Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG002849
00:09 It's been 2000 years since the glorious light of the cross
00:12 illuminated a world veiled in darkness and confusion about 00:16 the character of God. And still today the greatest need of 00:19 mankind is a revelation of God's love as revealed in the life of 00:23 Christ. Amazing Facts presents the Everlasting Gospel with 00:26 Pastor Doug Batchelor coming to you each week from Sacramento 00:30 Central Church in sunny California. Discover hidden 00:34 treasures in God's word today. 00:37 The message today is titled Solomon Part III - The Zenith of 00:43 the Kingdom. Now you've heard the word zenith before. You may 00:49 not all know what it means. It's talking about when the sun or 00:53 the moon of some object reaches the highest point in its arch 00:58 before it starts back down again and you know typically in the 01:03 summer 12 o'clock noon the sun is at its zenith. From that 01:07 point on it goes down. During the year soon we're going to be 01:12 at winter solstice around the 21st of December is the shortest 01:16 day of the year. In the southern hemisphere it would be the 01:19 zenith, the longest day of the year. We live of course in 01:23 opposite. So there was a time in the history of Israel when they 01:29 experienced the highest point of fulfillment of God's promises, 01:34 the zenith of their experience. It was during the time we're 01:38 going to consider today. Now Pastor Mike will enjoy this. 01:42 I want to talk about Queen Victoria. Maybe you have heard 01:47 about the Victorian era of England. You know there was a 01:52 time in the English empire when they reached maximum influence, 01:57 power around the world. You've probably all heard the 02:00 expression, the sun never sets on the British Empire. 02:04 Well that's not necessarily true now but it certainly was during 02:07 that time. Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in 02:12 England, 63 years, one queen. At some point she or her 02:17 grandchildren were married in some way to virtually every 02:22 monarch in Europe as quite an extended family. But her empire 02:25 included, of course, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, 02:29 Ireland. She was the empress of India. Her reign was the longest 02:33 known of any monarch in the British Empire. It included 02:37 Australia, and Canada and all these British common wealths 02:41 around the world. The navy was everywhere. The empire had great 02:45 influence before these different countries began to clamor for 02:51 their independence. She was also a very religious woman. So she 02:55 believed in high morals and obeying the law. Many historians 02:58 believe that during that time of Victoria, they call it the 03:02 Victorian era, that England reached the zenith of her power 03:07 and influence. After she passed, it began to decline. That's 03:12 something like what happened with Israel during the reign of 03:17 Solomon. Now do you ever talk about the good old days? How 03:21 many of you reminisce? You have these nostalgic hallucinations 03:25 about the good ole days. And in many cases they are 03:29 hallucinations. You think boy those were the good ole days but 03:32 if I'd asked you back then you'd think now you're kidding. 03:35 But you know sometimes there are points in history where we 03:39 really did have the good ole days. We really were living in 03:44 golden opportunities. Sometimes we don't know when those times 03:49 are. But the time of Solomon that we're talking about today 03:53 was the time of the good ole days. Turn in your Bibles with 03:58 me to Deuteronomy 28. I don't know how much of this passage 04:02 I'll be able to read but I want to read some of it. The last 04:08 book of Moses, Deuteronomy, last chapters of Moses' book. 04:12 Deuteronomy was the closing sermon of Moses. When he's done 04:16 with Deuteronomy he climbs a mountain and he dies. So it's 04:20 his last sermon that you're reading. He promises all these 04:25 blessings on the children of Israel that are conditional. 04:30 Deuteronomy 28 verse 1: Now it will come to pass if you 04:35 diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe 04:39 carefully all these commandments that I command you today, that 04:43 the Lord your God will set you on high above all the nations 04:47 of the earth, and all of these blessings will come upon you and 04:51 overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 04:55 Notice. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you 04:59 be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the 05:02 produce of your ground, the increase of your herds, the 05:05 increase of your cattle, the offspring of your flocks. 05:08 Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed you 05:12 will be when you come in and blessed you will be when you 05:14 go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against to be 05:18 defeated before your face. They will come out against you one 05:22 was and they'll flee seven ways. They'll scatter. The Lord will 05:26 command the blessing on you in the storehouse and whatever you 05:29 set your hand to he will bless you in the land where the Lord 05:33 your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy 05:38 people to himself just as he has sworn to you, IF you keep the 05:42 commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Then 05:46 all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the 05:49 name of the Lord and they will be afraid of you. And the Lord 05:53 will grant you plenty of goods and the fruit of your body and 05:57 the increase of your livestock and the produce of your ground 06:00 in the land that the Lord your God swore to your fathers. 06:04 The Lord will open to you his good treasure of the heavens to 06:08 give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the 06:11 work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations and you 06:15 will not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not 06:19 the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath IF you heed 06:22 the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you 06:26 this day and are careful to observe them. So you shall not 06:29 turn aside from any of the words that I command you this day to 06:33 the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve 06:35 them. All right. That's the longest thing I'm going to read 06:41 today, I think. What I just read was the pinnacle, the zenith, 06:46 the epitome of the blessings God wanted to give Israel. 06:50 That's pretty optimistic. How many of you would like to have 06:53 all this happen to you? Blessed when you go out, blessed when 06:56 you come in, blessed when you sit down, blessed when you rise 06:58 up, blessed in the family, blessed in the field, blessed, 07:00 blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. 