The Palace of the Forest of Lebanon (Solomon): In the middle of the long story of the Temple building project in Jerusalem, another building project interrupts — that of Solomon’s own palace district. Why is this here? As we compare the construction of the Lord’s house with Solomon’s own extravagant house, we find ourselves asking a big question: What does this project say about what Solomon actually believes about God? Recorded on Nov 30, 2025, on 1 Kings 7:1-12 by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of the Solomon: The Legacy of a King series. King Solomon was a complex man whose story started some 3,000 years ago, when David, his father, was the most powerful and successful king of ancient Israel. David’s reign brought peace, prosperity, and plans to build the temple before handing the kingdom to Solomon. How would King Solomon handle living in the shadow of his great father’s legacy? Would he learn to be a wise and godly king? Could he overcome the plotting of his enemies, the dysfunction of his family, and the temptations of virtually unlimited wealth, fame, and women? What would be his legacy? Solomon’s story is a vital part of the history leading up to the ultimate son of David and anointed king, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sermon Transcript
Well, we’re exploring the life of one of the most important ancient kings of Israel in a sermon series called Solomon: The Legacy of a King. Almost 3,000 years ago, Solomon succeeded his father, David, as the king during a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But Solomon was young and inexperienced, so he asked the Lord for help, and God graciously gave Solomon a greater portion of wisdom than anyone on earth. So King Solomon used this God-given wisdom to start organizing his kingdom to start the signature building project of his reign, the Temple in Jerusalem. This project was based on the Bible-long theme of God wanting to dwell with and among his people and their worship and enjoyment of him in return. However, interrupting a longer passage describing the interior and exterior design of the Temple in chapter 6 and a list of articles used in the Temple in the second half of chapter 7, is the description of a different building project — that of Solomon’s house. Solomon was building the Lord’s house, but in the middle, we have the description of the building of his own house. But this seeming detour from the main storyline of the Temple reveals a powerful question (and maybe a warning) that remains for every follower of Jesus today. So if you have your Bible/app, please open to 1Ki 6:37. We’re going to read the last few verses from last week before starting chapter 7.
1 Kings 6:37-7:5 (NIV), “37 The foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it. 1 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. 2 He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. 3 It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row. 4 Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other. 5 All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.” Ok! So, last week, we saw King Solomon finally break ground on his signature building project, that of building the new Temple for the living God, the House of the Lord, there in Jerusalem. The Temple took four years to plan, organize, and fund, and then seven years (as we saw at the end of chapter 6), even with almost 200,000 workers, to complete. Its intricate design and costly building materials — if you remember, just about everything on the inside was covered in gold — were meant to convey something of the character of God — the beauty, glory, and infinite worth of the creator of the heavens and the earth, and the one who had faithfully accomplished everything he had promised for his people, Israel. But here in v. 1 of chapter 7, we read that the King spent almost twice as long (13 years!) to build his house. Why did Solomon’s house take so much longer to build? And what are we to make of that compared to the house of the Lord? And then, in v. 2, we read that Solomon’s house was significantly larger than the Temple. The Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, which was adjacent to the Temple complex, was over four times larger in square footage than the Temple, not to mention all the other buildings in the palace district. Just what exactly was that meant to convey, do you think? Was this appropriate for Solomon to do? What did God think of all this? Let’s leave those questions for now. But one thing to note is the lack of gold mentioned in the design of Solomon’s Palace. Now, we shouldn’t get the wrong idea. Solomon’s palace would contain many articles made of gold, but we can see where the palace got its name from vv. 2-3. Solomon created something like an indoor forest using all those cedar logs for columns. And everyone knew that the famous cedars of Lebanon were the best. So why shouldn’t the king’s palace have so many that it could be called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon? It would be like making a palace today out of Lamborghinis. Who does something like that? Well, ok, it does make sense that a King would build a big palace for himself. And given all his wealth and fame, it does make sense that Solomon’s palace would be pretty lavish. But is that everything that he built? Not even close.
