Where Does God Dwell?

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When you think of a temple, what comes to mind?  A building?  An ornately adorned cathedral?   A mosque, synagogue, or tabernacle?  A solemn place of worship?

And what about their purpose?  Why do we have all these temples in the first place?  Does God have a greater presence inside a temple than a block down the road?  Is the ground more holy?  Are we closer to God when we enter?  I know people who certainly feel that way.  But feelings don’t really have much to do with where God is or is not.  In fact, He is everywhere in the same measure.  There is no place He is not, Psalm 139: ⁸ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there (KJV).

Whether plain or grandiose monuments, their function is the same; a place for people to gather and worship their god or gods.  They have no real spiritual significance with one exception: the Temple in Jerusalem.  Why is this one different?

When Moses built the first tabernacle, or the place of dwelling, he was told by God exactly how to build it.  Exodus 25:8-9 says ⁸ The people must make a sacred Tent for me, so that I may live among them. ⁹ Make it and all its furnishings according to the plan that I will show you.  The first Temple was also built according to plans David received from God.  So what is so different about this pattern as opposed to all the other temples?

As we discuss this, remember that symbolism, allegories, and metaphors are the way God communicates to us heavenly things in earthly terms.  It is no different with the temple.  Hebrews 8: 5 says, The work they do as priests is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. It is the same as it was with Moses. When he was about to build the Sacred Tent, God told him, “Be sure to make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.”

There are many things going on regarding this temple, but we are only going to look at one aspect.  It had three parts: the courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.    The courtyard was available to all.  The Holy Place was only accessed by the priests to make offerings and sacrifices.  The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year on the Day of Atonement by the high priest to make offerings for himself and the unintentional sins of the people.   A veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

If you think about it, the three parts correspond to the triune makeup of God and of man.  God is the Father (Spirit), the Son (Word), and the Holy Spirit.  Man is spirit, soul, and body.  The temple is more than the dwelling place of God.  It is the image of God.  And us!

God is Spirit and his dwelling place is the Holy of Holies.  It contained the Ark of the Covenant in which were placed the Tablets of the Covenant (the Ten Commandments). These things symbolize the promises of God and His true nature which is Love.

That might seem contradictory since the law doesn’t seem all that forgiving, but Love is the only way to fulfill the law.  That is how Jesus did it.  For us, the law is a problem because we cannot keep it.  That is what the veil represents.  That is what separates us from God.

Make no mistake; God wants to dwell in union with our spirits, not in some dank and dark room.  Acts 17:24 says,  God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.  He has other ideas.  Something has to be done to remove the barrier.

The solution is Jesus Christ.  When He died on the cross, in some mysterious and actual way, we also died . . . if we believe.  When we died, we were freed from our old union and free to marry another, Christ.  When that union occurs, the veil is split from top to bottom and the law now becomes what it was meant to be, pure Love.  The reason we are no longer under the written law is because the true law is in us.  On the day you believe, this is fulfilled in you:

Jer 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

That is why Paul has to remind us 1 Cor 3 ¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  That is why there is no longer a temple in Jerusalem.  It is no longer necessary.  It was a shadow of things to come.  Those things are here . . .  now . . . you.

We no longer try to fulfill the law.  We are the law.  We let Christ fulfill it.

Galatians 2:20 ²⁰ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Thank you, Lord, that you fulfill the law in us and our yoke is easy and our burden is light.

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