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In this episode of The Dwelling Place Podcast, Stephanie Hickox explores 1 Kings 5-6 and 2 Chronicles 2–3, tracing the incredible preparations for Solomon’s Temple and the faithfulness of God throughout generations.

As Solomon gathers materials, workers, and skilled craftsmen to build a dwelling place for the Lord, we’re reminded that God cares about both the details of our service and the condition of our hearts. While Solomon’s devotion to building the Temple is inspiring, his life also serves as a sobering reminder that outward accomplishments can never replace wholehearted devotion to God.

Stephanie unpacks the significance of the cedar trees of Lebanon, the craftsmanship of the Temple, God’s covenant promises stretching back to Abraham, and the beautiful truth that God always provides what His people need to accomplish His purposes. Most importantly, this episode points us to Jesus Christ—the greater Temple and perfect sacrifice who made a way for us to enter God’s presence with confidence.

For busy Christian moms, this passage offers a timely encouragement: don’t let your to-do list crowd out your devotion to the Lord. The God who calls you is faithful, and He desires your heart more than your productivity.

In This Episode:

• 1 Kings 5 explained
• 2 Chronicles 2–3 Bible study
• Solomon’s Temple construction
• God’s provision for His people
• The significance of the cedar trees of Lebanon
• The partnership between Solomon and Hiram
• Why the Temple matters in biblical history
• Mount Moriah and God’s redemptive plan
• The Holy of Holies and God’s presence
• Lessons from Solomon’s life for Christian moms
• Guarding your heart while serving faithfully
• How the Temple points to Jesus Christ

Key Scriptures:

• 1 Kings 5
• 1 Kings 6:11–13
• 2 Chronicles 2
• 2 Chronicles 3

Key Takeaways:

• God is invested in the details of our lives.
• Faithful service should flow from a heart devoted to the Lord.
• God’s provision often comes through unexpected people and circumstances.
• The Lord equips us for every assignment He gives us.
• Productivity is never a substitute for intimacy with God.
• Jesus made a way for us to enter God’s presence freely.

Memorable Quotes & Truths:

“God’s will, done God’s way, will never lack God’s provision.”

“The Lord cares most about our hearts, not merely our accomplishments.”

“Don’t let the tasks of life keep your heart from being fully devoted to the Lord.”

For Christian Moms:

Motherhood is filled with responsibilities, projects, and endless details. This episode is a reminder that while God cares about the work we do, He cares even more about our relationship with Him. As you serve your family, manage your home, and disciple your children, may you find rest in the God who faithfully provides everything needed to accomplish His purposes.

Connect with Entrusted Ministries

Learn more about Bible studies for moms, biblical parenting resources, and Scripture-rich discipleship tools at Entrusted Ministries

Join us as we help moms study the Bible, build their homes on the foundation of God’s Word, and raise the next generation to know and love Jesus Christ.

Resources Mentioned

• Entrusted Ministries
• Entrusted with a Child's Heart by Betsy Corning
• Commentaries Most Referenced: Moody Commentary, MacArthur Commentary, Spurgeon's Treasury of David

This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox, and today as

I study 1 Kings 5 and 2 Chronicles

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chapters 2 and 3, I'm delighting

in the fact that our God is a God

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thoroughly invested in the details.

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What we do matters to Him.

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But most of all, He's a God that cares

about our hearts, and it's my prayer

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that as you and I go about serving

our families in so many ways, that we

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would not let the tasks keep our hearts

from being fully devoted to the Lord.

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Solomon's devotion and dedication to

building the temple is an encouragement

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to us in many ways, but his life

also provides a strong warning

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Speaker 31: as the renowned hymn,

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

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warns us, Lord, my heart is prone to

wander, prone to leave the God I love.

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Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it.

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Seal it for Your courts above.

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I am humbly pleading for you and for me

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That God would seal our hearts And as

we go about all the things, may we still

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seek the Savior that made a way for you

and I to enter the Holy of Holies and

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boldly go before His throne of grace.

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Speaker 29: In 1 Kings 5, Solomon

continues the diplomatic foundation

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with Hiram, the king of Tyre,

that his father David established.

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Tyre is in Lebanon.

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Its borders have two mountain ranges,

and it was the ideal place for them

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to grow an abundance of cedar trees.

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These trees can grow to

be a hundred feet tall.

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It's a durable wood that's resistant

to rot and able to be beautifully

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polished, so it was ideal to be

included in the temple ornamentation.

