When God created the heaven and earth in six days, everything was good, and very good. Genesis 1:31. Then, in Genesis 2:8, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.
Eden was like no other place on earth. Remember, God planted this garden before the Curse. There were no thorns, no sweat of the brow, no death anywhere. All of the earth was good and very good. But Eden was special; it was better. But how was Eden better than a very good Creation?
What was it about this small plot of ground on earth that was so much better than all the rest of a perfect, uncursed Creation? I’ve talked about this before, but the garden of Eden was better because it was the place where the Lord was to meet with man. That made the garden better than perfection. God’s presence makes any spot of ground sanctified, or holy. That’s why Moses was to remove his shoes as a mark of respect at the burning bush.
Genesis 3:8 says the voice of the Lord God walked in the garden. Through the preexistent Christ, God was physically-present in Eden. He wasn’t walking elsewhere in the earth. When the Lord made man, He intended to dwell with him, and planted a garden as a meeting place. It was originally planned as a place where God and man could have permanently dwelt together – if sin had not ruined everything.
That is an astounding thought. The mighty God, the Lord of Creation, planned to live and dwell among mankind. But He couldn’t do that 6000 years ago. Adam and Eve sinned, and God cannot associate with sin. The problem isn’t on God’s part – our sins separate us from Him. Isa. 59:1-2.
The entirety of the plan of salvation is to remedy the separation that sin caused. God still wants to dwell among us. While there were occasional visitations after the
Through the Ages
Fall in Eden, there was no permanence to the presence of God until Moses was told to build a tabernacle. Exodus 25:8-9 says it would be a sanctuary where God could dwell with the Israelites.
The Hebrew word for “dwell” in verse 8 is “shakan - sahw-kan.” The word for “tabernacle” in verse 9 is derived from “shakan.” The word is “mishkan.” The intent was for the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle to be a place where God could dwell. That is why the Shekinah Glory was there.
The Apostle John wrote in John 1:14 that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Greek word John used for “dwell” is “skēnoō - skay-no’-o,” That is a transliteration of the Hebrew “shakan.” The same glory that once dwelt in a tent later dwelt in a human body – in Christ Jesus.
But the wonderful thing, the amazing thing about grace, is that the glory of God is dwelling in you. The power that first caused light to shine in darkness; the force that brought life to inanimate objects; that parted the Red Sea; and raised Lazarus from the dead; that power dwells in everyone who has been baptized in the Holy Ghost.
God’s presence makes any spot of ground sanctified, or holy. We humans are formed from the dust, but God’s presence in our dust makes this human spot of ground holy. That specialness of your body is a staggering thought!
God Almighty has wanted to dwell with humanity since the first day of Creation. David wrote in Psalms 68:18, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men.” Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4:8, and applies it to the Christian church members. Some of the gifts, Paul said, were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He is saying that a ministry is needed for the church to operate. It isn’t a church without those gifts. But when David wrote Psalms 68:18, he ended that verse by explaining the Lord’s purpose for giving gifts – “that the LORD God might dwell among them.”
That, my brothers and sisters, is why God gave us a church. He calls men to the ministry to build churches. We needed churches, “so that the Lord God can dwell among us.” And, through His Holy Spirit, He does!
Bro. Anthony Wilkinson’s song, “Receive our Praise,” has a line that says it’s no more a tent or a house of stone. We’ve become the house God seeks to dwell in. Holy Ghost baptism has a significance that sometimes we fail to appreciate.
Jesus said in John 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” In verse 20, it’s “Ye in Me and I in you.” Then in verse 23, “I and My Father will make our abode with you.” An abode is where you live. In a very real sense, God lives in human vessels – through His indwelling Spirit.
This is amazing – the Shekinah isn’t in a tent in the Sinai anymore; it isn’t in the Holy of Holies in a temple in Jerusalem – the Shekinah is in you!
We talk about the Spirit moving in among us and inviting the Lord’s Spirit into our worship. And from our viewpoint, it seems that is what happens. We feel as if the Holy Ghost comes into the building and fills it like the day they dedicated Solomon’s temple or the Day of Pentecost. But in a very real sense, the Spirit “comes in” through you and me – we bring the Holy Spirit into the sanctuary in our earthly tabernacles.
The Apostle Paul asked, “What? Don’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” I Corinthians 6:19. That is an amazing precept of salvation – you are the temple the Lord desired to dwell in.
I Corinthians 3:16: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” He was asking, “Don’t you know this?” II Corinthians 6:16 also refers to our bodies as the temple of God. Solomon said in I Kings 8:27 that neither the heavens nor the Jerusalem temple was fit for God to dwell in. But II Corinthains 6:16 says God will “dwell in them.” In a sense, you have become the Holy of Holies.
Temples fascinate people. Those who visit Europe often visit cathedrals like Notre Dame or St. Peter’s Basilica. Hundreds of thousands visit the Mormon Tabernacle every year. They visit the Parthenon in Athens. Why? Maybe because of what they represent – they are where people worship their gods.
Throughout history, there have been special places where God revealed Himself to mankind. Abraham often built altars or planted groves where the Lord met with him. Jacob set up a pillar as a shrine where God met him. He said, surely the Lord was in this place. Genesis 28:17.
