The Sea of Cast Bronze and the Mansions of God

I'm kind of taken with the Sea of cast bronze in 1 Kings 7. I typically struggle with these passages of Scripture, because I know there is something I'm not receiving from them, but when the Lord focuses my attention on something, I try to pay attention. King Solomon is building the temple in these chapters, and, of course, everything is very elegant and beautiful and expensive. Before the passage about the Sea of cast bronze, I notice something else in chapter 6. "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). Imagine that. no sounds of hammer or chisel while the temple was being built. Any time I have ever been around construction, there has been a lot of noise from hammering, sawing, and other sounds, but this was the temple, dedicated to God, and even in the construction, he was being honored, reverenced, respected, not to distract from the awesomeness of God. "Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake My people Israel" (1 Kings 6:11-2). Skipping over to the Sea of cast bronze, which originally caught my attention: This was a huge basin, approximately 7.5 feet tall, 15 feet in diameter with a 45 foot circumference. It held 11,000 gallons of water, and it was for the priestly cleansing. I don't know how they entered the water, but perhaps some day I will. And how it was held up is even more mysterious. "It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward" (1 Kings 7:25). I've seen pictures of this online, and I have a lot of questions, but, regardless, I think it's interesting that my reading for today on the Daily Bible Reading Plan is John 14:1-14. It starts off with "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know" (John 14:1-4). So, I am just struck with the way God's word works on a person. He draws you in and you see things that begin to reveal the majesty and beauty of God and how he has been working with people throughout history, even in the creation of the world before he created man, and how he is working now, and how he is always working, creating beautiful things, and then Jesus says his Father is preparing a place for us, and one can't help but wonder at the beauty of what God must be creating, just looking at the intricacy and splendor of the temple Solomon was building according to the Lord's instructions. It was my favorite disciple, "Doubting" Thomas, who then asks Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know they way?" (verses 5-6) and then Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (verse 6). He's just the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, he has a plan for every human he created in his image, and even as most of the world rejects him, he just keeps on loving us, keeps on reaching out to save us from the darkness inside our own souls and from the wickedness we see all around us, even as we also see the beauty of creation and all the gifts he freely gives us, the most precious being the gift of himself. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come ionto the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God" (John 3:16-20). He didn't come to condemn anybody. We were already condemned. I don't know if this gets a whole lot of attention in many churches today or online or anywhere else. It is, of course, troubling for people who don't want to believe there is only one way to God. You won't win any popularity contest if you believe that, and especially, if you're very vocal about it. But it is the truth, nonetheless, and we need to be conscious of that as we go around from day to day. It all goes back to the commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself. It's not love if we don't tell them, wherever and however God gives us opportunity. I want my life to count for Jesus. I don't want to just go through the motions every day, and just muddle through, which is how I feel a lot. And then I remember the enemy is real. He's not as strong as God but he is at the same time a formidable enemy, and condemnation is one of his favorite tactics. So let us encourage one another and pray for one another that we may live for him in such a way that when we enter into eternity, we can hear him say "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord" (Matthew 25:21,23). Amen