Prayer Shapes History
Voices from the Past:
“Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Wherever the Church has been aroused and the world’s wickedness arrested, somebody, somewhere has been praying.” — Dr. A. T. Pierson
Scripture:
What a beautiful home, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies! I’ve always longed to live in a place like this, Always dreamed of a room in your house… how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view! — Psalm 84:1-2, 5-7 (MSG)
Then GOD will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain. — Isaiah 4:5-6 (MSG)
The Threefold Presence of God:
- God’s _____________ Presence. (I believe it!)
- God’s _____________ Presence. (I sense it!)
- God’s ____________ Presence. (I see it!)
Scripture:
After this, the man brought me back around to the east gateway. Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape shone with his glory. — Ezekiel 43:1-2 (NLT)
When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple. — 2 Chronicles 5:1 (NIV)
The Treasures of the House of God
Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
- According to the Illinois Society of Architects (in 1925), the cost of Solomon’s Temple at existing values of the time would have been about $87,000,000,000 (87 billion).
- According to Vallapardus, the talents of gold, silver and brass in construction were worth $34,399,110,000 (34 billion). The worth of the jewels is generally placed at a figure usually as high.
- The vessels of gold, according to the historian Josephus, would be valued at 140,000 talents. When reduced to coinage in 1925, according to Chapel’s Reduction Tables, the total would equal $1,876,481,515 (1925).
- The vessels of silver, according to the same authority, would cost even more: $3,246,720,000.
- The priests’ vestments and robes of the singers were worth $10,050,000.
- The trumpets alone were worth $1,000,000.
Additional Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
To the above, we must add the costs of building materials, labor, etc. There were:
- 10,000 men hewing cedars
- 70,000 bearers of burden
- 80,000 hewers of stone (stone cutters)
- 3,850 overseers (managers)
- A total of: 163,850 laborers.
…All of whom worked for 7 years and 6 months. In 1925, this cost was estimated to be $344,385,440.
Concluding Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
- The materials other than gold, silver and jewels were valued at $12,726,685,000 (12.7 billion U.S. dollars).
- The total value today would be 12 times the value in 1925 of 87 million USD or approximately 1,044,000,000,000 (over one trillion U.S. dollars).
Note: One trillion dollars is equal to one million million. Thus it would take one million people, each with one million dollars, to equal a trillion dollars.
The Temple Was Extraordinary… But Something Was Missing!
