The Dwelling Place of God

For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD (Hag. 2:6–7; Mal. 3:1–3).[1]

Have you ever longed for something, with great anticipation, only to find that when that something arrived it fell far short of what you imagined? How often is our ideal contrary to reality? How often does this lead to frustration with our circumstances and discouragement in the moment? It is likely that all of us have experienced this to one degree or another. But what if your religion, family, home, nationality, your identity, were all connected and directed toward what was to come, and what if you had waited not three or four years but seventy? It sounds like a set-up for disappointment. Coming out of the Babylonian exile and returning to their homeland, the children of Israel were more than disappointed; they were despondent.

Seventy years is a long time. Imagine the stories that would be told to children and grandchildren, including inflated memories bordering on legend. Behavioral scientists call this the “Nostalgia Effect,” remembering the past as better than it actually was. But nostalgia can only carry you so far, until the cold, hard facts of reality sober you to the truth. When Israel returned to their homeland, reality was a tragedy. Their homeland had become a barren wasteland surrounded by enemies who were determined to thwart the reestablishment of what once was the theocratic nation of Israel. What the people had hoped for upon their return proved to be devastatingly difficult.

Proverbs teaches, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14). What the people needed was leadership, and in his providence, God sent it, not in one person but three, a prophet, a priest, and the son of a king: Haggai, the prophet; Joshua, the high priest; and Zerubbabel, the son of a former king. And God used these three men to not only encourage the people but to lead them in the concerted effort of rebuilding the temple, the visible symbol of the Lord’s presence among his people. To see people come together in working toward a common goal is a beautiful thing. What was not beautiful was the temple they built. The dimensions were right but the accessorized splendor of Solomon’s silver and gold was missing, leaving the newly constructed temple a mundane replication of the temple’s former glory. More importantly, it wasn’t just nostalgia; the glory of the Lord was not present in the new temple, as it had been before.

The people wondered: What good is a rebuilt-temple if the Lord is absent? Their assumption was that God was not present unless he manifested himself in the temple. But the Lord confronted their erroneous assumption, explaining the reality of his presence, saying, “I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not” (Hag. 2:4-5). He who promised their ancestors, “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Lev. 26:11-12), did not break his promise. But Haggai’s prophecy looks not only to that moment in time but beyond, to a time when the presence of the Lord would be in-person, the incarnation of the Son of God, prophet, priest, and king.

Preparation for His Presence

Approximately eighty years later, the children of Israel had settled back in their homeland with a rebuilt temple and many of the reconstituted customs of the law. But being in the right place does not guarantee a right heart. Outwardly, the people were practicing their God-given religion, but inwardly their hearts were far from him. And so, God sent his prophet Malachi to confront the sins of his people but also to restate the promise of his coming presence. Malachi served as a kind of prophetic forerunner, but there was a greater one to come, a messenger who would prepare the way for the Lord. And then, there was silence, no fulfillment, not even a prophetic Word, for four hundred years.

It is in times like this that the children of God, then and now, need to return and listen to God’s written Word and rest in his promises. How often are we frustrated with God because he seems silent when we need an answer? How often are we discouraged because God does not answer our prayers the way we petitioned? How often are we angry because our expectations are not met? But God’s ways are not our ways, and his timing is not our timing.

In God’s perfect timing, one day God sent his angel Gabriel to tell an old priest named Zechariah that his barren wife, Elizabeth, would have a child who would pick up where Malachi left off, the last and greatest of God’s prophets, who would prepare the way to ‘turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16-17). Unlike all the prophets before him, John the Baptist was chosen to prepare the Lord’s people at that present moment for the in-person presence of God, the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus. What was promised was fulfilled in him, because the purpose and pleasure of God is to be present with his people.

Promise of His Presence

Well before Israel returned to their homeland, Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). The Hebrew name translated “Immanuel” is the combination of two words, immanu, meaning “with us,” and el, meaning “God.” The very name contains the fulfillment of God’s promise to be present with his people. How Isaiah’s prophecy would be fulfilled was left to speculation, until the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21-22). In his Gospel, Matthew clarifies, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matt. 1:22-23). As God had promised so it was fulfilled, Immanuel, God with us.