07:01 You're rich, you're the top you're successful, your healthy, 07:08 and your family. This actually happened to Israel for a brief 07:13 time during all of their history there was one time you could 07:19 point to when Israel experienced all of these blessings. It was 07:25 following the time of David where they had won all these 07:28 victories. He was close to the Lord. The people were obeying 07:31 God, they were building up the temple of God. During this time 07:35 they reached the zenith of the kingdom. Now why am I telling 07:41 you this. Doug. Sorry Pastor Doug, how do you apply these 07:46 things to our lives today. It's still true. What God did for 07:51 Israel during the time of Solomon's golden era he does for 07:55 his people now. So I want you to take a deep breath, sit up 07:59 and pay attention because he wants to bless you, but those 08:03 blessings are conditional on obeying God. There are 08:09 conditions to receiving these things. Now turn with me in your 08:13 Bibles and we'll consider a lot of verses that deal with the 08:18 story of Solomon and his blessings. First of all a little 08:22 history we've got to review. You remember God said that he 08:25 was going to use Solomon to build the house of the Lord. 08:28 Back before David died God had made a promise to David. He said 08:32 I'm going to bless your house. God said to David I'm going to 08:37 bless your house, meaning your family and through your seed the 08:41 Messiah will come. And David said to God, you're going to 08:46 bless my house, I want to bless your house. You know they had a 08:50 a TV program out called Trading Spaces. I've only seen a couple 08:55 parts of a couple episodes where people actually trade houses 08:58 with someone else and they redecorate each other's houses. 09:02 That's a pretty scary thought but it's almost like that's what 09:06 happens here with David. God says David because you've 09:10 trusted me and you've humbled yourself and you're obeying me, 09:12 I'm going to bless your house. Through your descendants the 09:15 Messiah will come. And David says, Oh Lord, I want to build 09:17 up your house. You're going to build up my house, I want to 09:20 build up your house. It actually says that in II Samuel 7:25: 09:24 Now O Lord God, the word that you have spoken concerning your 09:28 servant concerning his house, establish it forever as you have 09:32 said. And David was so thankful that God said I'm going to build 09:36 up your house and the Messiah will come through your 09:38 descendants, and David said Lord I want to build up your house. 09:42 The ark has been in a tent now for hundreds of years. It's not 09:46 fair. All these nations that I've conquered around me their 09:49 gods that I've overthrown, they've got these massive 09:51 temples and here the God of gods is living under a tent. So he 09:55 had it in his heart to build up the temple of the Lord. But God 09:59 said to David, you're not going to do it because you've been a 10:03 bloody man, you've been a man of war. It's going to be a man of 10:07 peace. Now in our last message about Solomon we talked about 10:12 the wisdom of Solomon. Solomon said in Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10:17 Wisdom has built her house. The wisest way that wisdom can 10:21 build up the house is to build up the church of God. Wisdom has 10:27 built her house. She has hewn out seven pillars. Solomon was 10:32 the son of David who built up the house of the Lord. Jesus is 10:36 the Son of David who built up the house of the Lord. What was 10:40 Jesus' occupation? He was a carpenter. What did he do? 10:46 He built up the house of the Lord. Christ came to build the 10:49 church. You and I are the church that Jesus built. I want to 10:53 review a couple of verses. I Chronicles 17 verses 11-13 and 10:57 towards the end there it says, God had told David, I will set 11:01 up your seed who is after who will be of your sons. I will 11:05 establish his kingdom. He will build me a house and I will 11:09 will establish his throne forever. Who is the son of David 11:13 that built the house of the Lord? Solomon literally built up 11:17 the temple but is there another Son of David that was to build 11:21 up the house of the Lord? That's Jesus. This is one of those 11:25 examples in the Bible of a dual prophecy. You can also read our 11:30 memory verse that we had that was read. I Chronicles 22:9: 11:35 Behold a son will be born to you who will be a man of rest. Was 11:40 Jesus an man of peace? And I'll give him rest from all his 11:43 enemies round about for his name will be Solomon. All right, 11:47 quick. I've got to ask you a question to wake you up. 11:50 How many people in the Bible were named by God before they 11:57 were born? Let's count them. Isaac, I checked this morning. 12:03 I don't have them all yet, but I know Isaac. John the Baptist. 12:09 The angel named him. Jesus, you will call his name Jesus. Before 12:14 he was born he was named. Don't even buy a baby book of names. 12:20 I've picked the name, God said. Right? Solomon. Not Sampson. 12:26 Huh? Cyrus. His mother and father weren't told that he 12:32 would be named, but you're right his name was mentioned but it 12:35 doesn't say an angel appeared to his parents and told them what 12:39 to call him. So there's not that many. We could fit them on one 12:42 hand anyway. You might come up with others later. E-mail me. 12:46 Solomon is one of the few in the Bible who is divinely named. 12:50 So that's important. And by the way all those who are divinely 12:56 named are types of Christ. Isaac and John the Baptist, of course, 13:00 Jesus. Solomon, a type of Christ It says you'll call his name 13:04 Solomon and I'll give him peace. The name Solomon is similar to 13:08 the word Shalom and it means peace. And I'll give him peace 13:12 and quietness to Israel in his days. He will build a house for 13:17 my name. He shall be my son and I will be his father and I will 13:20 establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now who's that 13:25 talking about? Jesus is the Son of God who built the house who 13:29 was named by God. So very important. Now there's another 13:33 aspect. He's chosen to build up the house of the Lord. You can 13:38 also read I Chronicles 28 verse 4, notice: I Chronicles 28 13:42 verse 4, David is speaking. However the Lord God of Israel 13:46 chose me above all the house of my father to be king over Israel 13:51 forever and of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons, 13:55 he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom 13:58 of the Lord over Israel. Now he said to me, it is your son 14:03 Solomon who will build a house to my name and my courts. 14:07 I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his Father. Then 14:12 it goes on, Consider now for the Lord has chosen you, David's 14:16 telling Solomon, Consider now the Lord has chosen you to build 14:21 a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it. So don't miss 14:26 this important point. The zenith of glory for the people of God 14:31 was while they were building up the house of God. Don't miss 14:36 this point. It's still true today. God's people are 14:40 never more blessed, they're never closer to the Lord than 14:44 when they're engaged in building up the house of the Lord. 14:47 There's a story in the book of Hosea. They had come back from 14:50 the Babylonian captivity, the temple had been destroyed but 14:53 they were starting to rebuild it but the people got so 14:56 preoccupied with building up their own houses that they 14:59 forgot about the house of the Lord. And everything was going 15:02 wrong. And God said, you're putting your money in pockets 15:05 with holes and your wineskins are ripping and the crops are 15:09 not coming in and you've got locusts and grasshoppers and 15:11 plagues. He said you're wondering what's going wrong? 