Thinking on God's Old Stuff

Scripture: Now the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the Lord; Solomon and the assembly sought Him there. 2 Chronicles 1:5

Observation: Upon becoming king, Solomon honors the Lord by going to Gibeon, to the place where the original tabernacle is set up, and sacrificing a thousand animals on the original bronze alter. It is the night after this act that God appears to Solomon and grants him great wisdom.

At this time, the tabernacle and bronze alter are around 400-500 years old. The ark is already in Jerusalem, but these items are in this other city, in fact a city that is associated with a foreign people who tricked Joshua into signing a peace treaty with them and thus became servant laborers for the Jews.

This may be the final appearance of the alter in the bible. Soon, Solomon will build the temple, constructing a new massive alter. Even if this alter still exists, it will not reside in the place where the Lord dwells anymore. This is certainly the last major sacrificial event involving this alter. Afterward, it is ... resigned to history as an artifact that no one knows the outcome of, and may or may not even still exist.

Application: The mysteries of the nature of God are many, but so are the mysteries of his basic and logical activities. The Lord can protect a leather tent and a bronze utilitarian object for centuries, and then ... who knows. If God wishes, they could still exist. If God wished to make a point about his new temple, they could have simply become common objects or even taken apart for their resources in Solomon's lifetime. Or God could have had them carried off and destroyed by a foreign power as a symbolic point about his anger against the divided kingdoms and their behaviors.

I like to think these elements - the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, the alter, the ark - still exist and will be discovered someday. I think it is more likely that the Lord allowed their destruction because they are simply earthly objects, and like the temple once he could no longer reside with the people due to their sin and rejection of his teaching, they no longer serve any divine purpose. It is still fun to think about their possible discovery, be it in a small church in Ethiopia, a cave in Iraq, a hidden treasury in Jerusalem, or even a tunnel under New York.

God gave me curiosity and a love of history, and sometimes I think some of his mysteries exist just to give us ways of meditating about him, his nature, and his ways.

Prayer: Lord, I do think on the history of you and the objects made to honor you, and I wonder about them. May my wonder lead to meaningful insights and understanding of you. May I learn more about your nature by the revelation of you by your spirit, when I consider your ways. Amen.