Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Thursday after the Ninth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: 2 Chronicles 3:1-17 (NKJV)
 
3:1 Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
 
3 This is the foundation which Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits. 4 And the vestibule that was in front of the sanctuary was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was one hundred and twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5 The larger room he paneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chainwork on it. 6 And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. 7 He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.
 
8 And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper area with gold. 10 In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; 12 one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward. 14 And he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it.
 
15 Also he made in front of the temple two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. 16 He made wreaths of chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the wreaths of chainwork. 17 Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.
 
Devotion
 
In Genesis 22:2 God tested Abraham by telling him, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Abraham trusted in God and did not withhold his only son from God. Although God had previously said, “…for in Isaac your seed shall be called” (Gen. 21:12), Abraham concluded “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Heb. 11:18-19).
 
When Solomon began to build the house of the LORD, he laid the foundation at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It is the same place where faithful Abraham had begun to offer up his only son, but the LORD provided a male lamb as a substitute. The place is called “The LORD will provide” (Gen. 22:14). Years later, the Only-Begotten Son, the Lamb of God, was offered up on a hill outside of Jerusalem for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was our atoning substitute so that through faith in Him we receive a resurrection from the dead and eternal life.
 
Today, our risen and ascended Lord sends out pastors and teachers to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that we are built on the foundation of His Only-Begotten Son. St. Paul says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:10-11).
 
We pray: “O Lord, thank You for providing for me now and always. Amen.”
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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