1 Kings 1:33 the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule and bring him down to Gihon.

This verse and v.38 tell of Solomon riding on King David’s mule as a sign of kingship

Here we have a foreshadowing of the twelve, as with Israel’s twelve tribes

1 Kings 4:7 Solomon had twelve officials over all Israel who provided food for the king and his household; each one had to make provision for one month in the year.

לְקֹ֖דֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃
lekodesh hakadashim- the Most Holy Place, or literally, Holy of Holies (v.6:16)

v. 6:19- debir: perhaps (a place of) speaking (the innermost room of Solomon’s temple)
Original Word: דְּבִיר, used 16 times for “inner sanctuary” (Strong’s Concordance)

So in chapter 6,7,8 you have respectively the building of the Temple (ha-bayit, literally the House [of God], the same word in Bayt-lechem- Bethlehem); the ornamental and ritual contents of the Temple, and the dedication of the Temple (חָנַךְ-Chanak- to dedicate).

1 Kings 8

There’s a lot to be said regarding Chapter 8 of 1 Kings, which is central to the Solomon narrative, the Dedication of the Temple.

There can be no doubt that the thrust of this chapter is that Temple (House) is built for the Name of Yahweh (v.17,18,19, 20,48) will dwell in that place in Jerusalem forever (v.13, ). The Lord’s “Name shall be there” (v.16,29), his “name is invoked on this house” (v.43). The eyes are always “open towards this House day and night” (v.v.29)

It is where the two stones of the covenant which was made by God with the Israelites at Mt. Horeb (v.9, 21) are stored in the Ark, the glory of the Lord filled the House in the Cloud of Smoke (v.11,12), all of which is in fulfilment of the promise to David (v.15,24,26) that there will never fail to be a successor to him on the throne of Israel, if his children walk before God as did David walk before him (v.25).

Solomon is fully aware that God is not literally confined in that tiny space enclosed by the Ark under the wings of the cherubim, for he is aware that “even Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built”, and that Heaven is the true dwelling of God (v.30,32,34,39,43,49), and he will forgive (v.36,39) those who “pray toward/in that place” (v.29,35,38,42,44/31.33,) for God knows what is in every human heart (v.39). There is no one who does not sin (v.46), and forgiveness (v.34,36,39,50) is to be given should they “repent with all their heart and soul” (v.48)

Further even the prayers of a foreigner are to be heard, because “all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people Israel” (v.43)

It is significant that he is able to grasp the possibility that there is some manner in which God really is present in that House, for he has seem the dark cloud in which the Lord dwells (v.12,13), and further, the Name is always associated with God himself (this can be seen in some of the exodus narratives like Ex.23:20-23).

At the same time the “promise to (his) father David” is that he shall never fail to have a successor on the “throne of Israel” (admittedly on the condition that his descendents walk before the Lord like David), and there is no notion here of the Temple ever being destroyed, even when the Israelites are taken away into exile, they will be able to pray toward the Temple (rather than toward the ruins of a Temple). As is revealed by the prophet Ahijah to Jeroboam: “I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever” (1Kings11:39) and “…so that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem” (1Kings11:36)

All this is fulfilled in Jesus, who is both the “God whom heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain” (these levels of Heavens are the seven domes above the Earth in ancient cosmology which merely refer to the sky above), yet really present on Earth also in finite form just like the dark Cloud which filled the Temple, the Lord’s very Name which was present in it, and as God who would “dwell” in his earthly Temple. Truly it was right for Zechariah to exult in Luke 1:67-69

““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his child David,… go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins….”.

Indeed it was appropriate for Jesus to state (Jn.2:19-21) that the true Temple is to be his own Body, in indeed we are forgiven when we pray toward Jesus.