1 Kings 7:6-12 (NIV), “6 He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide. In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof. 7 He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling. 8 And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married. 9 All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces. 10 The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight. 11 Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. 12 The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord with its portico.” This is God’s word. So, in addition to the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, Solomon built a number of other buildings. Let’s look at an artistic rendering of this whole Temple/Palace district. We can see the Temple in the upper right, as well as the Palace (lit. “House”) of the Forest of Lebanon. We can see the colonnade, or Hall of Pillars, a throne hall called the Hall of Justice, as well as his-and-hers palaces that served as Solomon’s private residence and one for his Egyptian wife and her whole entourage. There was a great courtyard between the Temple and Palace buildings, and the whole thing was surrounded by a wall for protection. The great courtyard could hold thousands upon thousands of people, which was the main gathering area for the three national religious festivals required annually under the Mosaic Law. But I’m sure this whole district would’ve been a tourist destination as well — something like the National Mall in Washington, DC. (If you went to Jerusalem, you had to visit the Great Courtyard!) Well, ok! This is all very impressive, but was this what a good and godly king was supposed to be doing? You might say, “Well, every king, practically from the beginning of time right up until today, has spent a lot of time and money and (other people’s) labor on building impressive palaces for themselves and their court. Why shouldn’t Solomon?” And that’s a good point. None of this was that different than the other kings and kingdoms of their day, other than the fact that the Temple didn’t have an image or idol representing God because God had forbidden the use of images in worship in the Ten Commandments. That was unusual. But everything else here was totally normal. King Solomon was just acting like a king of his age. What’s the problem with that?!? Well, maybe there isn’t any problem with that. We have to be careful not to read anything into this text that isn’t there. And we must observe that there are no explicit condemnations of Solomon’s extravagant building projects here. That’s no prophet who shows up and calls Solomon to repent for spending almost twice as long to build not one but five different palace structures, many times larger than the Temple. However…if we kept reading through 1 Kings, we would see that the Temple isn’t completed until chapter 9. Remember, the first three chapters of 1 Kings were really about Solomon becoming established as the king of Israel. Then, chapters 4-8 are mostly about the organizing, building, dedicating, and grand opening of the Temple. This whole section is about God’s house, not Solomon’s. Also, we might observe another important design feature of 1 Kings: that God appears to Solomon before and after the Temple building project in chapters 3 and 9. This material is clearly organized to tell the story of the Temple, not the palace. So why, in the middle of this long section on the Temple, right here in chapter 7, did the editor insert the story of Solomon building his palace? Solomon didn’t build his Palace until after the Temple. This text would fit much better chronologically in the middle of chapter 9. So why is it here if not for us to compare and contrast these two building projects? I believe this text was intentionally inserted here to start raising some questions in our minds, at the very least. Was this what a good and godly king was supposed to be doing? Well, if that’s why this story is inserted here, let’s do a little evaluation. Is this good or bad, right or wrong, do you think? Let’s start with the good. First, Solomon built the Temple before his own Palace. That was a good thing! God came first. And Solomon used his God-given wisdom to plan and organize the whole thing. He didn’t pawn this project off on someone else. And the Temple project consumed the resources of the whole kingdom for seven years. This looked like the activity of a good and godly king. Second, as we’ll see in chapter 8, King Solomon gave a very orthodox and faith-filled prayer of dedication for the Temple, and blessed the whole nation in the name of Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty. This didn’t sound like a pagan or worldly king. This sounded like a good and godly king. Third, the fact that Solomon named his throne hall the Hall of Justice was a very good thing. Do you remember why, when God appeared to the young King Solomon in Gibeon, Solomon asked for a listening/discerning heart? Do you remember why he asked for wisdom? To be able to administer justice, as a good king should. God was so pleased with this request that he lavished his wisdom on this young king. Why? Because the central activity for a good and godly king was to administer justice. A prophet’s role was to represent God to the people by speaking the word of God. A priest’s role was to represent the people to God through his priestly ministry. But a king’s role was to ensure that God’s will was done, on earth as it was in heaven. He was to listen to the needs of the people (almost like a priest) and to listen to God’s word (almost like a prophet), but then to apply God’s word to real-world issues, especially to judge the most difficult cases of the people. You see, in a broken world, wherever righteousness is lacking, justice is required. Whenever something isn’t right, in a marriage, a business transaction, a city, your heart, or wherever, it should be made right. That is what justice is: setting a wrong to right. “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Mic 6:8). This was as true for the highest status person as it was for the lowest in God’s kingdom. So, naming his throne room the Hall of Justice meant Solomon knew this was the primary job of a good and godly king. Ok! So there are several reasons why Solomon wasn’t necessarily in the wrong for building such an extravagant palace district. But the fact that