A Dwelling Place for God
Ephesians 2: 17-22
King David wanted to build it, but
God told him no. King Solomon did build it about three thousand years ago. It
lasted about four hundred years, until the Babylonians destroyed it. About seventy
years later, it was rebuilt under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. It
lasted until 70 AD, when the Romans destroyed it during the siege of Jerusalem.
Although the emperor Julian authorized a rebuild, it was never attempted.
I’m talking about the Temple in
Jerusalem, of course, the set of buildings that took the place of the
Tabernacle, a moving temple in the Sinai desert that went with the people of
Israel during the days of Moses and the Exodus. When God’s people came to rest
in the Promised Land, they wanted to give God a home. When judges were replaced with kings, it was
the fourth king, Solomon, who got the nod to build. It was thought that the
people of Israel had found a permanent home, and that their God deserved one as
well. The thing is, for the Jews, they were to find that they had more in
common with the nomadic existence of their forebears than they ever dreamed.
From the Babylonians to the Assyrians to the Romans to Nazi Germany in the
twentieth century, the Jews were being conquered, transplanted, and re-planted
throughout history. It was not until 1948 that a little sliver of the Middle
East was politically carved out for what is now the nation of Israel.
Can you imagine the joy and pride of
the people seeing Solomon’s temple go up? Although it took a full seven years
to erect, and at tremendous cost to the people through taxation and labor,
still it was a source of great pride. Can you imagine the joy and pride when it
was rebuilt by Ezra and Nehemiah and others, another three year undertaking
just for the temple without the outbuildings?
I bet you can also imagine what it
may have felt like to have the temple sacked. Three times the temple was
destroyed. Twice it was rebuilt, but not the third time. When the temple was
destroyed by the Roman Empire, the people of Israel found a different way to
assemble. What exists today in its place in Jerusalem is a conglomeration of
different faith traditions, all fighting for a stake in the sacred ground on
which sits the Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock, depending on your faith
tradition.
We have a thing about houses. When
Jacob’s family came to Egypt and found Joseph, Jacob’s long lost son, second
only to Pharaoh himself, they settled in the Land of Goshen and built dwellings
to live in. When they were liberated, the Exodus took them to the land of
Canaan, where they built places to live. When they returned from exile,
Nehemiah led them in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem so that they could then
build their dwellings inside the safety of the wall.
In America, we too have a thing
about houses. The only depression in eighty years that brought us to a crisis
point was over a collapse in the housing market. We thrive when are building
houses. We suffer when we aren’t. America runs on building things, especially
houses. For us, houses say stability, security, arrival, participation in the
dream.
And yet, God lived in a Tabernacle, a
moveable dwelling. The Ark of the Covenant, the most visual symbol of God to
the people of Israel in the Old Testament, was built with carrying poles. It
was built to be portable. Didn’t God want his own house?
David worried about that. David
united the northern and southern kingdoms with God’s help. He triumphantly
brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and set it in its reserved place
inside a tent that David had pitched for it. Then David went home to his very
nice house. And then David began to ponder. 2 Samuel 7 tells us that David
spoke to the prophet Nathan, saying “See
now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”
David was a man after God’s own heart, and David was worried about how it
looked for him to be in a palace and God to be in a tent.
David didn’t get it. Neither do we.
Listen to what God said to David through the prophet Nathan:
4 But that same night the word of the Lord
came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant
David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would
you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a
house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this
day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In
all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a
word with any of the judges[a] of
Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have
you not built me a house of cedar?”’ … I
took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince[b] over
my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you... And I will make for you a
great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And
I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that
they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more… And I
will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are
fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your
offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
What was God saying to David? What is he
saying to us? David had his heart in the right place, but he didn’t have his
priorities in the right place. David was thinking construction and glory
and palaces and temples. God was thinking in a completely different way.. Look
at what God says to David through the prophet. God never asked for a house. God is thinking about houses, all
right, but not the kind that are built with bricks and mortar. God speaks to
David and completely turns the tables. He says to David that not only does he,
God, not want a house, but that he is going to build David a house. Again, the
house to which God refers is not made of earthly materials. It is made of God’s
honor and love, of God’s favor. God will build David a house of people, of sons
and daughters, of a lineage that will trace itself all the way to the birth of
Jesus Christ.
In his book on
Counseling and Christian Wholeness, Philip Culbertson talks about different
ways to examine family dynamics. He mentions that one of the lenses to see that
dynamic is to use the metaphor of a house. He points out that house is one of the most common biblical
words connoting “family’” Think about that. God tells David that he is going to
build David a house. God is talking about family. That’s the kind of house that
God builds, from the house of Abraham
to the house of David to the house of Kirkley or Campbell or Catoe right here
and now.
Why do I say all this
today? Because we have recently watched our earthly temple come down. Because
some of us might be experiencing demolition remorse. That may be, but it is the
wrong lens through which to see, and the wrong priority with which to build.
God is the master
builder. He has been in the construction business since the beginning He
started with chaos and look what he built. He started with a man and a woman
and look what has grown from that. Paul understood that. In the 2nd
chapter of Ephesians, he gives us the lens through which to see and the
priorities by which we should govern our direction as a church. Paul reminds us
that Jesus preached peace, not only to the nation of Israel but to the whole
world; that Jesus provided us access
to the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us the opportunity to be members
of the household of God. Listen. The
household of God.
Paul tells us that with
Jesus as the cornerstone, the whole structure joins together, growing into a
holy temple in the Lord. Paul is not talking about buildings, at least not in
the sense that we normally think. Paul is talking about God and the way he told
David about building. God’s house has never been made of bricks and mortar.
God’s dwelling has never been able to be confined to a single earthly
structure. What is it made of? What has it always and forever been made of?
Listen to Paul:
in whom the whole structure, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him (Christ) you are also being built together
into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Eph. 2: 21,
22.
We are building a
church. Those who came before us were building the same church. Those who will
come after us will build that same church. It is not Rocky Creek Presbyterian.
That is only an address.
God has a mission, and
he has chosen to use the church to accomplish that mission. If buildings can
help his people to gather and serve him, that’s great. But buildings will never
be the Church. Come and help build God’s church. You and you and you—and even
I—are God’s house. He built us that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment