The Dwelling Place

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Throughout God’s revelatory history, He has had a chosen dwelling place. In the wilderness and the early years in the Promised Land, it was the Tabernacle. After the reign of David, it was the Jerusalem Temple. The Temple had been rebuilt after Israel’s captivity and was being remolded as Jesus spoke these words:

Mark 13:2
“Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” – NIV

How odd, isn’t it? Jesus speaking, and apparently approving of, the Temple’s destruction.

When Jesus walked this land, He Himself was God’s chosen dwelling place. With the advent of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers, God’s habitation is now those who are in Christ. We, you and me, constitute a mobile and global body in which God lives and moves.

The Temple was temporary and inadequate. It was an illustration of the temple to come, one made of living stones. As living stones, we are to have moved past superficial appearances and formal structures. The worship of God is no longer contained in well-constructed walls. And like it or not, our personal walls, will never restrain Him.

This all begs the question, what is our worship like? Is it like an archaic building, structured and contained? Or, is it fresh as we allow God to move beyond our superficial walls and take us wherever He wills?

Wherever God will go is new heights and new depths, let Him be glorious and let our old stones fall.