it was so extravagant, and that it took so much longer than the Temple and was so much larger, and that it was inserted here to compare and contrast, surely raises at least a few troubling questions in our minds. But the truth is, if you know the story, you know that though King Solomon started off so well, he would not finish well. Later in life, he would be led astray by virtually unlimited wealth and fame, and by his many foreign wives and their many, many false gods. He would continue the family dysfunction that his father, David, struggled with. So maybe this wasn’t wrong of him at this point, but this interruption of the Temple story with his own Palace does foreshadow some very real problems that would appear later in his life. The Palace represented a rotten seed that only later bore poisoned fruit that eventually killed the whole kingdom. Now, King Solomon should’ve known. God’s word had warned him. About 480 years earlier, right before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God warned his future people and their future kings not to live and govern according to the ways of the world. In Deuteronomy 17, God specifically warned the kings of Israel not to acquire a great number of horses for themselves or to return to Egypt to get more. He warned them not to take many wives, or their hearts would be led astray. And he is not to accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. Instead, the king was to get a copy of the Law of Moses from the priests and read it every day so that he would obey God’s word and ensure that he reigned and ruled according to justice and righteousness. Though there were good signs in building his Palace district, especially with the Hall of Justice, this passage does start to raise questions about Solomon’s heart. But sadly, after building the Temple, Solomon clearly started going against God’s word in Dt 17. He eventually fully embraced the temptation of wealth, women, and false worship. It didn’t matter that every other king, from the beginning of time, operated in a certain way. And it didn’t matter that this was no different than the other kings and kingdoms of their day or that King Solomon was just acting like a king of his age. Solomon was supposed to look/sound/act differently as a king because Israel was supposed to be a different kind of kingdom. It was chosen by God to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, set apart from the other nations and kingdoms of the earth to represent God and his kingdom and his character and values to the other peoples of the earth. Instead, Israel’s kings looked exactly like the worldly kings. And the kingdom looked exactly like the other worldly kingdoms. This would be the tragic pattern of the generations that followed that eventually led to the punishment of the exile. However, God didn’t give up on his people or on the project of establishing his own kingdom on the earth through an anointed Son of David. But it wasn’t until almost 900 years after the time of Solomon that a different kind of king arrived on the scene. As we’ll see in a few weeks in the Christmas story, the gospel authors were careful to show how Jesus was of the house and line of David, as the true and ultimate fulfillment of all the promises of God made in 2 Samuel 7. In Jesus, we find not only a king who is the perfect judge, being without sin or bias or blemish. But we also find one who came on a rescue mission to rescue his people from the just wrath of God against sin. On the cross, we see how God could both be just and the one who justifies sinners by bearing the wrath of God in our place. So today, for every injustice, both great and small, for the murderer on down to the little white liar, Jesus offers forgiveness and freedom from the power of sin and death. Come to him by faith. Admit you need a Savior, and you will be forgiven. But today, I’d like to leave you with not a big idea, but a big question: What does my life say about what I actually believe about God? This is a question about integrity. Does your life reflect what you believe or not? For Solomon, building such an extravagant palace wasn’t necessarily wrong, but it wasn’t necessarily right either. And given his later problems, it should’ve been a much bigger warning to him that his priorities might be a bit off. If he’d repented here, it would’ve spared so much later destruction/division in his life/family/kingdom. What did his palace building project say about what Solomon actually believed about God? Maybe that if he did what his father, David, had expected him to do, and what God had said he would do, and build this beautiful Temple to the living God, that afterward he could do whatever he wanted? Even if it went against God’s word? But how about you? What does your life say about what you believe about God? If you say that God comes first in your life, does he actually come first? Like in your relationships and with your money and with how you spend your time? Of course, not one of us is perfect; we all need Jesus. But, O Christian, are there any patterns of thought/speech/behavior that might raise at least a few troubling questions if others found out about them? Maybe with how you use your phone? Or how you treat certain types of people? Maybe you’ve got some things in your life that aren’t necessarily wrong, but they aren’t necessarily right either. Be honest with yourself; are there any rotten seeds that might bear poisoned fruit later in your life? Now is the time to put your gloves on, grab your shovel, and dig those seeds out of your mind/heart/life. The sooner the better. King Solomon could’ve been a good and godly king if he’d only seen the warning signs. What does my life say about what I believe about God? Well, just as this text interrupts a larger passage about the Temple and God’s presence among his people and their worship of him, maybe this sermon today will interrupt your life and worship in the best way possible. I hope it does. Don’t wait for the day of disaster. It’s never too early to do justice and set a wrong to right. It’s never too early for repentance. It’s never too late, but it’s never too early, either, for the prodigal to come home. The good news is that our King isn’t just good and godly; he is perfect, and he is God himself, and his grace is enough. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb 4:16). Let us pray.
