Throughout the Bible there’s a biblical theme of God’s dwelling with His people and of the temple.
In the Garden, there’s a picture of God walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. During the time of Moses, instructions were given for the assembly of the Tabernacle, the portable temple that was used during the wilderness wanderings up through the time of David. Then, with David’s son, Solomon, the temple is built, and the glory of God enters the temple. What a momentous time in Israel’s history!
Unfortunately, following this, as the ESV Study Bible helpfully points out, the glory of God had left the temple in Ezekiel 10:18-19.[1] Ezekiel’s last visionary tour of the temple exposed him to the horrible abominations that were committed there which resulted in God leaving His temple in judgment. Eventually, that temple was destroyed. Ezekiel has a vision of a new temple, and we know from biblical history that the temple was rebuilt by the people, after Babylonian captivity, under Zerubbabel’s leadership with the prophetic stirring of Haggai and Zechariah. Later on, we know from history and its understood in the New Testament that Herod the Great had updated that temple. This was the temple that Jesus walked in and cleansed. This was likewise the temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. after Jerusalem had once again rejected God’s deliverance, this time rejecting their own Messiah!
From the beginning, it is clear that God desired to dwell with man. God desired relationship with mankind. He gave to His people a means by which they could reach Him, a place in which to worship and to make atonement for their sins.
While the Old Testament contains the history of the glory departing a defiled temple, the New Testament opens with a great hope. The eternal Word of God becomes flesh, and the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, came down to tabernacle, or to set up his tent, dwelling with us (John 1:14). He was Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). When mankind’s efforts, even based on God-given ideas and plans fell short, He came down. He came to make His dwelling amongst us. After making a sacrifice for sins, He sent His Spirit that we might be the temple and dwelling place of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 2:19-22).
The end of the story comes in Revelation 21 where it is written,
“Behold the dwelling place of God is with man, He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God”
Rev. 21:3, ESV
The Greek word here for “dwelling place” comes from the same root as the reference in John 1:14. Christ came to dwell here so that one day we can dwell up there in glory! On that day, there will be no temple there for He will be with us (Rev. 21:22).
Temples came and went. Their purpose was to connect God with mankind, and this is all fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the way, truth, and life (John 14:6) who made a way for us to have this everlasting hope, despite our sins. One day we’ll experience that glory of heaven and know that what makes heaven, heaven, is that He is there.
[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1566.
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