Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Kings 6:35 (New Living Translation)

These doors were decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers—all overlaid evenly with gold.

People understand symbols. See the outline of an apple with a bite taken out of it? What does that symbolize? We all know.

The verse above is describing part of the interior of the Temple that was being built by King Solomon. These three symbols—cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers—were found throughout.

The cherubim was the angels, the highest form of spiritual being.

The palm tree was living and growing and supplied much of what people needed for life. Remember how people spread palm leaves on the ground for the entry of Jesus?

The open flower was nature at its best—open, blossomed, beautiful, but temporary.

People of the day understood the symbols. God was spiritual—far better than man. God understood the physical—where we lived day by day with things for sustenance and other things for inspiration.

All these things came together when Jesus the spiritual Son came to the physical earth to give us spiritual grace and bless our physical lives here. All foretold by a few carvings on a few doors.