15:14 Why are we cursed? And God said I'll tell you and I'm 15:17 paraphrasing what he says here in Hosea. All of you are running 15:21 to your own houses and my house is in ruins. He said if you make 15:25 building up the house of God a priority, I will build up your 15:29 house. God will bless us if the house of God remains a priority. 15:33 Now you think, Pastor Doug, this is just an offering appeal. I'm 15:37 talking about spiritually building up the house of God. 15:41 I'm talking about putting God and his work and evangelism as 15:44 a priority. He will bless your house. It's like what he said to 15:48 David. God said, David I want to bless you. David said, No 15:51 Lord, I want to bless your house. We're going to help 15:52 bless each other. And so the more you make it a priority to 15:55 seek first the kingdom of God, the more God will bless you. 15:58 God wants you to be a channel of blessing to the world and the 16:01 more your hand is open and giving to God, your time and 16:05 your means and your service for the cause of God for evangelism 16:09 for mission work, the more he'll bless your house. I just find 16:13 that's true in the Bible. Where did the plans come from for the 16:17 temple? Solomon was a genius and that's where the plans came from 16:21 right? Master architect. No. They were divine plans. 16:27 Look here. I Chronicles 28 verse 11 and 12. Then David gave his 16:34 son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its house, its 16:38 treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers and the place 16:42 of the mercy seat and the plans for all that he had by the 16:46 Spirit. Who gave David the plans that he gave Solomon, the 16:51 blue prints? They came from God. You read in I Chronicles 28:19, 16:57 I'm giving you a lot of verses. Just go to verse 19 of that 16:59 same chapter. All this, said David, the Lord made me 17:05 understand in writing by his hand upon me all the work of 17:09 these plans. They were given divinely. The design for 17:13 Solomon's temple, he did not concoct that, he did not 17:17 manufacture it. Who gave Noah the plans for the ark? God did. 17:22 Who gave Moses the plans for the first temple? God did. So the 17:27 plans for building up the temple of God come from God. Now does 17:31 God still have a temple in the world today? Has he given us a 17:34 design, a pattern, a plan in the Bible as to how we can build up 17:39 the church? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Does 17:42 he have guidelines in the Bible about how we can take care of 17:46 our bodies? Some simple rules? Weimar's got it summarized in 17:50 the New Start acronym, just all the natural things. But there's 17:54 a plan in the Bible for building up the temple of God, both 17:58 physically and spiritually. And so those are given by God. 18:03 Revelation 21:16, no wait a second. I Kings 6 verse 20, 18:08 notice this: The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits 18:16 wide and 20 cubits high and he overlaid it with pure gold. 18:23 And then as you go through the rest of those verses there it 18:26 says pure, pure gold, gold, gold gold, overlaid with gold. 18:31 Solomon had tons and tons of gold. Twenty, twenty, twenty. 18:35 Twenty wide, twenty high, twenty long. What's that make? 18:40 If you've got something that's equal geometrically, length, 18:45 breadth and width, it's a cube. It's a square. Isn't that right? 18:49 The Holy of Holies was that way. Now you go to Revelation 21. 18:53 This is interesting. And the city was laid out in a square. 18:58 It's length as great as it's breadth and he measured the 19:02 length of it with a reed, 12,000 furlongs, it's length, breadth 19:07 and height are equal. Now how often have you seen pictures of 19:12 the New Jerusalem, artist's concept, typically it's you 19:16 know maybe 375 miles wide and long but certainly not 375 miles 19:21 high. But you know this is what the Bible says. I've talked to 19:26 several scholars and they say if you really want to go by 19:29 what the language says... Dr. Leslie Harding, he said 19:32 you can't escape that it says it's a giant cube, that it 19:37 cannot be overturned. It's a perfect sacred cube is the city 19:42 of God. Now the Egyptians, they used to make these massive 19:47 triangles as a sign of their deities. It's called pyramids. 19:52 God doesn't go by that design. His is a cube. It's a perfect 19:57 square. And that's what the Holy of Holies was and that's what 20:01 it says about the New Jerusalem. So just another interesting tie 20:06 over and the plans for both come from God, right? Not only were 20:10 the plans holy, the construction process was to be holy. 20:15 I thought it was interesting. I Kings chapter 6 verse 1: And 20:20 it came to pass in the 480th year after the children of 20:26 Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of 20:29 Solomon's reign over Israel, he couldn't get the temple built 20:32 right away, they had to get organized. Four years into his 20:36 reign they began construction in the month of Ziv which is 20:40 the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. 20:44 Now one of the scholars has kind of done the homework for us. 20:48 Listen. Forty years Israel was in the wilderness, 17 years 20:54 under Joshua, 299 years under the judges, 80 years under Eli 20:59 Samuel and Saul, 40 years under David to which you add the four 21:04 years of Solomon, that makes 480 years. From the time they left 21:09 Egypt and they became a nation until they got their national 21:12 identity, the temple, you realize until they had their own 21:16 temple they really couldn't say we're now in the Promised Land. 21:19 Because as long as they had the Ark under curtains it's like 21:22 we're still wandering. When the temple foundation stone was laid 21:26 was a pivotal time in the history of God's people and I'm 21:29 going to say more about that in just a minute. How do you get 21:34 480? 40 x 12. Those are two numbers that are very important. 21:38 What does 12 represent? It represents the church. Twelve 21:42 apostles, 12 judges in the Old Testament, 12 tribes in the Old 21:46 Testament. You've got the 12 gates in the New Jerusalem, 21:48 that's the church. Twelve foundations for the church. 