I Chronicles 28:11

Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch,.... The breadth, and length, and height of it, which was to be placed at the east end of the temple, and was the entrance into it: and, of the houses thereof; the holy place, and the most holy, which latter is called the greater house, Ch2 3:5, and of the treasures; where things belonging to the temple were laid up, the priests' vestments, and other things: and of the upper chambers; where the priests lay or met for conversation, Jer 35:2. and of the inner parlours thereof; where the priests ate of the holy things; all these seem to he buildings against the wall of the temple round about, Kg1 6:5. and of the place of the mercy seat: the holy of holies, where that, with the cherubim over it, and the ark under it, were placed.

As for the general charge that David gave his son to seek God and serve him, the book of the law was, in that, his only rule, and there needed no other; but, in building the temple, David was now to give him three things: - 1. A model of the building, because it was to be such a building as neither he nor his architects ever saw. Moses had a pattern of the tabernacle shown him in the mount (Heb 8:5), so had David of the temple, by the immediate hand of God upon him, Ch1 28:19. It was given him in writing, probably by the ministry of an angel, or as clearly and exactly represented to his mind as if it had been in writing. But it is said (Ch1 28:12), He had this pattern by the Spirit. The contrivance either of David's devotion or of Solomon's wisdom must not be trusted to in an affair of this nature. The temple must be a sacred thing and a type of Christ; there must be in it not only convenience and decency, but significancy: it was a kind of sacrament, and therefore it must not be left to man's art or invention to contrive it, but must be framed by divine institution. Christ the true temple, the church the gospel temple, and heaven the everlasting temple, are all framed according to the divine councils, and the plan laid in the divine wisdom, ordained before the world for God's glory and ours. This pattern David gave to Solomon, that he might know what to provide and might go by a certain rule. When Christ left with his disciples a charge to build his gospel church he gave them an exact model of it, ordering them to observe that, and that only, which he commanded. The particular models are here mentioned, of the porch, which was higher than the rest, like a steeple, - then the houses, both the holy place and the most holy, with the rooms adjoining, which were for treasur…

28:11-21 God gave David the actual plans for the Temple through divine inspiration (28:19). On other occasions God also provided plans for the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exod 25:9) and for the future Temple of Ezekiel (Ezek 40:4).