1 Chronicles 22:1-5--David Prepares for Temple Building

1 Chronicles 22:1-5
English Standard Version
22 Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the LORD God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

David Prepares for Temple Building
2 David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God. 3 David also provided great quantities of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps, as well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing, 4 and cedar timbers without number, for the Sidonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David. 5 For David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it.” So David provided materials in great quantity before his death.

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The first verse mentions that the threshing floor that David purchases in order to make an offering to the LORD in chapter 21 is the location he chose for where the Temple of the LORD would be built.  It would be high up on Mount Zion so that everyone coming to Jerusalem would be able to see it from far away, and everyone would look up to see the LORD's Temple where He was "high and lifted up" and "highly exalted."  This would be a place for all of Israel to come and worship and offer its burnt offerings.  That's what the LORD put in David's heart, but the LORD did not choose David to be the one to build the Temple himself.  Instead, Daivd made all the preparations that he could so that everything was ready for his son Solomon to build the Temple.

David put to work all the resident aliens of the land so that they dressed the stones and mined the iron and bronze.  David also worked with the king of Lebanon for him to provide cedar timbers from Tyre and Sidon and to provide their best artisans, craftsmen, and workers for this project.  So, David prepared for everything that would be needed to build the Temple from everything he had gathered from the spoils of war, from his personal treasuries, from collections that he took from the people, and from the gifts given by the other nations when they paid him tribute.  All the wealth that David had acquired for himself during the time he was king would go into the Temple treasury and Solomon would add even more to this so that nothing like this Temple was ever built before or since.  It was definitely one of the Wonders of the World, and people from all over the world would come to see Solomon, hear his wisdom and learn about the LORD and see his Temple in Jerusalem.  We'll ready much more about the Temple as that is a big theme in the book of Chronicles.