G-d’s World

[1 Kgs. 5:5] And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the L-RD my
G-d, as the L-RD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.
[6] Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
For all the resources placed at Solomon’s disposal by his reorganization of the government, two important essentials were lacking: timer and skilled craftsmen. Both were in abundance by the neighboring kingdom of Tyre.
Sibonians, assistance which these Gentiles gave to the building of Solomon's Temple, was a type of the calling of the Gentiles, and that they should be instrumental in building and constituting Messiah's Spiritual Temple. Sidonians - Or Tyrians: for these places and people being near, is promiscuously used one for another.
The contract was drawn out formally in a written document (2 Chronicles 2:11), which, according to Josephus, was preserved both in the Jewish and Tyrian records.
Solomon paid annually 125,000 bushels of wheat and 115,000 gallons, reading ‘bath’ of beaten olive oil. Beaten oil was processed by beating with a hand-pestle in a mortar. Ordinary olive oil was produced by crushing the olives in large stone presses, with resulting debris. Apparently these payments were maintained throughout the first twenty years of Solomon’s building program. Thus by the wise disposal of providence, one country has need of another, and is benefited by another, that there may be a mutual correspondence and dependence, to the glory of G-d our common Parent.
The levy of 30.000 men which were to be employed in the most honorable and easy parts of the work relating to the Temple; and these were Israelites; but those fifteen hundred thousand mentioned v. 15, were strangers. If it seem strange, that so many thousands should be employed about as small a building as the Temple was; it must be considered,
1. That the Temple, all its parts being considered, was far larger than men imagine;
2. That it is probable, they were employed by turns, as the thirty thousand were, v. 14, and else they had been oppressed with hard and continuous labors.
3. That the timber and stone hewed and carried by them, was designed, not only for the Temple, but also for Solomon's own houses, and buildings; because we read of no other levy of men, nor of any care and pains taken after the building of the Temple, for the procurement, or preparation of materials for his own houses, or his other buildings; nay, that this very levy of men was made and employed for the building of the L-rd's house, and Solomon's house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer, is expressed chap.9:15.
The renewed notice of Solomon's divine gift of wisdom (5:12) is evidently introduced to prepare for this record of the strong but prudent measures he took towards the accomplishment of his work. So great a stretch of arbitrary power as is implied in this required levy would have raised great discontent, if not opposition, had not his wise arrangement of letting the laborers remain at home two months out of three, added to the sacredness of the work, resigned the people to this forced labor. The carrying of burdens and the annoying work of excavating the quarries was assigned to the remnant of the Canaanites (9:20, 2 Chronicles 8:7-9) and war prisoners made by David - amounting to 153,600. The employment of persons of that condition in Eastern countries for carrying on any public work would make this part of the arrangements the less thought of.
Solomon prolonged this service unduly, while the Temple, government buildings, and palaces were completed during the first half of Solomon’s reign, the protest of the northern tribes indicates that the labor force was kept at or near full strength for the remainder of his reign.
This passage is a reminder of the delicate relationship of Israel to the world. While Israel is not to be identified with the world, it is still G-d’s world and G-d works through it as well as through the covenant people. Israel’s mission is not to condemn or to escape from the world but to transform it. That mission needs help from those outside as well as within the covenant relationship.
Calling of the Gentiles, and that they should be instrumental in building and constituting Messiah's Spiritual Temple should also not be identified with the word but working side-by-side with the Hebrews.