The furnishings of the temple were important to the priests, for without the divinely ordained furniture, they couldn’t do their ministry or please the Lord.
The brazen altar (2 Chron. 4:1). As you approached the temple from the east, you came to the entrance to the inner courtyard of the priests. It was to this entrance that the people brought their sacrifices and offerings to be presented to the Lord. On the right, toward the north, stood the altar of brass, thirty feet square and fifteen feet high (2 Chron. 4:1), where the fire was kept burning and the priests offered the sacrifices (see 8:64; 9:25; see Ex. 27:1–8; 38:1–7). The height of the altar suggests that there must have been steps leading up to a ledge on which the priests could stand and minister (see Ezek. 43:13–17). Some students believe that the altar itself wasn’t fifteen feet high but was shorter than that and stood on a stone base that raised it higher. The tabernacle altar was only four and a half feet high.
The laver or molten sea (vv. 23–26; 2 Chron. 4:2–5, 10). To the left of the entrance, on the south side of the court (v. 39), stood the huge “molten sea” that replaced the smaller laver that had stood in the tabernacle court (vv. 23–26; see Ex. 30:17–21; 38:8). It was round and made of brass a handbreadth thick with the image of lilies around the rim, and it could hold over 17,000 gallons of water. This large basin measured fifteen feet across and was seven and a half feet high. It stood on the backs of twelve cast statues of oxen, in groups of three, with each group facing a different direction. Perhaps these twelve oxen represented the twelve tribes of Israel. (See 2 Kings 16:17.)
There must have been a system for removing small amounts of water so the priests could wash their hands and feet, but this system isn’t explained in the text. Perhaps there were spigots at the base of the basin. If the priests didn’t keep their hands and feet clean as they ministered in the temple, they were in danger of death (Ex. 30:20). In Scripture, water for drinking is a picture of the Spirit of God (John 7:37–39), while water for washing is a picture of the Word of God (Ps. 119:9; John 15:3; Eph. 5:25–27). As the priests labored for the Lord in the temple, they became defiled and needed to be cleansed, and as we serve the Lord, we too can become defiled and need the “washing of water by the word.” Jesus pictured this truth in John 13 when He washed the disciples’ feet.
The ten stands and lavers (vv. 27–39; 2 Chron. 4:6). These were beautifully decorated metal wagons, six feet square and four and a half feet high, with handles at each corner. Each stand could hold a basin that held 230 gallons of water. The stands were kept in the court of the priests right next to the sanctuary, five on the north side and five on the south side. Since the stands were on wheels, they could easily be moved from place to place. They were used for the washing and preparing of the sacrifices (2 Chron. 4:6) and perhaps for the general cleanliness of the temple. The dirty water could then be wheeled away and disposed of in a proper place and the basins filled with clean water from the molten sea.
It’s worth noting that these very practical and useful stands were also very beautiful, which teaches us that God sees beauty in holiness and the holiness of beauty (Ex. 28:2; Ps. 29:2; 96:6, 9; 110:3).
The golden incense altar (6:20, 22; 7:48). The altar was made of cedar covered with gold, but we have no dimensions given in the text. It stood before the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, and on it the priests burned incense each morning and evening when they cared for the lamps (Ex. 30:1–10; 37:25–29). In Scripture, the burning of incense is a picture of our prayers rising up to the Lord (Ps. 141:1–2; Rev. 5:8; Luke 1:8–10). The Lord gave Moses the recipe for the mixture of spices that was used in the tabernacle and temple worship (Ex. 30:34–38), and this mixture was not to be counterfeited or used for any other purpose. The golden altar was used for no other purpose, and on the annual day of Atonement, the high priest applied blood to this altar to cleanse and purify it (Ex. 30:10). Without “clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3–5), we can’t approach the Lord and expect Him to hear and answer prayer (Ps. 66:18; Heb. 10:19–25).
The golden lampstands and tables (vv. 48–49; 2 Chron. 4:7–8, 19–20). In the tabernacle that Moses constructed, there was only one table for the loaves of bread, but the temple had ten golden tables, five in a line on each side of the Holy Place. The tabernacle had one golden lampstand with seven lamps on it, but the temple had ten golden lampstands in the Holy Place, five along the north wall and five along the south wall. They provided the light needed for the ministry in the Holy Place.
The miscellaneous utensils (vv. 40–50; 2 Chron. 4:7–8, 11–22). The priests required many different utensils in order to carry on their work, including wick trimmers, bowls for sprinkling water and sacrificial blood, dishes, ladles, large pots for cooking the meat from the peace offerings, and shovels for removing the ashes. The temple was an imposing structure that contained expensive furnishings made of gold and polished bronze, but the daily ministry would have been impossible without these small utensils.
It’s difficult to calculate the cost of this building in modern currency. It isn’t enough just to know the price of the precious metal today, but we also need to know its purchasing power. Then we must calculate what Solomon paid for manpower and materials and try to express it in contemporary equivalents. When you consider that there was gold overlay on the inside walls and floors, the furniture, the doors, and the cherubim, you have no hesitation concluding that this was a very costly building. And yet all this beauty was destroyed and this wealth was confiscated when the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem and destroyed the temple (see Jer. 52). Nebuchadnezzar robbed the temple and deported the captives in stages, and eventually his men burned the city and the temple so they could get their hands on all the gold that was there.
How painful it is to realize that Solomon, the man who constructed the temple, was the man who married a multitude of foreign wives and encouraged idolatry in Israel, the very sin that turned the nation away from God and brought upon them the fiery judgment of the Lord.