Episode 309 Solomon‘s Temple (1 Kings 5:1-5 and 8:1-13)

This week Amy and Bobby read 1 Kings 5:1-6 13-18 and 8:1-13, the story of the Temple’s construction. We think a lot about the messy intermingling of self-interest and service to God or to the good, in Solomon’s time and today, and we appreciate that while the text doesn’t comment on it, it doesn’t try to hide it, either. We see the need to be suspicious about the way that religion can be manipulated to gain political power. And we sit with the almost amusing juxtaposition of an infinite God, who dwells in a cloud, who travels the desert, coming to inhabit this incredibly grand, seemingly permanent, and deeply human structure of cedar. It is a slightly awkward but sort of sweet meeting place for humans and the divine.