Commencing Construction

It is extremely difficult to establish accurate historical dates for many events.  Many times records were listed from the date a king took office or some natural phenomena which other groups may not have been aware of.  Many groups did not keep detailed records and frequently, even among those that did the records are incomplete, having been lost or destroyed over the centuries.  As a result, dates before the establishment of our modern dating system are at best, educated guesses.  To further compound the errors, the methods of recording numbers was often easily misunderstood or mistranslated.  One example of this is shown in I Kings 6:1.  “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.”

Israel spent forty years in the wilderness, led by Moses.  After Moses death, they were led by Joshua Judges 2:7 tells us, “And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.”  Unfortunately, we don’t know how old he was when he took the lead, or how long the served the Lord after he died.  Eventually, they turned away from God Judges describes how for the next 370 years they were repeatedly over run and delivered by various judges.  Two more judges are listed in I Samuel, with Eli serving for forty years. After Eli’s death, ther was a twenty year period when there was no judge until Samuel grew up.  He then judged Israel until he became an old man.  Later Saul was anointed king and reigned for forty years, followed by David, who reigned over Judah for seven years and over all Israel for thirty three years.  Just the periods for which we have times described add up to 554 years, not including the period of Joshua’s leadership and influence or how long Samuel judged Israel.  The discrepancy could easily result from damage to the original manuscripts, from misunderstanding the Jewish writings, a scribal error in copying, or any number of other causes and should not cause serious doubts of the the validity of scripture.  It does point out the necessity of comparison with other passages to find out the truth.  When we study those other passages, the dates we obtain are much more compatible with records from Egyptian history. 

Foru years into his reign Solomon started construction on the temple.  It was a majpor project, requiring seven years to complete, as we see in I Kings 6:37-38.  “In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif: And 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.” 

Solomon’s building the temple was a tremendous project demonstrating a very real love for God, but as we see, his love for God was not complete.  I Kings 3:3 told us, “And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.”  Though he was making the sacrifices to the Lord, he was ignoring the command in Leviticus 17:8-9.  “And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,  And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the LORD; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.”  That same incompletel love showed up in construction of Solomon’s house.  I Kings 7:1 tells us, “But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.”  Much as he loved the Lord, he spent nearly twice as much effort on his own palace as on the Temple.