1 Kings 6:37

THE TEMPLE WAS FINISHED AFTER SEVEN YEARS

"In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Jehovah laid, in the month Ziv. In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it."

We are passing all of this chapter with very little comment. No engineer could build it from the dimensions and instructions given here, and the wisest scholars have never agreed on the various details, but the view of this writer is that they simply are lacking of any vital Christian interest. It was an extravagantly costly and beautiful structure, but that ancient Temple carries no mandate whatever for the people of God in the twentieth century.

This writer was privileged to lead in building a church house in the heart of Manhattan, and the average cost per workman per day was about $100.00. On that basis, if we calculate the cost of Solomon's Temple on the basis of the labor alone during a period of seven and one-half years, at present day rates, the labor alone would have amounted to more than $28,000,000,000.00! And that says nothing of the pure gold!