The readings - days 104 and 105 - 1 Kings 6-9
If I had a TARDIS, one of the places I would definitely like to visit would be the original Temple in Israel. Chapter six and most of chapter seven are dedicated to describing it in detail, and the level of luxury and beauty described here is incredible. It's a fitting successor to the Tabernacle, and correspondingly more ornate, since this one gets to have actual walls, and doesn't need to be portable.
It's no wonder that the construction of the first temple is, after the generic "he was wise" thing, the thing that Solomon is most known for. Seven years in the making, with tens of thousands of workers involved at every step of the process, and an intentionality and reverence (workers hewing the stone had to do all their carving off-site so that even while it was being built, the inside of the Temple was undisturbed by excessive noise) that is truly inspiring.
Then we find out that Solomon spend nearly twice as long working on his own palace, which was almost twice as big as the Temple. Huh.
Still, God doesn't seem to sweat it, and Solomon seems to be keeping on the up-and-up on other fronts - making his proper dedicative sacrifices and instructing the people to remember/keep God's commandments, etc, so maybe it's not so big a deal.
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