Malachi prophesied, “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple,” but the apostle John says when he came, “his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). The Hebrew word translated “suddenly” is typically associated with a physical calamity, but when Christ came the great calamity was unbelief. The problem, then and now, is we often expect God to act according to our preconceived notions rather than according to his redemptive purposes, which is why the Pharisees were confused and offended when Jesus said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The Pharisees couldn’t fathom such a destruction and reconstruction. They did not recognize the true temple before them.

According to the testimony of Scripture, they were without excuse. In his prophecy, pointing to Christ, Malachi refers to “the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” In his first advent Christ came delivering in his life, death, and resurrection the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Israel. Paul makes this point clear connecting the timing, type, and totality of Christ’s coming, when he writes to the Galatians, saying, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). According to God’s sovereign plan of redemption, Christ came in fulfillment of his covenant, as promised, including the promise of his abiding presence.

John begins his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But then John connects who the Word of God is with what he did: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14). John’s language is intentionally reminiscent of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, where the glory of the Lord dwelled among his people. Greater than the tabernacle or the temple, Christ came as the embodied temple of God, [2] fulfilling God’s promise to make his dwelling among his people, to walk among them as their God.[3] His living, breathing, walking “house” was filled with the glory of God, which is precisely what John beheld. But what we must not miss in this truth is that he did this to be with us, not only in his earthly ministry but forever. The purpose and pleasure of God is to be present with his people.

Purified for His Presence

Prior to his ascension, Jesus said to his Church, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), a promise of his indwelling Spirit within every believer but also a reference to “the end,” a day when Christ’s spiritual presence will become physical, and we will always be with the Lord, body and soul, forever. Until that day, we live by faith in Christ and are led by his Spirit, as he works in us, purifyingly preparing us for eternity, sanctifying us, or what the apostle Paul calls being “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29). This purifying process, or sanctification, may seem like an unnecessary part of our salvation. We may think that since we are justified as righteous before God by his grace through faith in Christ, and if this is “the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9), then life after this is merely a grind until we reach the “gain” of death, and then on to glory. After all, didn’t Paul say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21)? The problem is we often fixate on “to die is gain” over “to live is Christ.” How easy it is to forget that Christ has redeemed us, given us his Spirit, including the promise of abundant life, that we may serve as his physical presence here on earth until he returns. A certain fix for what is the folly of evangelical escapism is service to others through the abiding presence of Christ. Living life for Christ is a glorious testimony to the glory of God.

And because we are here according to his purpose, he refines us by his Spirit’s presence. “For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap,” Malachi says, cleansing and refining us, that we may serve as priests in his service, refined “like gold and silver,” presenting ourselves “as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). If you are here, every second of your existence, God’s sovereign purpose is in it: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The good works of a life lived for Christ conclude when God’s workmanship is through, whether in death or the Lord’s return, not a day sooner.

Let us not wait until the last day to remember Malachi’s question: “who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” There is only one answer: Only those who stand in the righteousness of Christ, in whom he is present. And on that last day, the Lord “will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.... [and] will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in,” that he may fill his house “with glory.” For the unbeliever, this should sound terrifying, but the believer sees God’s purpose in it. With gratitude for God’s grace, we know that we have received a kingdom “that cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28).

Our hope rests not in a sad replication of a rebuilt temple. Rather, we look forward to the fulfillment of a holy city and a new Jerusalem descending from heaven, and we who have been purifyingly prepared for it will hear these glorious words, “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. 21:1-3). And in that city, John writes, there will be no temple, because the “temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Rev. 21:22-24). Have you ever longed for something, with great anticipation, only to find that when that something arrived it fell far short of what you imagined, that your ideal was contrary to reality? If you are in Christ, worry no more; reality of our eternal presence with the Lord far exceeds what you could ever imagine.

God teaches us in his Word to be encouraged by looking back to what he has done in the past and looking to what he promises to do in the future. He does this not to encourage nostalgia or escapism but to develop dependent trust in him and his Word. God promised to be present with his people, and so he was. God promised to be present with his people, and so he sent his Son. God promised to be present with his people, and so he gave us his Spirit. God promised to be present with his people, and so he will be forever. The purpose and pleasure of God is to be present with his people.

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] John 2:18-22

[3] Lev. 26:11-12