21:51 Twelve thousand furlongs, the church. Woman in Revelation 12, 21:55 12 stars above her head, that's the church. Forty represents a 21:59 generation for God's people. So it's 12 x 40 they finally begin 22:04 the construction and it's seven years in construction. I'll talk 22:09 about that in just a moment. The construction was holy. 22:12 The timing was perfect with God. Everything's perfect with God. 22:17 I Kings 6 verse 7, notice how they built it: And the temple 22:21 when it was being built was built with stones furnished from 22:26 the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was 22:30 heard in the temple while it was being built. Here's this massive 22:35 platform that they built. Stone pavement. They're going to build 22:38 up the temple on it. You've got thousands of workers. You read 22:42 the book of Chronicles and it tells you about the work force 22:46 that Solomon had. Thousands of workers. I remember when we did 22:49 Net New York in New York City. Right across the street they 22:53 were doing construction and they were blasting with dynamite, 22:57 right there in the middle of New York City they were dynamiting 23:01 into the rock to build a new sky scraper. They had these big 23:04 metal screens over the dynamite when it blew up. Then they had 23:09 these big bulldozers with jack hammers on them was what they 23:12 were. And the building we were in across the street was just 23:15 shaking. We were so glad they stopped construction before we 23:18 went live every night, but all during the day it was just 23:21 shaking. It was very loud. There were probably only 20 guys 23:25 across the street. Imaging 1000 guys over there quiet like 23:30 little ants and all you can hear is the low grind of the stones 23:34 as they're being put into position and the muffled tones 23:37 of the foremen as they say over here, over there. There was a 23:41 sacredness about the house of God. Should we still have that 23:45 sacredness about the house today. They say you get all the 23:49 noise done out there but when you come into this holy place 23:52 These plans come from God, this is a building to God's glory and 23:56 because they honored that God honored them as you'll see as we 24:01 go on. A little bit of interesting history. 24:03 The temple stones came from this quarry and some of the stones 24:10 in the temple of Solomon were 24, 25 feet long by 5 feet wide. 24:16 They were massive stones. And you know right now we don't 24:19 partly have any combination of equipment that can move those 24:23 things. I suppose we do. But just big, big stones and we 24:26 think how do they cut them, how did they move them? Hundreds of 24:30 them. They were bigger than the stones in the pyramids just to 24:33 give you some comparative idea that were used in Solomon's 24:38 temple. Last year in September they found the quarry and it's 24:43 about three miles away from the temple. It's about 80 meters 24:47 higher than the temple. So what they did is they were able to 24:51 cut the stones out of this quarry and they compared the 24:54 stone. I don't know. They've got some science they used. 24:57 The stone that's in this quarry, and by the way, they were 24:59 building an orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and as they began 25:02 to excavate they ran into this old quarry and they had to stop 25:05 the excavation. They found they still had some stones that 25:08 haven't been moved yet. There was no other quarry in Israel 25:11 with stones this big and they call it the queen of stone. 25:14 Different stone in Israel has different quality to withstand 25:18 cracks. You know sometimes the stones have little fissures but 25:22 to get one big stone, one solid stone, 50 feet across with no 25:26 cracks or fissures in it, very hard to find a place like that. 25:29 Well this place provided with what the Muslims still call the 25:33 queen of stone. And they've matched the stone here with the 25:37 very base stones that were in Solomon's temple and King Herod, 25:40 Herod the Great, who built the temple that Jesus preached in, 25:43 he went back and got more stone here. So this mountain used to 25:46 be much bigger and they quarried all these stones out of it. They 25:49 were able to roll them downhill, how much easier, roll them 25:53 downhill to the mountain where they were building the temple 25:58 of Solomon. I just thought you'd enjoy that amazing fact. Seven 26:02 years in the building process. By the way, that struck me as 26:07 interesting. Jesus also built a house didn't he? How long did 26:11 it take Jesus to build the New Testament church. Now we're 26:15 talking today about Solomon's Old Testament temple. Christ has 26:18 a New Testament temple. How long did it take to build that? 26:23 How long did Jesus preach? Three and a half years. And then how 26:27 much longer did he have the apostles preach to just the 26:31 Jews? Three and a half years. Three and a half and three and 26:33 a half is how much? Seven years. And then when Stephen was stoned 26:38 the gospel then went to the gentiles. Isn't that interesting 26:43 Seven years again preparing. Now while I'm talking about the 26:48 construction of Solomon's temple I can't rush past this important 26:51 point. The corner stone. We talked about when they laid the 26:56 stones and how they built it. There are a number of verses 27:00 in the Bible. For instance, Jesus refers to this. Mark 12 27:05 verses 10 and 11. Have you not read in the scripture the stone 27:09 that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. 27:13 This was the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. 27:18 Jesus is quoting from Psalm 1:18 Now we're not sure whether 27:22 Psalm 1:18 was written by David or Solomon but there was this 27:26 experience, it's not in the Bible but it's in history that 27:29 you need to understand. Matter of fact, I'm going to read this 27:33 to you from the book Desire of Ages, p. 597. You've all heard 27:36 about the cornerstone. We've got to understand how important this 27:40 cornerstone is. In quoting the prophecy of the rejected stone 27:44 Christ referred to an actual occurrence in the history of 27:47 ancient Israel. The incident was connected with the building of 27:51 the first temple, Solomon's temple. While it had a special 27:54 application to the time of Christ for his coming and it 27:57 should have been applied with special force to the Jews it was 28:01 also a lesson for us. When the temple of Solomon was erected 28:05 the immense stones for the walls and the foundation were entirely 28:09 prepared and cut at the quarry. Afterward they were brought to 28:12 the place of the building. Not an instrument was to be used 28:16 upon them. The workmen only had to place them in position. For 28:20 use in the foundation one stone of unusual size and a peculiar 28:24 shape had been brought but the workmen could find no place for 28:29 it. Now on top of Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, it's a rock knob. 28:33 A rock knoll there. Matter of fact, you go to the Dome of the 28:36 Rock, you ever heard of that? Built on top of this big rock 28:39 where Abraham offered Isaac. It's a stone cap on that 28:42 mountain. They cut into the actual mountain and prepared a 28:47 place in the stone cap where the temple corner would sit and it 28:50 absorb the weight. They didn't want to put in loose dirt and 28:53 