme
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Speaker 1: concentrate and working conditions in order to actually copy the
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Speaker 1: text of scripture word for word with pen and paper
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Speaker 1: by lamplight a lot of the time. And in spite
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Speaker 1: of those conditions, they did an excellent job at copying
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Speaker 1: scripture down perfectly. The master Eats were very disciplined people.
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Speaker 1: They had very strict rules for how they handled scripture
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Speaker 1: was done very reverently. On top of this, they also
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Speaker 1: had to be masters in Greek and Hebrew language in
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Speaker 1: order to interpret scripture correctly. But they were still human,
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Speaker 1: you know, and humans make mistakes. Humans are fallen. We
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Speaker 1: are not perfect, we are sinful, so we make mistakes.
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Speaker 1: And the Masserites as disciplined and reverent as they were.
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Speaker 1: There may have been errors that slipped through, like someone's
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Speaker 1: name being spelled incorrectly, or maybe accidentally writing down a
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Speaker 1: wrong number, but that still does not answer the question
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Speaker 1: whether or not we can know that scripture is the
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Speaker 1: truth of God, or if it's been completely corrupted because
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Speaker 1: of scribal errors. Well, actually, your fears and everybody else's
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Speaker 1: fears about this can be put at ease because of
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Speaker 1: the Dead Sea Scrolls. So if you guys don't know
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Speaker 1: what the Dead Sea Scrolls were, they are scrolls that
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Speaker 1: were found in nineteen forty seven in caves along the
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Speaker 1: Dead Sea, and these scrolls were excavated over a ten
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Speaker 1: year period, and what these scrolls contained were large portions
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Speaker 1: of every Old Testament book except the Book of Esther,
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Speaker 1: and these scrolls were likely penned in two hundred BC,
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Speaker 1: now before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The oldest
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Speaker 1: manuscript that we had of the Old Testament was from
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Speaker 1: ninth century AD, so it wasn't very old. But the
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Speaker 1: Dead Sea Scrolls, it turned out, were extremely old, scribed
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Speaker 1: two hundred years before Jesus was even born. So it
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Speaker 1: turned out that one of these scrolls contained the Book
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Speaker 1: of Isaiah. And when they went back and looked at
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Speaker 1: the modern day translation that we have of Isaiah that
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Speaker 1: was copied from an older manuscript of Isaiah, which was
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Speaker 1: copied from an even older manuscript of Isaiah. All the
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Speaker 1: way down to the oldest one that we had. It
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Speaker 1: turned out that the Dead Sea Manuscript of Isaiah was
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Speaker 1: word for word the modern nineteen forty seven version of Isaiah.
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Speaker 1: That is how perfectly the Book of Isaiah was preserved
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Speaker 1: over thousands and thousands of years. So the Dead Sea
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Speaker 1: scrolls ended up being proof that the scribes and the
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Speaker 1: copyists were doing excellent work preserving the original text. And
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Speaker 1: actually Jesus himself, in Luke four sixteen through twenty one
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Speaker 1: read from the Book of Isaiah, and Jesus himself called
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Speaker 1: it scripture. So Jesus, when he was reading Isaiah, confirmed
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Speaker 1: that it was in fact God's word. And you know,
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Speaker 1: Jesus had a lot of criticisms for the Pharisees and
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Speaker 1: for the scribes, but the one criticism you'll notice that
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Speaker 1: he did not have of them was their preservation of
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Speaker 1: God's word. He never told them that they weren't writing
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Speaker 1: God's word down correctly. He actually said, you know the
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Speaker 1: laws so well you're preserving them so well, and yet
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Speaker 1: you don't follow them. That was Jesus's entire problem with
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Speaker 1: the scribes and the Pharisees was that they knew it,
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Speaker 1: they were writing it down, they are preserving it, yet
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Speaker 1: they were not following it. So really, it's amazing when
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Speaker 1: you look at the Old Testament how well it's been
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Speaker 1: preserved over thousands and thousands of years. I think that
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Speaker 1: God is able to preserve his word, and I also
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Speaker 1: believe that a lot of what we think of as
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Speaker 1: human error is sometimes personality shining through rather than human error.
