Two Bronze Pillars
First Kings 7: 15-22
Two bronze pillars DIG: Since they do not seem to be holding anything up, what is the purpose of the two bronze pillars? Where were they located? Why name them? What do their names mean? How would their names be a source of encouragement to Isra’el?
REFLECT: Why does the writer seem to delight in the details of the Temple? What was their symbolic meaning for Solomon and their spiritual connection to Yeshua and our life of faith? What names in your life conjure up thoughts and feelings of faith, hope, and love?
Our pillar is Yeshua Messiah.
Hiram made the two bronze pillars, each one was approximately twenty-seven feet tall, eighteen feet around, and several inches thick (to see a video of Solomon’s Temple in 3D click here). Together they stood on each side of the entrance to the Temple. Each pillar was topped with an ornate cap eight-and-three-quarters feet high made of melted bronze. He also made checker-work nets and chained wreaths, seven for the top of each capital (First Kings 7:15-17). We delight in the beautiful artistry of these caps, for although it does not give enough detail to produce an exact replica, the Bible does show how intricate they were. They were decorated with rows of fruit and chains of flowers – more echoes from the garden of Eden to remind us that the Temple was the gateway to Paradise.
When he made the pillars, he made two rows of pomegranates to put at the top of each pillar around the netting covering its cap. The pomegranates identified the pillars with the priests who served inside the Temple, for their garments were fringed with pomegranates (Exodus 28:31-34). Those fruits were symbols of the Promised Land (Num 13:23; Deut 8:8). The caps on the pillars in the hall had shapes like lilies and were seven feet high. The lilies were symbols of life, and also of love, for in the Song of Songs, that flower is closely associated with youthful romance (Song of Songs 2:1-2 and 6:2-3). As for the caps on the two pillars, there were 200 pomegranates in rows around each capital near the molding by the netting (1 Kgs 7:18-20).
What about the pillars themselves? He erected the freestanding pillars in the porch of the Temple. But what was their symbolic meaning for Solomon and their spiritual connection to Yeshua Messiah and the life of a faithful believer? I’m glad you asked. The meaning of the pillars can be explained by their unusual names. On erecting the south pillar, he gave it the name “Jachin,” and on erecting the north pillar he named it “Bo‘az” (First Kings 7:21).137
The name Jachin means it is firm, or he establishes. The same verb is used in the history of Isra’el to describe the promise of ADONAI made to King David and then later fulfilled for his son Solomon – the promise to establish his throne (Second Samuel 7:12-13; First Kings 2:12 and 24). Thus, Jachin is closely associated with God firmly establishing David’s throne. To call a pillar by this name is to encapsulate YHVH’s promise that David’s dynasty would be the vehicle through which God would bring His Kingdom on earth.138 To say Jachin, is really another way of saying: Your Kingdom come (Matthew 6:10). It means He will establish His Kingdom on the earth through the royal family of David.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise Your Almighty power! Praise that You are our mighty pillar of strength and power. Your kingdom will come! The world is full of wars, fighting, famines and power struggles, yet Your coming as the Supreme Ruler of the world is not a maybe, not even a probably or a I hope so. Your Coming Rule of the entire world is a sure thing, an absolute positive future event, a one-hundred percent certainty!
When life gets hard, money is tight, work is heavy, relationships are not going well, I know that I can lift my eyes to focus on my loving and All-powerful Daddy! I can trust and rest in the fact that You are in total control of the world, even when it looks otherwise. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33c)! At the end of the seven year Tribulation, when the Beast and the False Prophet will gather all the armies of the earth and demonic spirits to come and fight against You at Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), You will take out all who fight against You by the sword of Your mouth! There will be no battle, just a slaughter by Your sword! From His mouth comes a sharp sword- so that with it He may strike down the nations- and He shall rule them with an iron rod, and He treads the winepress of the furious wrath of Elohei-Tzva’ot (Revelation 19:15).
You are not anxious by any amount of opposition against You. No ruler can out-plan You, nor surprise You. You cannot be deceived. You not only have a sure plan of victory, You have even planned for the cleanup of Your enemy after You kill them with the sword of your mouth. Then the beast was captured, and along with him the false prophet . . . These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the One riding on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh (Revelation 19:20-21). Your Kingdom will come and we bow in love and in worship of You! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
We can take this idea one step further by comparing First Kings 7 with one of the royal psalms of David. Psalm 21 begins and ends with bo’az, meaning in His strength. The key word in both the first and last verse of the psalm is the same word used for strength that Solomon used to name his pillar. So it is at least possible – maybe even probable – that Bo’az was intended to remind the Israelites of this psalm. Therefore, if we want to understand the full meaning of the pillar Bo’az, we need to sing David’s psalm, “ADONAI, the king finds joy in Your strength . . . Arise, ADONAI, in Your strength (Psalm 21:1 and 13)!
What is the pillar of your life? The pillars of Solomon’s Temple were Jachin and Bo’az – the strength of YHVH Himself, and the stability of the king who sat on his throne. Our pillar is (or ought to be) Yeshua Messiah, the greater Solomon and the royal Son of David who now rules as the King of God’s Kingdom. By faith in Messiah, the believer’s life has become the Temple of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, the dwelling place of the living God (First Corinthians 6:18-20). The pillar of that inner temple is Yeshua Messiah. He is our pillar when everything else in life seems to give way. He is our pillar of strength when we feel weak, the pillar of mercy when we need forgiveness, the pillar of comfort when we suffer loss and grief, and the pillar of hope when we feel as though we have missed our chance in life and do not have much of a future.
When Yeshua Messiah is the pillar of our souls, then whatever trouble may come, we are able to say: My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26). By the strength of ADONAI we will persevere through all the troubles of this life until the day when Yeshua fulfills this promise for us in glory: The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the Temple of My God (see the commentary on Revelation Be – The Church at Philadelphia).139
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