Here, 1. Orders are given by the king for the repair of the temple, v.
8. When he had purged the house of the corruptions of it he began to
fit it up for the services that were to be performed in it. Thus we
must do by the spiritual temple of the heart, get it cleansed from the
pollutions of sin, and then renewed, so as to be transformed into the
image of God. Josiah, in this order, calls God the Lord his God. Those
that truly love God will love the habitation of his house. 2. Care is
taken about it, effectual care. The Levites went about the country and
gathered money towards it, which was returned to the three trustees
mentioned, v. 8. They brought it to Hilkiah the high priest (v. 9), and
he and they put it into the hands of workmen, both overseers and
labourers, who undertook to do it by the great, as we say, or in the
gross, v. 10, 11. It is observed that the workmen were industrious and
honest: They did the work faithfully (v. 12); and workmen are not
completely faithful if they are not both careful and diligent, for a
confidence is reposed in them that they will be so. It is also
intimated that the overseers were ingenious; for it is said that all
those were employed to inspect this work who were skilful in
instruments of music; not that their skill in music could be of any use
in architecture, but it was an evidence that they were men of sense and
ingenuity, and particularly that their genius lay towards the
mathematics, which qualified them very much for this trust. Witty men
are then wise men when they employ their wit in doing good, in helping
their friends, and, as they have opportunity, in serving the public.
Observe, in this work, how God dispenses his gifts variously; here were
some that were bearers of burdens, cut out for bodily labour and fit to
work. Here were others (made meliori luto--of finer materials) that had
skill in music, and they were overseers of those that laboured, and
scribes and officers. The former were the hands: these were the heads.
They had need of one another, and the work needed both. Let not the
overseers of the work despise the bearers of burdens, nor let those
that work in the service grudge at those whose office it is to direct;
but let each esteem and serve the other in love, and let God have the
glory and the church the benefit of the different gifts and
dispositions of both.