10. God Dwells With His People

From the beginning of Scripture, we learn that God made mankind for his presence.



People exist to be with God, and God desires to be with his people.



Even amidst rebellion and distance caused by sin and deception, the unified story of Scripture reveals God always working to dwell with his people.



After the Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt, he led them in the wilderness. 



A cloud by day and a fire by night.



They were led by his presence and dwelt in his presence.



God called Moses to the mountain to dwell in his presence.



He desired that the people would be in his presence, but they feared before his holiness and stood at a distance, so God used Moses as a type and shadow of Christ to be the intermediary. (Ex. 20:18-20)



While Moses was on the mountain with the Lord, the people fell back into worshiping idols and made the golden calf.



Even still, in the very next chapter, the tent of meeting is first mentioned. 

In Exodus 40, God instructed Moses to erect the tabernacle.

 



Scripture says when the tabernacle was finished, “…the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” (Ex. 40:34)



Over 400 years after the tabernacle was built, during Solomon’s reign over Israel, the temple was built and, “…the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.” (2 Chr. 5:14)



Nearly 1,000 years after the construction of Solomon’s temple, the angel Gabriel visited the blessed virgin, Mary, telling her she would bear a son. 



Matthew specifically says that,

 
The Lord Jesus, during his earthly ministry, repeatedly speaks about coming back to God’s presence with teachings like,




"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (Jn. 14:3)



“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (Jn. 14:16-17)



“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (Jn. 14:23)





“Abide in me, and I in you.” (Jn. 15:4)



“I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…” (Jn. 17:23-24)




When the time ordained by God had fully come, our Lord Jesus Christ “…gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own.” (Tit. 2:14)

50 days after his resurrection, on the feast of Pentecost, the words of the prophet Joel were fulfilled saying, “…I will pour out my Spirit upon all people…” (Joel 2:28)



Paul writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)



And the Apostle John tells us in the final book of Scripture, “…I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Rev. 21:3)




The unified story of Scripture shows us a clear and repeated pattern — the Lord desires to dwell with his people.



1. Through his presence in the garden of Eden.



2. Through the cloud by day and fire by night.



3. Through the tent of meeting and tabernacle.



4. Through the temple.



5. Through the incarnation of Christ.



6. Through the Holy Spirit indwelling those who believe.



7. Through the renewal of all things when ultimately God will make his full and permanent dwelling place with his people. 



Not only does God want to be with us, and has made a way for it to be possible again, but he has also placed in the hearts of people the desire to be with him — a desire that nothing else can satisfy.



The early church father, Saint Augustine, said, 



“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”



King David, the man after God’s own heart said, 



“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord.” (Ps. 84:2)



After many disciples abandoned following Jesus, the Lord asked the apostles, “Do you want to leave too?” and the Apostle Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (Jn. 6:67-68)



You were made for the presence of God, and God desires you to be with him forever — not only in heaven, but starting now.