In Exodus 33:7-9, God instructed Moses to construct a tent meeting. Later, the tent was replaced with a tabernacle – constructed of wood, gold, etc. Exodus 40:34-35. Later still, a magnificent stone temple was built in Jerusalem. I Kings 8:1011. In Ezekiel 40-48, there is even a vision of a glorious future millennial temple.
Does the idea of a temple then stop in the New Testament? Yes and no. We no longer need a physical building in which to worship God; there is no physical building which is the sole dwelling place of God. But the physical gives way to the spiritual – there is a spiritual temple.
That is one of the significant differences between the Old Covenant and the New
Covenant. God’s Spirit moved on men and women during Old Testament times. II Peter 1:21 reports that men spake as the Holy Ghost moved them. We see that in Judges 3:10, where the Spirit of the Lord came on Othniel. But it wasn’t an indwelling Spirit. It came upon people, and it left. In Psalms 51:11, David feared the Spirit would leave him.
But under the New Covenant – saints don’t only feel the Spirit at times; they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. A gift isn’t a loan. A gift is yours to keep. The gift of the Holy Ghost makes you a new creature, it makes you born-again. Once born, you can’t be unborn.
In Old Testament times, the Spirit of God moved on people at times; in the New Testament era, God permanently dwells in earthen vessels. Paul wasn’t specifically referring to the Spirit baptism in II Corinthians 4:7, when he said we have this treasure in earthen vessels, but that’s a good phrase to describe it. The Holy Ghost is a treasure in earthen vessel.
We are a house of clay, built on a foundation of dust. Job 4:19. God planted a garden in Eden to dwell with mankind. Sin messed that up, so God had them build a tabernacle where His Spirit could dwell in Shekinah glory, but sin messed that up. So God now dwells in human tents – in jars of clay.
But sin is still a problem, so God has a further plan. We’ll get to that in a moment. The point here is that your body is a tabernacle for God to dwell in. The Lord said “I will dwell in them and walk in them.” II Corinthians 6:16. The word is “in” and not just “with.”
Not only are we individually a temple; we are collectively a temple of the Lord in the local church. I Peter 2:5 speaks of us as lively stones in a spiritual house. Peter said “lively,” not in the sense of “active,” but in the sense of “alive.” We are living stones in a spiritual tabernacle. Paul said in Ephesians 2:21-22 that we are built into a holy temple, a habitation of God.
How then should we respond to the fact that God has chosen to reside in our bodies? Well, I Thessalonians 4:4 says to possess your vessel (body) in sanctification and honor. And Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices – not animal sacrifices; but offerings to God nonetheless. Let’s make our church and our own bodies a functioning tabernacle for the Spirit of the Lord.
But that isn’t all of the story. Yes, it is amazingly wonderful that God’s Spirit permanently dwells in earthen vessels. It is astounding to realize that you are a living, breathing temple of the Holy Ghost. But there is a greater fulfillment of the promises of God.
There are two more points about the Lord dwelling with us. First, Jesus is coming to physically dwell with us. He came 2000 years ago, but He only stayed 33 years. When He left, the angels in Acts 1:11 promised He’d come back. Zechariah 14:4 assures us that His feet will actually stand on the Mount of Olives. And the 44th chapter of Ezekiel says He will walk through the sealed Eastern Gate.
The return of Jesus isn’t a temporary venture – He is going to live here. “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Ezekiel 37:26-28.
Jeremiah 3:17 prophesies that His throne will be in the city of Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:3-4 promises that the law will go forth from Jerusalem. In 1000 years, Jesus will completely transform this world into a new earth. By the end of the millennium, paradise will have been restored. The desert will blossom as a rose. Men will have beaten their swords into plowshares, and all pain and suffering and death will be over once all sin is eliminated and the curse is lifted. The great Bridegroom and His bride, will restore all things, when Jesus comes to live forever on this earth.
When Ezekiel saw a vision of the millennial temple, the Lord said to him: “And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever.” Ezekiel 43:7. The prophecy of Micah 4:7 is that the Lord will reign from Mount Zion forever.
So the first awesome point about the Lord dwelling with us is that Jesus Christ is coming to this small planet, circling an average star out on one of the spiral arms of an average galaxy in the Universe, and He is going to dwell with us here.
The second point is even more overwhelming to consider: God the Father is going to dwell on the earth with us after the Millennium. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:25-26 that Jesus will reign until all enemies are destroyed. When He has restored all things, He will turn all of Creation back over to His Father. Verse 28.
The return of Jesus isn’t a temporary venture - He is going to live here.
It will be a new heaven and new earth – after the millennium. Revelation 21:1. And verse 3 says the tabernacle of God (that’s God the Father) will be with men. Two great deities are seen in verse 22: the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple in that day.
Both are there. God the Father will be immediately present with his people – there will be no need to go to a temple; no need to experience Him only in His Holy Spirit. In that time, called the new Jerusalem in these verses, you can access God the Father and Jesus the Lamb of God directly. Revelation 22:3 speaks of the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb (2 thrones).
In that wonderful day, God’s original intent for the Garden of Eden will be fulfilled – it will be a place where God and mankind can walk together in perfect accord. We can only see it through a glass, darkly. The details of the distant future are not clearly seen. But we see enough to know it will be spectacularly great.
We will have moved from a tent of skins and cloth, to a temple of stone, to a house of flesh, to a millennial temple, to God the Father and Jesus the Son dwelling physically with us. What a journey; what a hope!