“Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 7:40).
The author’s choice of unique vocabulary is a key that unlocks the author’s inspired perspective on the completion of the temple in this passage. The phrase “finished all the work” is tied explicitly to only two other events in Scripture: God’s completion of creation (Gen 2:2) and Moses’ completion of the tabernacle (Exod 40:33). Like the tabernacle, so too Solomon’s temple is presented as a restoration of God’s original creation, a new creation of sorts. To be clear, the inspired authors of Kings and Exodus viewed the original creation as building a temple for God! God didn’t just make the world so that we could live here. He made the world so he could live here, too!
At the heart of a truly biblical theology of creation is God becoming flesh to dwell among us (Isa 7:14; 8:10). In other words, the incarnation is not a New Testament idea that originated from the creators of a new religion. It’s a belief as old as Moses and Solomon. This incarnational theology is also the heartbeat of a true biblical eschatology. Not that we “go to live in heaven” but that heaven comes down to live with us! “O come, O come Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel!”
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 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 I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away'” (Rev 21:1-4).
