1 Chronicles 28:13, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to David's preparations for the temple, whose building was to be carried forward by Solomon, for David could advise, counsel, and encourage his son from his own experience, but Solomon himself was to undertake the work. It lists the courses of the priests and the Levites, every duty in the service of the house of the Lord, and all the vessels of that service among the detailed instructions David gave Solomon in writing as part of the written pattern for the sanctuary and its worship. Those minute specifications covered every portion of the temple on Mount Moriah. The pattern David gave was revealed to him by God by divine inspiration, just as the tabernacle borne in the wilderness was built according to special directions from God, for from the very beginning God has been particular about both the design and the accomplishment of His work. Christ Himself gave the specifications for Solomon's temple and was its heavenly Architect. The temple, its services, and its vessels were established according to God's specifications, and the temple services were divinely instituted, and the people could prepare the needed materials through the Lord's blessing, so the honor for the temple's design and service belonged to God and not to Solomon.

The pattern required the work to be done with exactness by none but the most skillful men of design and art. Every stone was prepared to exactly fill its place before being brought to the temple, so that it came together without the sound of an axe or hammer, and there is no building in the world to equal it for beauty, richness, and splendor. Solomon should have looked to God in faith for consecrated helpers to whom God would have granted special skill to do the required work exactly. Instead he lost sight of this opportunity to exercise faith and looked to apostates in Judah and Jerusalem and sent to the king of Tyre for a man cunning in gold, silver, brass, iron, purple, crimson, blue, and engraving to superintend the construction.

The chapter is important for God's people in every age because it concerns appointed responsibilities in the solemn, sacred service of God, which are to be entrusted to people of genuine experience and dependable character. The verse means the Lord gives wisdom to all engaged in His service to carry out His design, and in this age He has given His people much light and instruction that His work is to be carried forward on an elevated, refined, ennobling basis. Those who do not carry out His design displease Him and He will separate them from His cause and prove others in their place, replacing them in turn with still other laborers if they become self-sufficient.