stone on top of the dirt and then have the temple get out of 28:56 kilter. They founded the temple right on the rock. Got the 28:59 picture? Problem is where they cut into Mount Moriah it wasn't 29:03 necessarily a level spot. So part of this odd cornerstone 29:06 had to match up with the mountain top and it also had 29:10 to be square at the top because the main cornerstone... How many 29:14 of you have done masonry before? Men? Maybe ladies, I'm 29:17 sorry. Well you do brick work and if you want your walls to be 29:20 straight you start with a corner stone and if that corner stone 29:23 is off the farther you go away from the corner stone the 29:27 farther off it gets. And so you've got to have that corner 29:32 stone plumb, square, precise, right on, because from it all 29:38 the other dimensions to out just like that picture there. It sets 29:41 the standard for everything else afterwards. It had to be perfect 29:45 So they're building this building and they're looking 29:49 around for the cornerstone. And the workmen early on, the 29:52 people at the quarry, they didn't have e-mail, walkie 29:55 talkies, they sent over the cornerstone knowing they needed 29:59 it, but it looked kind of odd. And they dropped it right in the 30:02 middle of the work area thinking they'd figure out this was the 30:05 cornerstone. But they didn't expect it to look that way. We 30:08 don't know what happened but for whatever reason they were 30:10 looking for something different. So they kept tripping over this 30:15 thing, bumping into it, knocking things into it and they kept 30:19 thinking why did they drop this piece of a stone here, this big 30:23 strange stone. Eventually they got upset and they rolled it off 30:28 into the Kidron Valley to get it out of the way. Well they than 30:32 began to try all the other stones that were coming as the 30:34 cornerstone and they weren't fitting, they weren't matching. 30:37 Some of them they sort of fit but then as they'd work on 30:39 they'd say that stone is not plumb, everything is out of line 30:42 it's wrong. Or they'd put some other stones on it and it would 30:46 crack under the weight. Long this stone remained a rejected 30:51 stone but when the builders came to the laying of the cornerstone 30:54 they searched for a long time to find a stone of sufficient size 30:58 and strength and proper shape to take the particular place and 31:02 to bear the great weight that would rest upon it. Should they 31:06 make an unwise choice for this important place the safety of 31:10 the entire building would be in danger. They must find a stone 31:14 capable of resisting the influence of the sun or frost 31:17 and tempest. Several stones at different times had been chosen 31:21 but under the pressure of immense weight they had 31:24 crumbled to pieces. Others could not bear the test of sudden 31:28 atmospheric changes, but at last attention was called to the 31:32 stone so long rejected. It had been exposed to the air, the sun 31:36 and storm without revealing the slightest crack. 31:39 The builders examined the stone. It had born every test but one. 31:43 If it could bear the test of severe pressure they decided to 31:46 accept it for the cornerstone. A trial was made, the stone was 31:50 accepted, brought to its assigned position and found to 31:54 be an exact fit. In prophetic vision, Isaiah was shown that 31:58 this stone was a symbol of Christ. Now there are about 32:01 seven times in the Bible, a couple in the Old Testament, 32:05 six I think in the New Testament that talk about the cornerstone. 32:09 Jesus is the cornerstone who was rejected by his own people. 32:13 If you try and build your house with anything but the right 32:17 cornerstone it's going to be out of line. 32:18 It will not withstand the pressure, 32:21 it will not be able to survive the storms that are 32:24 going to come of the radical changes in temperature. And so 32:27 all of these lessons were implied and put into this one 32:31 powerful teaching about having the right cornerstone. 32:35 In connection with this I Peter 2 verse 4: Coming to him as a 32:40 living stone. I mean who wants to give their heart to a stone? 32:45 Jesus is the living stone. Rejected indeed by men but 32:49 chosen by God as precious. You also as living stones are built 32:53 up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up 32:58 spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 33:02 Therefore it is also contained in scripture, Behold I lay in 33:06 Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. He who believes in him 33:11 will by no means be put to shame. You can trust putting 33:15 everything, all you weight, on Jesus. Heard about they used 33:19 to do these barn storming airplane rides where you could 33:22 go to the fair and you get in the airplane and the guy would 33:25 take you for a ride over the fair and land you. They called 33:28 them barnstormers. Mom and Dad and the kids tried to talk 33:31 grandma into going for one of these rides in these new fangled 33:34 airplanes and she really didn't want to do that. But they 33:38 persisted. So she climbed in the back and the pilot he took her 33:40 around and showed her all the sites and he landed. She got out 33:44 and looked a little indignant. They said grandma did you enjoy 33:48 the ride. She said not really. I never put my full weight down. 33:52 Can you put your full weight down on Jesus. That's what it 33:59 means. Can you trust that you're going to rest all of your house 34:02 on him and you don't have to worry about being ashamed. 34:06 The stone that the builders rejected, I'm finishing here in 34:10 I Peter chapter 2. The stone that the builders rejected has 34:14 become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, a rock 34:18 of offense. They stumbled being disobedient to the word to which 34:22 they were also pointed. In the Bible, you got to understand 34:24 this teaching. The Bible talks about on whomsoever the stone 34:27 falls it will grind him to powder, but whoever falls on 34:31 the stone will be broken. They will be broken hearted and 34:34 they're saved. You don't want the stone falling on you. 34:38 In Daniel chapter 2 all the kingdoms of the world represent 34:42 that image of all the different metals, but a stone cut out 34:45 of a mountain without hands and maybe even Daniel looked at that 34:51 quarry. Probably did that we just showed you a picture of. 34:55 Because Daniel had lived after the time of Solomon and they 34:58 knew that there was a stone cut out of the mountain but 35:02 without man's hands and it destroys this image because the 35:07 stone falls on it. You must fall on the stone. It's like 35:10 after Peter denied Jesus he went out and he wept bitterly. 35:14 The book Desire of Ages tells us Peter went back to the Garden of 35:17 Gethsemane and he fell down and he cried on the stone still 35:20 moist with the blood and sweat of Jesus. He fell on the Stone 35:24 and he was broken. You see what I'm talking about. This is that 35:27 cornerstone. You want to be on it. You don't want it on you. 35:31 You got that? That's not too deep is it? It's your foundation 35:35 So as we're talking about Solomon building the temple of 35:38 the Lord, this temple is a symbol of Christ's body. 35:44 John chapter 2 verse 19: Jesus answered and said to them, 35:49 Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. 