What does 1 Kings 7:48 Mean?

Context Summary

As we pass from the outward to the inward part of the sanctuary, brass gives place to gold. The nearer we come to God's throne in the Holy of Holies, the more costly and magnificent everything must become. Even snuffers, hinges, and spoons must be of gold. God's highest service calls for our best in the least things that pertain to it.

The enumeration of ornaments and utensils in brass and gold, leads to the announcement that Solomon gave up counting the weight, and that the weight of the brass could not be found out. The r.v. margin says, "was not searched out." In this there is shadowed forth "the unsearchable riches of Christ," Ephesians 3:8. You cannot weigh them up. They defy calculation. It is only when you get the accumulated experience of all the saints that you can comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, Ephesians 3:18. See to it that you grow in the grace and in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, 2 Peter 3:18. Let there be a sensible advance into the deep things of God. For wood bring stones, for stones iron, for iron brass, and for brass gold, Isaiah 60:17. And may we all leave a finished building behind us when we pass on to see the King! From a worldly point of view Naboth might have done a good stroke of business by selling his estate to. Ahab. A royal price and assured favor might have been his-but he had a conscience! Above the persuasive tones of the monarch's offer sounded the voice of God: "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine." See Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46:18.

Ahab knew perfectly well that Jezebel could not give him the property of another except by foul means, but he took pains not to inquire. Though the direct orders for Naboth's death did not come from him, yet, by his silence, he was an accomplice and an accessory; and divine justice penetrates all such specious excuses. God holds us responsible for wrongs which we do not arrest, though we have the power. The crime was blacker because of the pretext of religion, as suggested by a fast. See also 2 Kings 9:26. The blood of murdered innocence cries to God, and his requital, though delayed, is inevitable. See Revelation 6:9-10. [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Kings 7

¹  The building of Solomon's house
²  Of the house of Lebanon
⁶  Of the porch of pillars
⁷  Of the porch of judgment
⁸  Of the house for Pharaoh's daughter
¹³  Hiram's work of the two pillars,
²³  Of the molten sea
²⁷  Of the ten bases
³⁸  Of the ten lavers
⁴⁰  and all the vessels