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But these geographical details also

mean that Tyre didn't have a lot

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of land to grow food for its people

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which meant that Solomon and

Israel had something to offer.

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Let's hear a little bit more about these

two rulers and their correspondence

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Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants

to Solomon when he heard that they had

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anointed him king in place of his father.

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For Hiram always loved David.

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And Solomon sent word to Hiram, " You know

that David, my father, could not build a

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house for the name of the Lord his God,

because of the warfare with which his

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enemies surrounded him, until the Lord

put them under the soles of his feet.

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But now the Lord my God has

given me rest on every side.

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there is neither adversary nor misfortune,

and so I intend to build a house for the

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name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said

to David my father, ' Your son, whom I

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will set on your throne in your place,

shall build the house for my name.'"

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Now therefore command the cedars

of Lebanon to be cut for me,

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and my servants will join your

servants; and I will pay you for

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your servants such wages as you set.

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For you know that there is no

one among us who knows how to

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cut timber like the Sidonians.

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as soon as Hiram heard the words

of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly

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and said, "Blessed be the Lord this

day, who has given to David a wise

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son to be over this great people."

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And Hiram sent to Solomon

saying, " I have heard the

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message that you have sent to me.

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I am ready to do all you desire in the

manner of cedar and cypress timber.

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My servants shall bring it down to the

sea from Lebanon, and I will make it

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into rafts to go by sea to the place

you direct, and I will have them broken

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up there, and you shall receive it.

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And you shall meet my wishes by

providing food for my household."

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So Hiram supplied Solomon with all

the timber of cedar and cypress

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that he desired, while Solomon gave

Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat

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as food for his household, and

twenty thousand cors of beaten oil.

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Solomon gave this to Hiram

year by year, and the Lord gave

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Solomon wisdom as He promised him.

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And there was peace between

Hiram and Solomon, and the

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two of them made a treaty.

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I appreciate these details the author

includes, like the wood going on

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rafts As they directed it to Joppa.

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This was a port city

on the coast of Israel.

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Maybe you remember that this is also

where Jonah set sail when he was running

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from the Lord, and it's where God gave

Peter a vision in the Book of Acts

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At the conclusion of chapter five, we find

out that Solomon drafted forced labor.

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And if you were really just to

pause on some of these words,

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it might make you cringe.

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But it's fascinating that he drafted

thirty thousand men for the task.

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But ten thousand at a time would come work

a month in Lebanon, then they'd go back

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home for two months and then come back.

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Also, First Kings nine tells us that

Solomon didn't have any Israelite slaves.

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Just because we see those terms of

craftsmen and workers doesn't mean anyone

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was treated poorly in their service.

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The account tells us that they cut

all of these stones at the quarry and

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didn't do any cutting at the site of

the temple This was a step of reverence

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to keep this a quieter construction

site than you and I are used to all

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in all, this amounts to 200,000 people

working on this temple, and it took

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seven and a half years to complete.

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In fact, we know exactly when it began

and when it finished, and this is a

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crucial detail for our Bible timelines.

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In 1 Kings 6, 1, we read, In the four

hundred and eightieth year after the

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people of Israel came out of the land of

Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's

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reign over Israel, in the month of

Ziv, which is in the second month, he

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began to build the house of the Lord.

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This allows us to determine when

the Exodus happened Because all the

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numbers in Kings are taken literally

and we know when Solomon reigned,

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his fourth year would have been in

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That's helpful in determining who the

Pharaoh of the Exodus could be But mostly,

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I love what it says about God, that He

has patiently walked with these people.

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He's given them an abundance

of blessing and provision.

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He set them up in the promised land

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And he hasn't demanded that

they establish a house for him

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It's actually his servants

that have desired to do this

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if we go back to our timeline,

remember that the Israelites were

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in Egypt 400 years in slavery.

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It was about 1,000 years prior to this

that God made the promise to Abraham

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that Israel would be his chosen people

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biblical scholars estimate that Abraham

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around 1991 BC do you recall the moment

where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his

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son Isaac on the altar at Mount Moriah?

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That's precisely the location that

God led David to purchase, and

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Solomon is now building a temple upon

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centuries later

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And it's very likely that this is right

where Jesus gave up his life so that you

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and I could be restored to a holy God

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And it's this Lord that knows

all He would sacrifice for us

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That comes to Solomon in the midst

of all of his temple preparations

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and reminds him to care most for his

heart and not for his to-do list.