35:54 Then the Jews thinking he was talking about the temple of 35:58 Herod there, the last temple, they said it's taken us 46 years 36:01 to build this temple. You're going to raise it up in three 36:05 days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Even when he 36:10 hung on the cross they threw this in his teeth. They said you 36:13 who'd destroy the temple and raise it up in three days if 36:16 you're the Messiah come down. They understood what he'd said 36:20 about that. Mark 14:58 when he was accused, they could only get 36:24 two witnesses to agree. You know the only thing that the two 36:28 witnesses agreed to when Jesus was condemned. What was it? 36:33 We heard him say I will destroy this temple made with hands and 36:38 in three days I will build another one without hands. 36:42 Are you part of that temple Jesus made without hands? 36:46 A sacred temple with sacred plans. I hope you are. Again 36:52 in I Corinthians 3:16: Know ye not that ye are the temple of 36:57 God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If any man 37:02 defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy for the temple 37:06 of God is holy which temple you are. So while we're talking 37:10 about Solomon building this holy temple with the holy plans is 37:13 that a story from 2000 years ago or are we talking about what's 37:16 happening today? You and I are the temple of God today. 37:20 Ephesians 2:19: Now therefore you are no more strangers and 37:24 foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the 37:27 household of God and you're built on the foundation of the 37:31 apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 37:35 cornerstone. What is the Bible called? Isn't it the rock? Isn't 37:40 Christ the rock? He that hears these words of mine and does 37:45 them is like a wise man who builds on the rock. That's the 37:49 rock of his word. Christ is the word that we build upon. In whom 37:54 all the building fitly framed together, it fits, it grows into 37:58 a holy temple in the Lord in whom you are builded together 38:02 for a holy habitation of God through the Spirit. Then when 38:06 Solomon got done with the building, after seven years, 38:10 and I'll tell you boy this was some building. Gold, gold, gold 38:14 everywhere there was gold. He dedicated the temple. They had a 38:17 special dedication prayer. They activated it. They mobilized it. 38:21 Everybody got in position and they did it right. He built a 38:24 bronze platform, he did not use plywood. Just for this 38:30 inauguration he had a bronze platform. Picture when a whole 38:34 nation gathers together. They didn't have television or PA. 38:37 Everybody in Israel and there were probably more citizens in 38:40 Israel during the inauguration of the temple than any other 38:44 time in their history because it was the time of their greatest 38:47 blessing. They all came to Jerusalem. There was a sea of 38:51 humanity that gathered around Jerusalem for the inauguration 38:55 of the temple. Solomon didn't have a PA system. The only thing 38:59 he had was his voice. So they built a platform up above 39:01 everyone's head so they could all see him kneel. I think 39:05 that's interesting. He wanted them to see him kneel and to 39:08 pray and they could hear his prayer and to dedicate the 39:11 temple of the Lord. There are some passages in the Bible that 39:18 are really important and I hope it doesn't bother you that I say 39:24 that. All the Bible is inspired but there are some real 39:27 mountaintops in the Bible of very pertinent, important, 39:32 powerful, pivotal, lot of P's in there, utterances. Daniel 39:36 chapter 9 the prayer of Daniel. Of course you have the Lord's 39:40 prayer. The dedication prayer of Solomon, I don't think I've 39:44 got time to read it all to you. I hope you'll go home and read 39:47 it. It outlines the history of God's people and all the 39:51 promises and how we're to relate to the Lord and how we can ask 39:54 for forgiveness and everything he says in his prayer happens 39:58 to Israel. He even in his prayer talks about 40:01 and Lord if your people are 40:02 carried away because of their unfaithfulness to a foreign land 40:05 if they pray towards this place hear in heaven and answer their 40:08 prayer. That's exactly why Daniel prayed towards the temple 40:11 in Jerusalem when he was in his upper room, because of the 40:15 prayer of Solomon. And did God answer his prayer? And he says 40:19 if your people are unfaithful and you withhold the rain 40:22 because of their unfaithfulness, if they pray towards this place 40:25 please hear in heaven and answer their prayer. Well did God send 40:29 a famine because of their unfaithfulness? Several times, 40:32 especially during the time of Elijah. And so you can see in 40:36 his prayer he, under inspiration this is when Solomon was still 40:40 really close to the Lord, he's outlined what's going to happen 40:43 in the history of God's people. And everything you see in the 40:46 prayer of Solomon you're going to find also applies to the 40:50 church today. We sometimes get carried away because of our 40:53 unfaithfulness. But we can repent and turn to the Lord and 40:57 he has mercy on us and he hears our prayer again. So they have 41:01 this special dedication prayer and at the conclusion, 41:05 II Chronicles 6. Read all of II Chronicles. Matter of fact 41:09 the prayers are a little bit different between II Chronicles. 41:12 I'm sure it was a long prayer and they just added different 41:15 parts to it, or recorded different parts. II Chronicles 41:18 6:1-42. You can also read about it in I Kings. I just want to 41:25 read the last few verses here at the end of Solomon's prayer. 41:33 Now my God I pray let your eyes be open and your ears be 41:38 attentive to the prayer made in this place. Now arise, O Lord, 41:42 to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let 41:45 your priests O God be clothed with salvation. Let your saints 41:51 rejoice in goodness. Now you go to chapter 7, next chapter, read 41:56 verse 1. When Solomon had finished praying, after this 42:01 dedication prayer, fire came down from heaven. All right, 42:05 another test. How many times in the Bible does fire come down 42:10 from heaven? I don't know. I'm asking you. Let's count together 42:15 Abel's offering. Remember God accepted Abel's offering. That 42:18 means God probably brought fire down miraculously, but he didn't 42:23 do it for Cain. You've got when fire came down for Gideon in his 42:27 vision. When they activated the earthly temple in the time of 42:31 Moses, the first tabernacle. Elijah, fire came down three 42:35 times with Elijah, not only on Mount Carmel but Elijah prayed 42:38 twice and fire came down and burnt up soldiers, right? 