Page 94 - Satan in the Sanctuary

96 Satan in the Sanctuary

your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God;
arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD
God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be
built to the name of the LORD. (1 Ch 22:18-19).
"SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY"

The new king was the equal of his father. God had
promised him wisdom, and he surely was one of the most
intelligent and accomplished men ever to grace a throne.
A statesman of great skill, an enlightened philosopher, the
author of Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes,
and the husband of some seven hundred wives (plus three
hundred concubines) Solomon is unsurpassed even in fic-
tion as a colorful and masterful leader.
He established a new level of law and order in his coun-
try, and God maintained the peace as Solomon multiplied
the wealth and importance of little Israel among the power-
ful nations of the day. He cultivated alliances with Egypt,
Phoenicia and the great cities of the Near East: Tyre, Si-
don, Babylon, and Nineveh. He established a mighty mer-
cantile fleet on the Red Sea and sent mining expeditions
into Arabia for precious metals.
And he adorned Jerusalem with the Temple of God.
The great Temple was not merely a single structure, but
a quadrangle with a number of buildings. The main sanc-
tuary, which housed the holy place and the most holy place,
was ninety feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and four stories
high. It was made of cedar beams overlaid with pure gold
inside and out. Gold was spread lavishly about; on the
beams of the main ceiling, on the posts, the doors, and the
walls, on the candelabra, the lamps, the snuffers, the
spoons, and the various artifacts. Precious stones were in-