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Speaker 1: Like people did write based upon their perspectives. You can
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Speaker 1: see that a lot in the Gospels. How every single
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Speaker 1: gospel which was written by a different man had a
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Speaker 1: very similar account of what Jesus did, but kind of
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Speaker 1: like brought a new perspective to it. So I think
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Speaker 1: it's important to look at scripture as the inerrant word
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Speaker 1: of God and have faith that God is going to
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Speaker 1: preserve his word and what he wants to tell the people.
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Speaker 1: But anyway, moving forward, in verse six, talking about the sea,
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Speaker 1: it says he also made ten basins and put five
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Speaker 1: on the right hand and five on the left to
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Speaker 1: wash in them. The things that belonged to the burnt
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Speaker 1: offerings were washed in them, But the sea was for
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Speaker 1: the priests to watch. So yeah, the basins would like
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Speaker 1: wash up the blood and wash up the mess of
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Speaker 1: the offerings basically, and then the sea was for the
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Speaker 1: priests to wash in themselves. And I don't know if
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Speaker 1: they necessarily went up and like like bathed in it.
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Speaker 1: I don't think that was the case. They probably had
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Speaker 1: like other basins that they would take the water from
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Speaker 1: the sea out and like wash their hands and feet in.
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Speaker 1: I do not think they disrobed and like walked into
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Speaker 1: the sea and like publicly bathed in it. I don't
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Speaker 1: see that happening. Then it says he made the ten
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Speaker 1: lamp stands of gold according to the ordinance concerning them,
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Speaker 1: and he set them in the temple, five on the
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Speaker 1: right hand and five on the left. He made also
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Speaker 1: ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on
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Speaker 1: the right side and five on the left. He made
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Speaker 1: one hundred basins of gold. Furthermore, he made the court
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Speaker 1: of the priests the great court, and the doors for
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Speaker 1: the court, and overlay their doors with bronze. He set
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Speaker 1: the sea on the right side of the house eastward
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Speaker 1: toward the south. Here made the pots, the shovels, and
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Speaker 1: the basins. He set the sea on the right side
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Speaker 1: of the house eastward toward the south. So yeah, it's
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Speaker 1: talking about the temple furniture now. So there is lamp
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Speaker 1: stands inside the temple, and the lamp stands, if I'm
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Speaker 1: remembering correctly, we're always supposed to be lit. So a
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Speaker 1: priest would take turns going into the temple perpetually lighting
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Speaker 1: the lamp stands. And then the tables that were on
21:29
Speaker 1: each side of the temple likely held the showbread, which
21:33
Speaker 1: was the bread that the priests were allowed to eat
21:36
Speaker 1: inside of God's house. So it's kind of like having
21:39
Speaker 1: a meal with God is sort of what it symbolized,
21:43
Speaker 1: the priests literally going in and sharing this bread with God.
21:46
Speaker 1: Now obviously God doesn't eat bread, but the priests would
21:50
Speaker 1: and they would have fellowship with God because a lot
21:53
Speaker 1: of times meals symbolize fellowship. When I hang out with
21:56
Speaker 1: my friends, we usually eat like that. That's the majority
22:00
Speaker 1: of what we do is we sit down and we
22:02
Speaker 1: eat at a restaurant because we talk and we're just
22:05
Speaker 1: hanging out with each other and we share a meal together,
22:08
Speaker 1: and that was kind of the same thing that the
22:10
Speaker 1: priests were doing inside of God's house with the bread.
22:14
Speaker 1: Then in verse eleven, it says Hero made the pots,
22:17
Speaker 1: the shovels, and the basins. Now, if you remember who
22:19
Speaker 1: Hirom was, he was that guy that came from Tire.
22:25
Speaker 1: He was an artisan, and he was very, very good
22:28
Speaker 1: at his job. He was an artisan of all different
22:31
Speaker 1: types of art forms, whether it was ironwork, gold work,
22:38
Speaker 1: working with dyes and materials and sewing and whatever else.