42:45 I think there are six times in the Old Testament and the 42:51 seventh time fire comes down is Pentecost. Tongues of fire sent 42:58 from heaven, right? Isn't that interesting. God sent fire down 43:02 on the temple in Solomon's day and he still sends fire down on 43:07 his spiritual temple. So I didn't even finish reading it. 43:11 When Solomon got done praying fire came down from heaven and 43:16 consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of 43:20 the Lord filled the temple. Oh would that the Lord would do 43:24 that again. And the priests could not enter the house of the 43:27 Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house 43:31 Can you imagine what it would be like. We're all out there 43:34 standing outside Central Church. We can't come in. Why? Too much 43:38 glory. You stay out here for a while till it eases up and we 43:42 can go back in. Can you imagine that? Wouldn't that be nice to 43:45 have that kind of problem? Did you go to church today? Yeah. 43:49 Did you go in? Why not? Too much glory in church. This is what 43:54 happened. The priests couldn't even go in. When all the 43:59 children of Israel saw how the fire came down, now I'm 44:04 emphasizing this because in the dedication prayer in I Kings it 44:07 doesn't mention this and I wonder why. I wouldn't leave 44:09 this part out. I'd leave out the whole prayer and don't forget 44:11 this. Fire coming down miraculously from heaven. 44:15 You know one reason God did that. The fire on the altar was 44:19 called holy fire and for the remainder of the history of the 44:23 temple of Solomon they always used that fire initially kindled 44:27 by God to light the lamp, to light everything. They always 44:31 kept it going they never let the fire go out in the temple of God 44:35 It was called the holy fire. That's why, was it, Nadab and 44:37 Abihu were slain. They decided to kindle fire from the campfire 44:41 to go into the altar and God said you're not supposed to use 44:45 common fire. It is a sacred fire. You know churches 44:48 sometimes do that today. They say we're going to manufacture, 44:51 we're going to impersonate the Holy Spirit. And if we don't 44:53 have the Holy Spirit, we'll just turn the volume up and pretend 44:56 it's the Holy Spirit. You know what I'm talking about. A lot of 44:59 things we do in the church to try and imitate, counterfeit the 45:03 Holy Spirit. It's common fire. We want the fire from God, not 45:06 manmade fire. We do a lot of things to try and create the 45:09 illusion that we've got the Holy Spirit. Manmade fire. We want 45:15 the fire that God brings down. Oh wait. How did they get that 45:19 fire? They were obeying the Lord building up the temple of the 45:22 Lord the way God said according to God's plan with a reverence 45:26 and when they did their part God did his part didn't he? 45:31 Has he changed? Will he still baptize his people with the Holy 45:36 Spirit if we follow the things we just read about there in 45:42 Deuteronomy and I Kings and II Chronicles. The fire of God 45:47 came down, Pentecost. I'll tell you boy that was some church 45:51 service. They offered thousands of burnt offerings on the altar. 45:56 And the people rejoiced and God was with them and God blessed 46:00 them and this is all happening before the Queen of Sheba even 46:04 shows up. This is the first 10 years of Solomon's 40-year 46:08 reign. They were at the zenith of their glory. Now just to give 46:12 you some idea, have you heard about the wealth of Solomon? 46:15 I mean, you just read some of these things. For instance, 46:19 II Chronicles, and that's our next segment, the wealth of 46:24 Solomon. II Chronicles 8:18: And Hiram sent him ships by 46:28 the hand of his servants and servants who knew the sea and 46:32 they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and they 46:37 acquired 450 talents of gold from there; 450 talents, a 46:42 talent was somewhere between 56 and 75 pounds. I was looking 46:45 at Alaska gold nuggets, the biggest gold nuggets that they 46:50 found in Alaska. They weren't as much as a talent, well no I 46:54 guess some of were bigger than a talent. But can you imagine 47:00 coming back from one mining expedition annually 450 talents. 47:06 Four hundred and fifty times 50 pounds of gold. That's like 47:12 Fort Knox every year; maybe not but it's still a lot. And they 47:16 brought it to King Solomon. You know people have been looking 47:19 for the lost mines of King Solomon because of these verses 47:23 here. They said boy they had a lot of gold there. Notice this. 47:27 II Chronicles 9:13: The weight of gold that came to Solomon 47:32 yearly was 666 talents of gold. Wait a second does that number 47:38 sound familiar? Is that an accident? Do you think it might 47:44 be interesting that at the zenith of Israel's history the 47:49 number 666 shows up. Was it talking about the heavenly 47:54 kingdom or earthly kingdom. So here at the zenith of the 47:58 earthly kingdom, the earthly Jerusalem, you've got this 48:04 number 666 talents of gold, earthly gold. When we think 48:10 about the new Jerusalem, we're thinking about a different kind 48:13 of gold. And so it's almost like it's the number from man. It's 48:16 the number of the world's kingdom that it is comparing. 48:20 So the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones 48:26 And it goes on. You ought to read about it when it talks 48:30 about the wealth of Solomon. You know he's surrounded. He's 48:34 got these seven steps, I think, that led up to his throne and he 48:40 had this throne of ivory overlaid with gold and he had 48:43 six golden lions on one side and six golden lions on the other. 48:46 I don't want to say too much because next time we're talking 48:49 about the Queen of Sheba and we're going to get into that. 48:52 But just fabulous wealth. Even Jesus referring to the greatest 48:57 glory of Israel's history, he refers to Solomon. Matthew 6:28: 49:01 Jesus said, why do you worry about clothing? Consider the 49:05 lilies of the field how they grow. They don't toil or spin, 49:10 yet I say to you that even Solomon... You know they're 49:14 trying to figure out what the new president and his wife are 49:18 going to wear for the inauguration and all of the 49:20 designers are fighting among themselves to be able to make 49:23 the dress for Mrs. Obama and because _ 49:28 those are going to be some threads, I'll tell you, and 49:32 whatever she wears they put in the Smithsonian, whatever she 49:35 wears to the inaugural ball. Can you imagine the tailors who 49:40 worked for Solomon? You can't think of any French name that is 49:45 good enough to make clothes for Solomon. And so Jesus said but 49:49 even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like the flowers 49:53 of the field. So he said you should seek first God's kingdom. 49:58 Now when it describes Solomon in his glory I want you to notice 50:03 it talks about the power of Solomon, right? The riches of 50:06 Solomon, doesn't it? Does it talk about the wisdom of 50:10 Solomon? The strength of Solomon, the honor of Solomon, 50:14 the glory of Solomon and the seventh is the blessing. 