Where God Dwells

“Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest?  For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.”  Isaiah 66:1-2

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle.  Exodus 25:8 says, “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”.  The tabernacle was a portable sanctuary that could be moved from place to place as the Israelites traveled toward the promised land.  God gave Moses very specific instructions as to how to construct the tabernacle and how to furnish it (Exodus 36-40).  When King David ruled over the house of Israel, he determined to build a permanent sanctuary, a temple, whereby the Ark of the Covenant could rest and “for the foot stool of our God” (I Chronicles 28:2).  However, David was not allowed to build the temple because he was “a man of war and had shed blood” (I Chronicles 28:3).  David’s son, Solomon, was chosen by God to build the temple using the pattern that the Holy Spirit had given to David (I Chronicles 28:1-12).  As with the tabernacle, God gave specific instructions as to how to build His temple ((I Kings 6:1-38).  It took seven years to complete the house of God.

During the days of Isaiah and also during Christ’s time on earth, the Jews revered the temple.  It nearly became an object of worship for them rather than God who had given them the temple.  The prophets and Christ Himself had warned that the temple would be destroyed.  Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army burned Jerusalem and destroyed the temple built by Solomon in 586 B.C.   The second temple, built by Zerubbabel in 970 B.C., after the return of the captives who had been held in Babylon for 70 years, was renovated by Herod the Great about 20 B.C.  It was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans which proves that man-made objects never last.

God does not need a building made by man in which to reside.  Heaven is God’s throne, and the earth is His footstool.  He can’t be confined to a building, temple, church, denomination, or any other man-made device or tradition.  He is God Almighty.  Job found that out in no uncertain terms.  God asked him where he was when God made the world (Job 38:4).  God is bigger than anything we can imagine.  Matthew Henry asked, “What satisfaction can the Eternal Mind take in a house made with men’s hands?”  It is an insult to God to think that mortal man can do or make anything that is comparable to the grandeur and magnificence of the LORD God.

The only house that God dwells in is in the hearts of His people who love and serve Him, “even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at (His) word.”  The one who is “poor” is not the man or woman who has little financial means, but rather the one who is destitute without the Lord and recognizes his or her helplessness without God.  One who has a “contrite spirit” is one who is overcome with remorse and guilt because of the sins that he or she has committed against a Holy God.  One who “trembles at God’s word” is one who recognizes his or her guilt before God and knows that he or she can never measure up to God’s standard of perfection.  The person who truly fears God knows that he or she is accountable to Him.  God sees into a man’s heart and knows his thoughts and intents.  Hebrews 12:4 makes that fact crystal clear: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.  There is no escaping the eye of God.  He sees everything.

It is just too bad that an awful lot of folks don’t understand or refuse to believe that.  If they could only realize the difference that the Lord could make in their lives if they would allow Him to dwell within them, they could stop searching for peace and contentment through man-made means which never satisfy that God-shaped void in their souls. God desires for all people to be saved (I Timothy 2:4a) as He knocks at the door of one’s heart desiring to come in and make His home there, but He won’t come in uninvited.