2 Chronicles 2:11 - Meaning and Application

Here we have, first, Huram’s response to Solomon’s message. He shows great respect for Solomon and a willing spirit to help him. Smaller people can learn from great rulers how to be friendly and courteous. Huram congratulates Israel on having such a king: “Because the Lord loved his people, he has made you king” (2 Chronicles 2:11). A wise and good government is a great blessing to a people, and it is a strong sign of God’s favor.

Huram does not say, “Because he loved you,” though that was also true (2 Samuel 12:24). He says, “Because he loved his people.” Kings should see themselves as chosen for the public good, not for their own pleasure. They should rule in a way that proves they were given in love, not in anger.

Huram also gives praise to God for raising up such a successor to David, Solomon’s father. It appears that Huram was not only kindly disposed toward the Jewish people and glad for their success, but had also turned to the Jewish faith and worshiped the Lord, the God of Israel, as the God who made heaven and earth and who gives power to all rulers. He had learned that God is the one who sets up kings.

Now that Israel was staying close to God’s law and worship, and so kept its honor, the surrounding nations were willing to learn the true faith from them. In earlier days, when Israel had fallen into sin, they had been quick to pick up the idols and false customs of their neighbors. It was a great honor when they gave truth to others and did not borrow error from them. It was shameful when they did the opposite.

Huram also sent Solomon a very skillful craftsman who would meet every need for the work. This man had both Jewish and Gentile blood. His mother was an Israelite, and his father was a Tyrian. That mixed background is a fitting picture of Jew and Gentile joined together in the gospel temple, as happened later in other ways.

Huram also agreed to supply the timber Solomon needed and to deliver it to Joppa. At the same time, he depended on Solomon to provide food for the workers, as had already been promised (verse 15, 16). This agreement had been made before (1 Kings 5:8, 9).

Next, we see Solomon’s orders about the workers. He would not use the free-born Israelites for the rough labor of building the temple, not even as overseers. Instead, he used foreigners who had become worshipers of the true God. These people did not have inherited land in Canaan like the Israelites, so they often worked in trades and earned their living by skill and hard work.

There were very many such people in the land at that time (2 Chronicles 2:17). If some of them were from the nations that had been condemned, they may have been under the same duty as the Gibeonites, who were made woodcutters for the congregation. If not, they were still under strong obligation to serve, since Moses’ law had given them fair treatment and placed them in many ways on the same level as native Israelites. They should be grateful and do what they could for the temple. They were certainly paid, either in money or in goods, because the law said, “Do not oppress a foreigner.”

The number of these workers was great, as given here (2 Chronicles 2:2, 18), a total of 150,000. Canaan was a fruitful land, able to support so many more mouths than the native population alone. And the temple was such a large building that it could give work to so many hands. Since much of the work was prepared ahead of time, there was room for this large force to be employed, especially in the forest of Lebanon, where they could work together without crowding. If such a great and beautiful building had not used so many workers, it might have taken far longer to finish than its seven years, perhaps as long as St. Paul’s Cathedral.