While undoubtedly beautiful, I do wonder why God had them do it. In a modern context, devoting those kinds of resources to a church would certainly not be looked kindly upon I don't think, though this is different than a church. The people brought more than was needed here to make a very luxurious temple. The Israelites go through such big swings. From richer than they can handle to starving in the desert and back around. What controls their fate? What would this world be like if the Israelites did the best with the free will they were given. If they trusted God throughout their thousand year journey. They were a stiff-necked people.. but why? My two oldest kids, Moby and Bass. Moby is as stiff-necked as an Israelite but Bass folds like single-ply toilet paper under any level of correction. Did God make them this way? Or did our free will through the ages impact our genes to make them this way? And then I have to ask the same of the Israelites, did God make them stiff-necked? Or is there some natural process in place that made them particularly stiff-necked?