All the way in the beginning, the Lord revealed that His heart was to walk with and dwell with man. If we look at the Garden of Eden, we see that:
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Genesis 3: 8
Here, the Lord came to meet with man, but man, Adam and Eve, hid from Him. In fact, we have been hiding from Him ever since. The Hebrew word for hid here is ‘chaba, ‘ which means to withdraw from oneself, to draw back, and to harden. From that moment, the man continued to withdraw from God and to harden his heart against Him. We know from the Aramaic Bible that it was the Word or Preincarnate Jesus who walked in the Garden.
But the Lord God has continued to pursue men that He might walk amongst them and one day dwell among them. It is so hard to believe and understand the heart of the Lord God that despite all we have done, He never gave up on us, and His heart has remained toward us.
In Exodus chapter thirty-three, we find the Children of Israel after Mount Sinai. The Lord miraculously and powerfully delivered His people and demonstrated His love and desire towards them. But when Moses delayed his time up the mountain with the Lord, the Children of Israel once again betrayed God and built an idol of a golden calf to worship.
Despite this, the Lord promises to send His angel before them, to defeat their enemy, and to bring them into the Land of Milk and Honey. But, He explained:
“Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Exodus 33: 3
“It is difficult to hear these words, but we cannot even begin to imagine how heartbroken the Lord was when He spoke them. As a result, Moses had to move the tent of the Lord outside the camp.”
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of the cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshipped each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of un, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”
Exodus 33: 7-11
Even though the Lord dwelt outside the camp, He made Himself available to His people. It must have been an incredible sight as they watched Moses go out to the tent of meeting, and the glorious pillar of cloud descend as the Lord came to meet with him. And the Lord came and talked with Moses as a man speaks with his friend. The Lord God, Who is holy and beyond approach, and no one can talk to and live, came and talked face to face with Moses.
The tent that was used for meetings was called the Tabernacle of Meeting. In Hebrew, the word for meeting is “mow’ed”, which means an appointed place, time or tent of meeting. This word was used to describe the feasts of the Lord, which were seen as divine appointments with Him. These feasts were a reminder of what He had done in redeeming them and pointed to a future appointment when He would meet with them. However, at the core of these meetings is His plan of salvation. The tabernacle was a divine appointment that revealed God’s plan for salvation so that He could dwell with us. The tabernacle served as a type and shadow, pointing to our divine appointment with Him.
“And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to Holy Place inside the veil, before the Mercy Seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering…”
Leviticus 16: 2-3
In the center of the Tent of Meeting was a sacred area called the Holy Place. Within the Holy Place was the most important object, the ark of the covenant. The Mercy Seat was located at the center of the ark of the covenant. This was the place where God’s Presence would come to meet with the High Priest, in between the two cherubim on the Mercy Seat.
In order for the High Priest to enter the Holy Place of God’s Presence, he had to carry the blood. This was a symbol of the divine appointment between God and man, which would allow us to draw closer to Him and abide with Him.
In the Garden, humans could walk and talk with God, but after sin, they lost that privilege. God still pursued them.
In First Kings, Solomon built a Temple and said:
“So that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke: ‘The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built You a place for You to dwell in forever.”
1 Kings 8: 11-13
The word Solomon used for “dwell” was shakan, which means to settle down and reside. But God wanted more and promised to send the Anointed One, His Son, who would be Emmanuel, God with us.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7: 14
Jesus would be defined as the fulfillment of God’s heart to dwell with us. God so loved us that He sent His Son the Word. The very One who came and walked in the garden with Adam and Eve came that He might dwell amongst us.
“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His Name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1: 11-13
The act of giving gifts is a way to show, express, and communicate love. A gift is a tangible representation of our affection for the recipient. In the same manner, Jesus came to earth to reveal and embody the love of God. He came to the people who had been redeemed and saved from slavery in Egypt, and prepared them for their divine purpose. However, many of them did not accept Jesus. The Greek word used for “received” is “paralambano,” which means to accept someone. In contrast, the word John used for those who did accept Jesus was “lambano,” which means to claim, associate with, and take by the hand. Therefore, they should have recognized Jesus and honored Him as the gift from God, taking Him close to their hearts. If we claim to love God, then we must accept and cherish the gift He has given us. However, some people did recognize who Jesus was, and they pursued Him and made Him their own. They desired the gift because He was everything to them.
But to draw near to Him and abide with Him, we must be clean, and that comes only through His blood and His Word. When we stand clean through the new birth because of belief in Him, we find out what He truly longs for when He desires to dwell with us: to dwell in us.
“You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
John 15: 3, 4
After His death and resurrection, He redeemed us not from Egypt this time but from sin and death. Here, we need to turn to the Book of Hebrews.
“But the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience…”
Hebrews 9: 7-10
In the past, people made sacrifices to cover their sins, but these sacrifices were not enough to provide a perfect atonement for believers to approach God. The writer explains that the Temple was a symbol of the previous dispensation. However, now God no longer dwells in a building hidden behind a veil where no one can approach Him because of sin. Rather, we have become the Holy Place where His Presence dwells.
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6: 19
The Greek word for used for temple here is not the building of the Temple, but the Holy Place. Further, we are told:
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast our confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10: 19-23
In times past, they entered in fear lest they die. But now we are to draw near with such bold confidence because of the blood of Jesus. We have faith in the finished work of the Cross, and we honor the blood. We enter not based on how we feel but on the facts of our salvation in Christ.
Today, He abides in us and promises us that soon He will brings us to Himself and that we will every more be with Him. He also promises that a new day is coming when there will be a new heave and a new earth.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall be no longer be any death, there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; for the first things have passed away.”
Revelation 21: 3, 4
Here we see the heart of the Father and His desire to dwell amongst us. We further, see the consequence of His abiding with us- LIFE.
