Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Kings 6:30 (New International Version)

He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

This chapter describes Solomon’s building of the Temple in Jerusalem. I had not noticed this before; Solomon covered the floors of a few rooms with gold. If you went into those rooms, you were walking on gold.

Perhaps it is the engineer in me that forces me to do so, but I have to look at the practical and physical aspects of this. What do you wear on your feet when you enter these rooms? Whatever your footwear, some of the gold on the floor will collect on the soles. If you are wearing a long robe that drags the floor, some of the gold will collect onto the robe.

This brings me to the suggestion in the title of this post. After leaving these rooms, someone would have to wash your feet, gather the gold dust from the washing, and put it back on the floor in the rooms. After all, that is the only practical way to have floors covered with gold. Isn’t it?

I don’t understand why Solomon would cover the floors of some rooms in the temple with gold. If nothing else, we can go back to the cliche that “the gold could have been sold and the money used to feed the poor.” Solomon was a wise king who followed God, and God selected Solomon – not David – to build the Temple. Solomon did, however, have his shortcomings and sins as do all of us. Covering floors with gold may have been one of  his mistakes.