The Fundamentals - 1910: Vol.4

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The Fundamentals which was carried by the priests and Levites up to Mt. Moriah and stored away in the temple, was really the old Mosaic Tabernacle. We quote only one other passage from this First Book of Kings. I t is a part of the account of Solomon’s going to Gibeon, and of his offering sacrifice there. The words are found in v. 4, Chap. 3, and read as follows: “And the king went to Gibeon, to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place.” Then in the second verse of this same chapter the king’s conduct in thus going to Gibeon is farther ex­ plained by the statement that the people sacrificed in the high places, because “there was no house built for the name of Jehovah until those days.” The “days” here indicated are, as is explained by the preceding verse, those in which “Solo­ mon made an end of building his own house and the house of Jehovah;” and the entire passage then would signify that at least one reason why Solomon offered sacrifice in Gibeon was because this was the customary way among the people. They offered sacrifices in the high places before the temple at Jerusalem was built, but not ordinarily, or legitimately, afterwards. Then there is another reason indicated why Solomon went particularly to Gibeon—because this was the “great high place.” Why it was so called, must have been because of some special fact or circumstance connected with i t ; and among the explanations given none appears so natural or to accord so well with other teachings of Scripture as the suggestion that this distinction was applied to Gibeon because the old Mosaic Tabernacle, with the brazen altar, was still there. That would certainly be a sufficient reason for accrediting peculiar eminence to this one of all the many high places which at that time seem to have existed in the Holy Land. Accordingly, Solomon went over to Gibeon, and offered sacrifice there; and then we read that, in the night following this devotional act, the king had a dream in which Jehovah appeared unto him and made to him very extraor-

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