22:43
Speaker 1: He did pretty much everything. He was an artist of artists,
22:47
Speaker 1: and so he made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. Now,
22:50
Speaker 1: I believe the pots, shovels, and basins were the only
22:54
Speaker 1: things that survived from the Babylonian takeover of the Templeretty
23:00
Speaker 1: much everything in Solomon's Temple was destroyed after Babylon came
23:05
Speaker 1: and ransacked. Everything except the pots, shovels, and basins I
23:11
Speaker 1: believe ended up being returned to the temple. Those were
23:15
Speaker 1: the only things that were somehow preserved, and obviously they
23:18
Speaker 1: ended up making it into the second iteration of the Temple.
23:22
Speaker 1: After the Israelites came back from Babylonian captivity, but continuing
23:28
Speaker 1: in verse eleven, it says, so here I'm finished doing
23:30
Speaker 1: the work that he did for King Solomon in God's house.
23:33
Speaker 1: The two pillars, the bowls the capitals which were on
23:36
Speaker 1: top of the pillars, the two networks to cover the
23:38
Speaker 1: two bowls of the capitals that were on top of
23:40
Speaker 1: the pillars, and four hundred pomegranates for the two networks,
23:44
Speaker 1: two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the
23:47
Speaker 1: two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.
23:49
Speaker 1: So this again is talking about the two pillars I
23:52
Speaker 1: believe that stood outside of the temple when you first
23:57
Speaker 1: walked in. The one pillar was called called Boaz and
24:01
Speaker 1: the other pillar was named what was it Jaquem? I
24:05
Speaker 1: think it was maybe Jaqueine. I was close. So yes,
24:09
Speaker 1: Hira made these beautiful pillars and the capitals, like the
24:13
Speaker 1: tops and bottoms of the pillars were just really ornate,
24:16
Speaker 1: and they had these chains around them, and the chains
24:19
Speaker 1: held these little mini pomegranates that were, you know, cast
24:23
Speaker 1: of gold. And I don't know why pomegranates were always
24:27
Speaker 1: included in the building of the temple, but maybe it
24:31
Speaker 1: was like God's favorite fruit, because if you look back
24:34
Speaker 1: to the original plans of the tabernacle that God made
24:38
Speaker 1: for Moses to make in the wilderness. God was the
24:40
Speaker 1: one that was like, Yeah, incorporate a lot of pomegranates
24:43
Speaker 1: into everything. Like God himself was like, I really like pomegranates.
24:47
Speaker 1: Just include those in the temple building. So maybe God's
24:51
Speaker 1: favorite fruit is pomegranates. I don't know, but pomegranates were
24:55
Speaker 1: always included, it seems like in the building of the
24:58
Speaker 1: temples for whatever reason, And speaking of archaeology, there was
25:04
Speaker 1: an ivory pomegranate found that possibly was from the temple,
25:10
Speaker 1: not from this iteration of the temple, but the second
25:13
Speaker 1: iteration after the Babylonian captivity. And if so, that would
25:17
Speaker 1: be literally the only thing that survived from that iteration
25:21
Speaker 1: of the temple, because, as you guys know, Rome went
25:24
Speaker 1: and destroyed it in seventy eighty and literally nothing was saved,
25:30
Speaker 1: like nothing was saved from that temple. So if this
25:34
Speaker 1: ivory pomegranate came from the temple, that would be the
25:37
Speaker 1: only thing that survived after Rome completely destroyed everything. And
25:42
Speaker 1: the reason they think it was from the temple was
25:44
Speaker 1: not just because it was a pomegranate, but because it
25:47
Speaker 1: had an inscription that read belonging to the Temple of
25:51
Speaker 1: Yahweh wholly to the priests. So historians think that this
25:56
Speaker 1: ivory pomegranate was possibly the head of a scepter used
25:59
Speaker 1: by one of the priests in the Jerusalem Temple. But
26:05
Speaker 1: the only problem is it's unclear if this thing is legit.
