In my last post, I traced the theme of our being God’s people and His being our God through all of scripture. This theme is a unifying theme in the Bible—one message repeated by multiple authors. In that theme, we hear that God wants to dwell with us. In this post, I trace God’s dwelling place through scripture, Genesis to Revelation.
We know that when God created our world, He created and planted a garden for Adam and Eve. There was no tabernacle or temple there; God dwelled there with them. It was His garden; where God is, so is the Holy of Holies.
The Garden, the Earth, the first dwelling place
- Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. — Genesis 3:8
- You were in Eden, the garden of God — Ezekiel 28:13a
- I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God. — Ezekiel 31:9
- I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. — Leviticus 26:11-12
We know that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, He removed them from the garden, their fellowship broken but not forgotten. God chooses a family and makes wild promises of a great nation, which He fulfills, and promises to dwell with them.
The Tabernacle in the Wilderness
- Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. — Exodus 25:8-9
- So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. — Exodus 29:44-45
- Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Exodus 40:34-35
The nation of Israel is rescued from Egypt, led through the wilderness, and given the Promised Land! They ask for a King, and after Saul acts irresponsibly, God appoints David as their king. After much turmoil in taking the throne, David leads Israel into a period of peace and prosperity. He wants to build God a permanent building, but God says that will be David’s son Solomon’s work.
The Temple in Jerusalem
- The word of the Lord came to Solomon: “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.” — 1 Kings 6:12-13
- Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God. — 2 Chronicles 5:13b-14
- When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. — 2 Chronicles 7:11-12
- Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple — Ezekiel 10:18
Even though Israel was God’s chosen people, they chose over and over to run after idols. God sent them into exile and departed from the temple. I love this little verse tucked away in Ezekiel: “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ God did not leave them on their own – He was their sanctuary! And then He promises to gather them from the nations again.
The good news! God sends His son, who embodies the sanctuary and is now God with us.
Jesus, the Temple of God
- “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). — Matthew 1:23
- The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14
- The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. — John 2:18-21
- Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. — Hebrews 8:1-2
God left the Temple and did not re-enter until Jesus Himself walked into the Temple as a child. The glory of God entered the Temple again in person!
Because of Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, He sent His Spirit to live in us, His children. When the Spirit resides within, we become God’s temple.
You! Me! the Church! the Temple of God
- All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. — Acts 2:4
- Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. — 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
- In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. — Ephesians 2:21-22
- As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5
- But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. — Hebrews 3:6
I love that we can read the end of the book to see the end of the story.
A New Heaven & Earth, the Temple of God
- But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. — 2 Peter 3:13
- Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. — Revelation 21:1-3
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4
