Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we briefly interrupt temple details to zoom in on Solomon's personal house, dividing the temple description in half.

This is probably an intentional move by the author to illustrate

a sad point. Solomon has a divided heart. There was also a hint toward this in yesterday's reading

when the Canaanite laborers worked in shifts where they spent one month working on the temple,

followed by two months working on his house. And according to today's descriptions, his house is much

larger. Granted, houses that hold physical people have to be larger than ones that house God's

spirit and a few small pieces of furniture. So it's reasonable that it might take longer and be

larger, but this interruption of the narrative is probably there to tell us about what's happening in Solomon's

heart. He uses a lot of the same resources for his house, and he doesn't just build a house,

he builds a whole palace complex, and it's majestic. He has his own palace, his wife's palace,

a throne hall, and the hall of pillars. While his father David had humble

roots as a shepherd, Solomon was bougie, maybe a little too bougie, like the bougiest, and it

becomes a problem for him. We'll read more about that in the future. Next, we jump back into

the descriptions of the temple furniture. You can see how they've come a long way from the tabernacle.

This temple is gorgeous.

Solomon hires the most skilled craftsman.

And for the bronze items, he uses an artist named Hiram,

not to be confused with King Hiram of Tyra, where he got the cedar trees.

Hiram doesn't just have skill, he has wisdom and understanding too.

And you may recall from our lengthy tabernacle descriptions that God empowered Bezalel in Exodus

31 along those same lines. It says, I have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability

...