“And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7 NKJV)

That every massive stone used in the building of Solomon’s temple was “finished at the quarry” was an astounding feat. For a worksite of such magnitude to be absent any hammering or chiseling would be just as amazing today as it was then. Both the designer and the builder had to be exacting in their precision and skill in order to accomplish this. Some stones weighed as much as 100 tons, yet they were perfectly honed and fitted together. The temple site may have been quiet, but there must have been much noise at the quarry as each stone was hammered and chiseled out, shaping it perfectly for God’s house. The apostle Peter tells us that God is building a new house and we are like “living stones being built into his spiritual temple” (1 Peter 2:5). God is both the Architect and the Builder of this spiritual temple (Heb. 11:10). Sometimes He is noisily chiseling away on us in the quarry and at other times He is quietly putting us into place. Yet, it is God who builds His house and we who are being perfectly fitted for it.