2 Chronicles 3:12, commentary and pictures

2 Chronicles 3:12 belongs to the account of Solomon's temple describing its building and furnishings, whose full description is given in 1 Kings 5 and 6 and 2 Chronicles 2 and 3. The building of that temple took seven years beginning in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. Its construction took seven years and six months and produced a magnificent building, with the sanctuary vessels increased in size and number.

The temple was built on the same general plan as the tabernacle, with sacred vessels of the same kind and the same ministration, but as an enlarged, permanent version on a larger and grander scale. Like the tabernacle, it had two holy places as its distinguishing feature. That two-part arrangement was also shown in that its design was built according to the pattern David received by the Spirit, the pattern God gave to David.

The verse details that one wing of the cherub was five cubits long, reaching to the wall of the house, and the other wing was also five cubits long, joining to the wing of the other cherub, so that the wings reached to the walls and joined one another. The most holy place contained two large cherubim of olive wood overlaid with gold, made with wings as symbolic representations of angelic beings. Its two-part structure served as a pattern and likeness of the heavenly temple and sanctuary, showing that the heavenly sanctuary also has two holy places.