50:18 Now with that in mind turn to Revelation chapter 5 verse 12: 50:24 I'm almost done. What do they sing around the throne of God 50:32 to the Son of David, Jesus? Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 50:41 to receive power, riches, wisdom strength, honor, glory and 50:48 number seven the blessing of rest, right? The very things 50:54 that you read about during the zenith of Israel, the time of 50:59 Solomon, it extols his wisdom, his riches, his power, his glory 51:04 All these things it's really an echo of Christ's kingdom in 51:08 heaven, of the new kingdom that you can be a part of now. 51:11 You know, with the economy bad right now people are searching 51:15 on the internet. They are wanting to know, where is the 51:19 safest place in the world to live that will have the best 51:22 economy and be safe from terrorism and violence. 51:26 It's interesting. I heard about this couple years ago; I may 51:28 have told you this already. Paul Harvey mentioned this couple and 51:32 they wanted to know the best place in the world to retire. 51:35 They wanted to find a place in the world where there would be 51:39 peace, a good economy, nice climate and they searched and 51:42 they searched and they finally came up with this place. They 51:46 moved to this island. They said we've got it made. We're safe 51:50 now, we can retire in peace on this island. You know where they 51:54 moved? The Falkland Islands a week before the Falkland war 52:02 broke out. So where can you go in this world. If you can live 52:07 during sometime in history, it would be pretty nice if you 52:12 could live in Israel during the time of Solomon and the temple. 52:16 Wouldn't you like to have seen that temple? It was one of the 52:18 wonders of the world. The only reason it's not listed as one of 52:21 the ancient wonders of the world is the guy who made that list 52:25 the Greek historian Herodotus, he never went there. Actually 52:29 he went before it was even built but it would have been one of 52:33 the wonders of the ancient world Well you can live in a better 52:38 time than that. You can live in not Solomon the son of David, 52:43 you can live in Jesus the Son of David's kingdom and be part of 52:48 all that glory and all of that peace. And that's my closing 52:52 thought is during the zenith of God's kingdom God had said to 52:56 David, your son will be a man of peace. That's why he gave him 53:00 the name Shalom or Solomon. Listen to what it says. Israel 53:04 had peace. I Kings 4:25, this is a wonderful verse. I Kings 4:25: 53:10 And he had peace on every side all around him. You know 53:17 sometimes you get peace a little bit here but you've got problems 53:19 over here and sometimes your family's doing okay but there 53:22 are problems at work. To say you've got peace on every side 53:26 that's pretty nice if you can say that. I mean, how often is 53:30 everything going well in your life. He had peace on every side 53:34 all around him. And Judah, the southern kingdom and Israel 53:38 in the north dwelt safely, each man under his vine and under his 53:43 fig tree. From Dan in the north as far as Beersheba in the south 53:48 all the days of the Solomon. The main thing it's telling us 53:52 is when they were doing what God said, he kept his promise. 53:58 He blessed them. Has God changed Have the conditions changed? 54:03 If we surrender to the Lord and if we trust the Son of David, 54:07 our Solomon, Jesus, can he still bless us? He can bless us with 54:12 the greatest blessings. I'm not preaching prosperity preaching. 54:16 You should have 666 talents of gold. That would kind of make 54:19 you nervous anyway to have that number, right? You'd probably 54:23 take that number but it's just kind of a weird number. That's 54:26 not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just to have those 54:30 blessings of peace. Because when you've got Jesus, no matter 54:32 what's happening in the world around you, you've got your own 54:36 little temple. You've got your own little sanctuary. You can be 54:39 blessed. You can sleep through a storm. You've got that peace 54:42 that passes understanding and that's something he's promising 54:46 all of us right now, that perfect peace. 54:49 Well you've just done it friends I hope you took a good look 54:53 We went to the top of the mountain today. We're at the 54:57 zenith of what God did during the time of Solomon. You look 55:00 at the history of Israel. It never goes back there again. 55:03 Until Jesus comes. Then we go back to that place of that great 55:07 glory that he experienced during that time. All of the promises 55:12 that God made to Israel were fulfilled during this generation 55:16 Take a good look, because God kept his word and he hasn't 55:19 changed. He'll do it today. Would you like that kind of 55:23 peace? Let's pray. Loving Father in heaven, Lord, 55:29 as we consider this story in the Bible we can see your 55:34 faithfulness. You fulfilled everything you promised to 55:38 Abraham in blessing his children and establishing them in the 55:41 Promised Land and giving them victory over their enemies and 55:45 opening up the windows of heaven and Lord we know that the peace 55:49 that you gave them back then is still available today. 55:53 Help us to pattern our lives after this time in Israel's 55:57 history. Help us as a church, your people, to be wholly 56:01 committed to you, to trust you, to seek first your kingdom and 56:04 your righteousness. To work for the building up of your temple 56:07 knowing that then you'll respond by sending your glory, by 56:11 letting the fire come down in our lives. Fill us with your 56:15 Spirit, Lord. Bless every person in our homes and help us, Lord, 56:19 to make sure that we are building all that we do on that 56:23 tried and true cornerstone of Jesus Christ. 56:26 In his name we ask. Amen. 56:28 You don't have to live with diabetes or worry about a 56:32 triple bypass, nor continue to carry those extra pounds. 56:36 Reverse your diabetes, restore your heart, shed those pounds. 56:41 John: I was on a downhill slide for kidney problems, going to 56:46 dialysis. 56:47 The damage I've done can be reversed. 56:50 It's the whole food, it's the trick. 56:52 It's like being part of a miracle. 56:55 I just wish more people knew about Weimar. 56:58 They're talking about the New Start Lifestyle Center just 45 57:02 minutes east of Sacramento where 25 years of 18-day pampered 57:07 scientific health changes have made history. 57:28 Thank you for joining us for this broadcast. If you've missed 57:31 any of our Amazing Facts programs, visit our web site at 57:34 amazingfacts. org. There you'll find an archive of all our 57:37 television and radio programs including Amazing Facts Presents 57:41 Central Study Hour, Everlasting Gospel, Bible Answers Live and 57:45 Wonders in the Word. You'll also find a storehouse of biblical 57:49 resources geared toward answering some of your most 57:50 difficult questions and our Online Bible School is just a 57:54 click away. One location, so many possibilities. |
Revised 2014-12-17