1 Kings 5:1-2 “Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David. And Solomon sent word to Hiram.”
As we read the words above excerpted from the story about Solomon’s preparations to build the temple, we see that three kings are mentioned. There’s Hiram, the king of Tyre, David, the second king of Israel, and King Solomon, who was David’s son. It was David who had the vision for this project, and he began to gather the materials that would be necessary, things like iron, bronze, silver, and gold (1 Chronicles 22). But it was Solomon who would actually build the temple, while King Hiram, who we are told loved David, came alongside Solomon to help. And so we have three kings collaborating on the construction of the temple of God.
As I thought about these three kings, this “trinity,” if you will, my thoughts turned to the Trinity that is responsible for building the spiritual temple of God. You see, anything in which the true God has ever been involved has involved the divine and royal Trinity Who is God. It’s a wondrous thing that is impossible to fully grasp, just like anything else about this infinite Being is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Think about the Creation account. We are told that when God created the heavens and the earth, the Spirit of God was also there “hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).” As each step of this process unfolds, we see God speaking with such words as “let there be light,” “let the earth sprout forth vegetation,” and “let us make man in our image.” So who is He speaking to? Who is the “us” in this account? Obviously, it’s pointing to the Trinity, as the Father speaks to both the Spirit and the Son. And if you don’t think the Son was present, I would point you to John 1:3, where John, speaking of Christ, says this: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
Then think about Israel as they moved through the wilderness. Again, it was the Three-in-One that accompanied them. We see it as God the Father comes down to speak with Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 20. Then in Nehemiah 9:20 we are told this: “You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.” And in 1 Corinthians 10:4 we are told that while Israel wandered in the wilderness, all the people “drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” And so we see again that wherever God was, all three expressions of Him were present.
In the construction of the temple we see this same thing. It was God the Father Who instructed David that His son would build it. It was the Spirit of Wisdom that filled Solomon so he could accomplish the task, and the temple, every part of it, pointed to the Son of God and the sacrifice He would make to open the way for sinners to be forgiven and come into the very presence of God. It’s all the trinitarian work of God. It’s all so wonderfully described in the following words recorded in Ephesians 2:19-22: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of GOD, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, CHRIST JESUS himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God bythe SPIRIT.”
Three-in-One: that’s the way of God. That’s Who He is. Wherever the Father is, there also is the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit. Such an awesome God, so beyond our comprehension, yet One Who has so wonderfully condescended to us that we can actually know Him Who is above us as the heavens are above the earth.
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