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In chapter six verse eleve- In I Kings

six verse eleven, " the word of the Lord

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came to Solomon, ' Concerning this house

that you are building, if you will walk

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in my statutes, and obey my rules, and

keep all my commandments and walk in them,

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then I will establish my word with you,

which I spoke to David your father, and I

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will dwell among the children of Israel,

and will not forsake my people Israel.'

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Solomon continues to build the

temple, it was about twice the size

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of that portable tabernacle that

they moved around in the wilderness

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This means it was 90 feet by

30 feet and about 45 feet high.

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In all the details we studied about

the Exodus, one that stands out to

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me most is those two angels that

were above the Ark of the Covenant.

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While in Solomon's Temple, in addition to

these two cherubim sitting on the cover of

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the Ark, there were two gigantic cherubim

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These two sculpted cherubim would

have been fifteen feet tall.

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That's about the height of the David,

Michelangelo's infamous sculpture.

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Can you just imagine

how majestic this was?

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But it wasn't a room that people

were allowed to enter regularly.

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It was just for the priest one day a year

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And that's why I appreciate how ornately

Solomon attended to every detail,

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particularly in this Holy of Holies.

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He overlaid it with gold,

sculpted cherubim and palm trees

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and flowers into it, which were

reminiscent of the Garden of Eden,

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This was a room for the Lord and not for

man If we turn over to the account in

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2 Chronicles, it's really interesting

because normally Chronicles is very

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detailed, but 1 Kings gives us 77

verses about the temple construction,

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while Chronicles only gives us 40.

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It spends much more time on the

dedication of the temple And this is

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fascinating because at the time when the

chronicler was writing, he was speaking

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to a people who had rebuilt a temple,

but it wasn't nearly as magnificent

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and ornate as Solomon's temple was

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so by limiting this account, he's

focusing on their hearts being right

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before the Lord, and not just the

ornamentation of their architecture

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2 Chronicles 2 also reminds me that

there are different ways that God

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provides for His work to be done.

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In Exodus with the tabernacle,

God used Bezalel and Oholiab and

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filled him with His Holy Spirit.

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Now God is using Hiramabi, a

man that the king of Tyre sends.

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He's partially of Israelite descent,

and we don't know if he's a believer or

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not, but he's skilled to do the work.

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Speaker 25: Hiram says, " Because

the Lord loves his people, he

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has made you king over them.

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Speaker 30: Blessed be the Lord God

of Israel, who made heaven and earth,

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who has given King David a wise son,

who has discretion and understanding,

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who will build a temple for the

Lord and a royal palace for himself.

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Now I have sent a skilled man who

has understanding, Hiram Abi, the son

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of a woman of the daughters of Dan,

and his father was a man of Tyre.

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He is trained to work in gold, silver,

bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and

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in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics,

and fine linen, and to do all sorts

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of engraving and execute any design

that may be assigned to him."

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With your craftsmen, the craftsmen

of my Lord, David, your father.

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Just because Hiram praises God, it doesn't

mean he's necessarily a believer himself.

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It could have just been a

respectful response to Solomon

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and the God he was devoted to.

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There's a Hudson Taylor

quote that I absolutely love.

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It says, "God's will, God's way

will always have God's provision.

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And whatever the Lord is calling

you to do today, He will equip you."

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Whether, like Bezaleel and Aholiab,

He strengthens you with His Spirit,

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whether He sends people who love Him to

support you, encourage you, like He did

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providing Aaron to Moses, or whether

He uses people that don't even claim

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the God of the Bible, like the way the

Egyptians gave the Israelites their gold,

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silver, and bronze on their way out.

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God will help you accomplish

what He calls you to do for Him

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Heavenly Father, you are worthy

of all praise, all adoration, all

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devotion, and yet you are a God

that continually meets us where

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we're at and draws us to yourself.

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It's undeniable that you pursue us.

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I pray that in all the distractions

of motherhood and of our busy

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society, that you would teach us

to still our minds before you.

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Humble our hearts that we would not

become too focused on the details

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but that we would choose to

dwell with you in delight,

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devoting ourselves to your glory.

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We see a clear warning that our

pursuit of you does not guarantee

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that our children will pursue you.

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Give us wisdom about how we can model

your unparalleled worth to our families.

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Thank you, Jesus, that you made a way.

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It's in the name of our

perfect sacrifice that we pray.

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Amen