SCRIPTURE: 1 Kings 8
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! [1 Kings 8:27] God cannot be contained by a temple, Solomon knows this. But he also knows that God chooses to reveal Himself powerfully, and personally, through His covenant bond of love. God has joined Himself to Israel, has agreed to work in them, with them, through them. The ark of the covenant, and the temple, symbolize that covenant bond.
This chapter represents the high point of the old testament. All of God’s promises have come true. They are enjoying peace in the promised land. They have multiplied like the sand, each one enjoys the fruit of the land. The nations are being blessed through Israel. Genesis 12:1-2 is fulfilled. God moves into the temple, symbolically, through the cloud. No wonder Israel celebrates!
But as high as this point is, it is still the old testament (or covenant), and is therefore inferior to the new testament (covenant). In the new arrangement, God moves into our hearts. It is not the blood of countless animal sacrifices, as with the temple, but with the blood of Jesus, that God moves into our hearts. From the life, through the death, to the resurrection, ascension to Jesus, then culminating in the Spirit filling us on Pentecost, God’s glory has returned to us, to all who receive him in faith and love: Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [John 14:23] This is the highest point, only to be beaten by the final return, and establishing of God’s restored kingdom paradise.
How Solomon describes the temple, we can now describe our hearts, where God now lives. When we turn inward to the Lord and pray, He responds. When we sin, He grieves. When we repent, He forgives. When we seek wisdom, He provides it. Our hearts have become the place of meeting. Every time we pray, He hears, He responds.
How do we respond to this? What great fellowship, what great privilege, what great pleasure we have in knowing God lives IN our hearts. But do I experience it like this? Or is praying a drudgery, a duty, a dead experience?
PRAYER:
Lord, may I experience the wonder of You, and the Father, in me, through the Spirit, when I pray. Wherever I am, whatever I do, may I sense and appreciate You in me!
I often come back to this thought that God dwells in me.
There are so many aspects to it.
Right now, knowing I am a dwelling place for God makes me want to be clean. I am more and more willing for Him to show me the parts that are not Holy, parts that were damaged by other people in the past which cause me to behave in ungodly ways, also where I am selfish or unkind, or going my own way, not His way. I want to be a beautiful place for Him to dwell and it is only Him who can make me that.
So Lord, keep on with the house cleaning, I am willing. Thank-you God for this awesome priviledge that You dwell in me/us!
A friend sent me this link to a singer who sings about seeing God in everyone around them. What makes me think though is that yes, I can see God in others and through me but there is also a distinction … God is God and we are his creation. It is fine to see God’s handiwork through others but that doesn’t make us God – He is still God. But if we do see his handiwork in his creation, the hope is that we will be reminded of who He is and that He indeed dwells amongst us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_h9eQ15CIs