The revelation in the Bible is one. No book ever written is more consistent, even though it is composed of sixty-six books that superficially are quite different from each other. The central thought of the Bible is that God desires to mingle Himself with humanity in order that man may become His dwelling place and that He may become a dwelling place to man. God will be the abode of man, and man will be the abode of God. When Moses said in Psalm 90:1, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations,” he was declaring that the highest experience we as human beings can have is to experience God as our dwelling place.
Many of us do not have the thought that we can dwell in God. God is our Redeemer, Savior, and life, but He also wants to be our dwelling place. Our home is where we are most comfortable. It is arranged the way we like it, and we have what we need there. Over the years I have had to stay in many different places. My hosts have generally been most kind and thoughtful, yet even in the places where I received the most gracious hospitality, I usually felt the lack of something that was readily available at home. In our dwelling place we have our food, our clothing, our loved ones, and many little things that are special to us; in short, we have everything. To experience God as our dwelling place means to have everything in Him, or to have Him as everything to us. Have we ever praised God for being our dwelling place?
We also must be a dwelling place to Him. “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4) covers both these aspects. “O Lord Jesus! We praise You that You are our abode. We can and we do abide in You. Even the more, we praise You that we are Your abode. You can and You must abide in us! If You don’t abide in us, where else can You abide? Heaven is only Your throne, and the earth Your footstool. Without us, You have no place to dwell.”
Most Christians think of the heavens as the place where God dwells. But Isaiah 66:1 tells us, “Thus says Jehovah, / Heaven is My throne, / And the earth the footstool for My feet. / Where then is the house that you will build for Me, / And where is the place of My rest?” Heaven is God’s throne, not His dwelling place. Without us, the redeemed human beings, God has no rest. What a wonder that we can be God’s resting place!
The temple in the Old Testament is called the house of God. If you read the Old Testament carefully, however, you will see that the psalmists and priests of old also considered the house of God their dwelling place. David said, “One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple” (Psa. 27:4). David’s only desire was to dwell in the Lord’s house and to behold His beauty. He brought out the same thought in Psalm 23. At the beginning of the psalm he was enjoying the green pastures. We may appreciate the riches of the pasture, but to be there is like being in elementary school. If we go on to graduate school, we shall say, “I will dwell in the house of Jehovah / For the length of my days” (v. 6)! The nourishment in the house is richer than that found in the pasture. “They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures” (36:8). In God’s house we enjoy the fatness. The temple, then, was a dwelling place not only to God but also to all those who loved and served Him.
Once again I would call to your attention that the central thought of the divine revelation in the Bible is not that we be good or even that we be holy. Rather, it is that we abide in God and let Him abide in us. What a wonder it is that man can be thus mingled with God! Here we are, occupying a very little space, yet God would take us as His dwelling place and would say to us, “Man, come into Me and live in Me! Take Me as your abiding place!” This will be for eternity. We shall enjoy Him, and He will enjoy us. He will also express Himself through us.
(Seven Mysteries in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 5)
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