26:09
Speaker 1: It could be that somebody just like inscribed it on
26:13
Speaker 1: that pomegranate to try to claim that it was the
26:15
Speaker 1: one thing found from the Jerusalem Temple when nothing else
26:19
Speaker 1: was found. So they're not really sure of the authenticity
26:23
Speaker 1: of it. But if it is real, that's pretty cool.
26:26
Speaker 1: And I mean, pomegranates were something that the temples always had,
26:30
Speaker 1: so maybe it was a real thing. But to conclude
26:33
Speaker 1: this chapter, it says in verse sixteen, Hiramabi also made
26:36
Speaker 1: the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all its vessels
26:39
Speaker 1: for King Solomon for Yaway's house of bright Bronze. The
26:44
Speaker 1: king cast them in the plane of Jordan, in the
26:46
Speaker 1: clay ground between Saccoth and Zareda. So if you guys
26:49
Speaker 1: remember me talking about this in First Kings, none of
26:52
Speaker 1: the work, like the loud work, was done at the
26:55
Speaker 1: temple's site. Everything was done off site, so that the
27:01
Speaker 1: work of the temple was actually very quiet, and like
27:04
Speaker 1: all of the loud stuff would happen everywhere else. So
27:08
Speaker 1: like metal working with all the banging and pounding and
27:10
Speaker 1: everything that took place with that was a loud job.
27:14
Speaker 1: So all the bronze work, it says, was done in
27:16
Speaker 1: the plane of Jordan, in the clay ground between the
27:19
Speaker 1: coth and Zaraa. Now, also it was probably beneficial for
27:23
Speaker 1: the bronze work to be done off site anyway, because
27:27
Speaker 1: a lot of these things that were being made, like
27:30
Speaker 1: the sea was absolutely huge, and doing it inside the
27:33
Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem would probably be very difficult. So it
27:36
Speaker 1: was probably good to have a big open space to
27:39
Speaker 1: do this huge amount of bronze work where it was
27:42
Speaker 1: far less populated. And so that's probably why all of
27:45
Speaker 1: this stuff was done off site. Thus Solomon made all
27:50
Speaker 1: the vessels in great abundance so that the weight of
27:52
Speaker 1: the bronze could not be determined. Solomon made all the
27:56
Speaker 1: vessels that were in God's House, the golden altar, the
27:59
Speaker 1: tables with the show bread on them, and the lamp
28:01
Speaker 1: stands with their lamps to burn. According to the ordinance
28:03
Speaker 1: before the inner sanctuary of pure gold, and the flowers,
28:07
Speaker 1: the lamps and the tongues of gold that was the
28:09
Speaker 1: purest gold. And the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and
28:13
Speaker 1: the fire pans of pure gold, so that would be everything.
28:17
Speaker 1: To take care of the lamps. Everything was done to
28:19
Speaker 1: the highest excellence. These things were made of the purest gold,
28:24
Speaker 1: is what it says. And it says as for the
28:26
Speaker 1: entry of the house, its inner doors for the most
28:28
Speaker 1: holy place and the doors of the main hall of
28:30
Speaker 1: the temple were made of gold. So pretty much everything
28:34
Speaker 1: inside the temple was made of pure gold. Everything on
28:37
Speaker 1: the outside the temple was made of bronze for the
28:41
Speaker 1: most part, so people were not seeing the beauty that
28:43
Speaker 1: was inside the temple. If you're curious as to why
28:46
Speaker 1: people weren't allowed to go inside the temple, you should
28:48
Speaker 1: check out the episode I did on Wednesday where I
28:50
Speaker 1: talked about all of that. But anyway, faithful listeners, I
28:53
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's episode. We're going to talk more
28:56
Speaker 1: about the dedication of the temple on Wednesdays, so I
29:00
Speaker 1: hope you guys tune in then, but for tomorrow will
29:02
Speaker 1: be in the New Testament in the book of Second
29:04
Speaker 1: Thessalonians talking about Jesus' return, and we'll be finishing up
29:09
Speaker 1: part two of Second Thessalonians one. So I hope to
29:12
Speaker 1: see all of you guys. Then, happy listening, and God
29:16
Speaker 1: bless