And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built (1 Kings 6:7).
For many years, this verse has captured my attention. We find in these subtle words God’s ways and manner. In building the Temple, the habitation of God, Solomon constructed it without noise, commotion, or fanfare. It was built without hammer, chisel, or any iron tool at the Temple site, that is, without fleshly help.
I believe this is the manner in which the Lord builds His Church, individually and corporately. He constructs His leaders in the wilderness and desert places as He did with Moses, David, and John the Baptist to name a few. Moses was on the backside of the desert for forty years being shaped by God to lead Israel out of bondage. David was often alone with God, being shaped in the wilderness apart from the notice of family and the crowd to one day shepherd God’s people. John the Baptist was in the wilderness when the Word of God came to him. He was being prepared in silence by God to prepare the way of the Lord! Usually God’s servants are prepared in secret under the watchful eye of God and not man. Then suddenly, to the amazement of all, they appear to do a work that has taken years of quiet preparation.
The Temple is a picture of both the individual and corporate body of Christ. It was suddenly finished without the noise of man’s tools to the astonishment of all Jerusalem! Without any uncertainty, the Church, the house of God, is being quietly built without man’s noise or his tools; and very soon, it will stand as a wonder to the whole world just as Solomon’s Temple was to all Jerusalem and Israel!
Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God was kept in virtual seclusion being prepared for thirty years under the watchful eye of God until His baptism by John. This is also God’s pattern for the body of Christ. Therefore, take note when no one notices what God is doing in you for on the Temple site there is not the sound of hammer, chisel, or man’s tools, just the quietness of God.