New Construction! A Reflection on Solomon's New Construction Project: The Temple of the Lord

“David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”

                                                                      ‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭28‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The job of building a temple for the Ark of the Covenant was complicated. The Lord gave the vision and all the exact specifications to Solomon’s dad, King David. But David wouldn’t be doing the job; rather, it would be his son, Solomon. This is like our modern version of a developer and architect giving the building blueprints to a project manager. In this scenario, neither David nor Solomon had much experience, if any, in these areas. This type of work wasn’t their full-time job. 

When I imagine myself in Solomon’s shoes, I feel honored, yet completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of the responsibility! I feel inadequate to carry out the task and fearful that I don’t see the vision as clearly as my dad, King David, did. Imagining I’m Solomon in this situation, a novice project manager, there is a lot I don’t know. I have no idea how to determine what supplies, and how much, I need; how to direct a construction crew; how to ensure that quality work was being done that would last; how to determine that the exact specifications given were being met; how to keep the crew safe on the job; how to maintain a reverent attitude during the project….however long the construction might take…maybe years (in fact it took Solomon 7 years to build the temple)!  After all, it wouldn’t seem right to be worried, frustrated, angry, or to use shortcuts while building a temple for the Lord.  

I imagine King David must have sensed some of this in his son, Solomon, because he encouraged him: “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you...”

The Hebrew meaning of "Be strong" (chazaq) implies being firm, steadfast, and resolute. "Of good courage"(amats) emphasizes mental fortitude, bravery, and the willingness to act despite fear. Essentially, David is telling Solomon to be both strong in character and to possess the inner strength to face the task ahead. And then David says, “and do the work.”

Just reading this…it sounds kind of easy. Sure…be steady, be brave, and just get to work and keep working until it’s done. Easy-peasy. But in reality, the mind plays tricks on us. It’s hard to maintain feelings of competence and confidence for a prolonged period when we’ve never done the work before, when things go wrong, when we mess up and have to start over, when there are things we can’t control, when we are in a period of waiting, when we have no idea if the work we are doing now will end up looking like the vision or the blueprints we have, etc. The list of “when” scenarios could go on and on. 

And then, perhaps, we try to negotiate our way out of the deal. Can we outsource this to another project manager? Can we talk to the developer and let him know he should probably hire someone else for this job? Can we just walk away and pretend that we didn’t know about the project?  Can we come back to it later when we feel more ready and capable…maybe this is just a bad time for us. Or, perhaps the project doesn’t carry as much weight as the developer said it did, and we can just never start it or leave it unfinished if it gets too hard. 

We need encouragement. We need an apprenticeship for this deal.  Where is the developer to encourage us?  To tell us we are on track…to give us a break and allow us time to compare the blueprint to what is being built…to remind of that just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not right…to answer all the questions we have? To give us a timeline?

Where is our boss, for goodness' sake?!?!?!

(Big sigh….take some slow, deep breaths)

When we are in situations like Solomon’s, all the actual obstacles, imagined obstacles, mental negotiations, and emotional insecurity can paralyze us from taking action…from doing the work. We can believe that all this mental activity is work, as if it were producing something. But it’s not. It is a trick of the mind that restricts us to a small space of fear, renders us incapable of taking adequate steps forward, and makes us fearful of the future.  

So, back to the question, “Where is the developer of this project, our boss?????”

Again, King David must have sensed the worry that his son, Solomon, was feeling at the beginning of this project because he said, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you…”

Whoohooo!  The Developer, Visioneer, and Wise Counselor are actually here…on the construction site with us!  We DO, in fact, have someone who can give us encouragement, direction, and answer our questions. He is the Lord himself!  HE IS THE DEVELOPER!  

Now, just as any good project manager knows, when you are working on a building project, you don’t just get the blueprints and plow forward, never meeting the developer again. And you don’t do the work all alone. You have regular meetings with the Developer to discuss the vision, to determine who needs to be on your team, to determine what resources you need, to explore solutions to obstacles that you didn’t expect, to make sure you are on track, and to modify the timeline for completion when required. Hopefully, you and the Developer create a solid, reliable working relationship in which each of you trusts the other. But here’s the thing…if you never start on the work, if you stop mid-project, or if you never meet with the developer, you are unlikely to have that type of relationship and are unlikely to participate in the creation of something new.  

We have to do the work. The work can feel overwhelming if we are only focusing on what we think the end should look like. Or, maybe we don’t know what the end product will look like, and we get paralyzed by that. In both cases, our mental activities and our emotions can keep us stuck, preventing us from taking even small, but necessary tasks. The problem with this is that when you are building something, the work is progressive. As much as you’d like to, you can’t just magically skip ahead to the end of the project (and thinking about this repeatedly won’t actually make that happen, so squash that type of magical thinking). 

A progressive approach to a project involves breaking down a larger job or project into smaller, manageable stages or phases, and working on them sequentially, with opportunities for review and adjustments at each stage. This type of job completion emphasizes structured, iterative work with a strong focus on feedback and continuous improvement, ensuring that the project is not only completed but also refined and optimized along the way. 

Yep, this is how the Developer wants us to work on his project - in a progressive manner.

So, let’s take some small but necessary action. Let’s DO THE WORK instead of just thinking about doing the work. Meet with The Developer regularly, do the research, schedule that meeting, write down the questions, develop a few general solutions, determine who needs to be on your team, etc. Oh, and in case you overlooked it the first time, meet with The Developer regularly. He will be with you every step of the way. He will help you in this progressive approach to the project. He will help you break down the larger job or project into smaller, manageable stages or phases. He will help you work on them sequentially. He will give you opportunities for review and adjustments at each stage. He wants to refine and optimize you and the project along the way. The more you meet with Him and do the work, the more you will trust His leadership, His character, His intentions, and the way He works.  

What is one thing that you need to do today that you have been avoiding? Take action. Take that step. Do the thing. Let that small win snowball into courage to take the next small step. Then keep going. And schedule the most critical meeting of every day: the meeting with The Developer. 

So “be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”   ‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭28‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

P.S. Shout out to my friend (you know who you are), who followed the prompting of the Lord and encouraged me to write again! :)