GOD DWELLING AMONG MEN
[p. 398] GOD DWELLING AMONG MEN
Exodus 25: 1 - 9; Revelation 21: 9 - 27
My thought and desire is to pursue through the scriptures the ways of God, with the view of shewing how steadfastly He adheres to His purpose. The world goes on in its way, but not all the will and perversity of man can divert God from His purpose: the counsel of the Lord, it shall stand.
There are three principal thoughts connected with God’s testimonies, and these all rest in the heavenly city, and there is nothing revealed beyond that. There is a point where every testimony of God rests, where all that God has given witness to is displayed, and this point is the heavenly Jerusalem. The Old Testament saints could not fully understand the testimonies of God, for they did not apprehend where they all centred. God gave them a measure of light and glimpses of His purpose, but with us the day has dawned and the day-star has arisen in our hearts; this was not the case with those who went before. When the time of display comes, the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings. Christianity is different to this: to us the Sun of righteousness has not arisen, but we have in the day-star the light of all God’s testimonies. The heavenly Jerusalem is the proper resting-place of these; you get there the display of everything testified of. The nations will walk in the light of the heavenly city. Men are in darkness now; they stumble over this thing and that thing; but there will be no dark infidelity in that day, for all that is of God will be in display.
We saw last time the truth that God purposed to bless; what He did at the beginning of the creation in Adam, He reiterated in Abraham, and the blessing has reached the gentiles in Christ Jesus. Now I desire to speak of God dwelling, and you could not have a greater security [p. 399] for blessing than the fact of God dwelling. In proof of this I draw attention to Revelation 21: 4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”. This speaks of the blessing and happiness of the time when God will dwell with men. The presence of God among men must bring the greatest possible security for blessing; therefore the thought of God dwelling is an advance on that of God blessing.
Now I turn to Exodus 25, because it is there that we get the first definite idea of God dwelling; we get an allusion to it in chapter 15 in the expression: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in”; but in chapter 25 we get the injunction to Moses to prepare for God a sanctuary, that He might dwell among the children of Israel. Everything for the sanctuary was to be taken from the people; it is not here the thought of God preparing for Himself a sanctuary; for all was to be taken from men; but God would dwell among men.
But previously to this the law had been given, and I believe we get in that an intimation of the principle upon which God’s dwelling among men depends, and that is that man should be morally a reflex of Himself. Redemption had, of course, to be accomplished, but the fact upon which all hangs is the incarnation — that the Son of God should become Man — which was the prelude to the law being written in the heart of man. The law was given on tables of stone, but in the mind of God Christ was in view, and the new covenant in which the law is written on the heart of man; and I believe it is on the ground of this that God says, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them”.
Man will become a reflex of God when the law is written in his heart, it is in that way that he partakes of Christ, and then God dwells among men. I have sometimes [p. 400] had a difficulty in connecting the giving of the law with the setting up of the tabernacle; but depend upon it, that the thought of God was that men must be a reflex of Himself, that is, partake of Christ before He could dwell among them.
In the midst of Israel you get therefore in the way of testimony the fact that God dwelt among men. The tabernacle was much more important in this respect than the temple. The temple came in when the people had come into the land and the kingdom was established; then, too, God dwelt among His people — but it had not the same force of testimony.
I pass on now to John 2: 18 - 22. Here we get a great advance. The thought is no longer of a material temple, but still of the dwelling of God in the way of testimony. God was veiled when Christ was here: you could not speak of display; it was God dwelling here in the way of testimony. Christ spoke of His body as the temple of God. The Father was there, and the Holy Spirit was there; the Father who dwelt in Him did the works, and Christ acted in the power of the Holy Spirit; it was God here in the way of testimony. There could be no greater proof of the grace of God than that in Christ God should present Himself in this way. God in Him had come close to man; the Father’s words and works were there, and the energy of evil subdued in the power of the Holy Spirit. In thinking of the Lord when here, you must remember that the glory of God was veiled in a servant’s form; but at the same time the fulness of the Godhead was there, not in display, but in the way of testimony.
In Ephesians 2: 19 - 22 we get a further thought presented: God is still here in the way of testimony — Jew and gentile being built together for an habitation of God by the Spirit. It is an actual dwelling of God here, but what is concurrent with that is a building growing, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord”. Testimony marks the present moment, not yet display; God dwells now [p. 401] by the Spirit. God dwells in the assembly, and 1 Corinthians 14: 25 shews how that a man coming into the assembly would become conscious through the testimony of God being there. Jew and gentile are built together for a habitation of God by the Spirit, and at the same time the whole building grows.
I pass on now to Revelation 21, the heavenly city, where every testimony will be merged in display. The heavenly city will be a witness of God blessing, of God dwelling, and of God ruling: all meets there. The thought of dwelling passes on to the eternal state, and that assures to men the eternal security of blessing, for there could be no ill where God dwells. In the millennium God will secure blessing to man in His government according to His purpose. The sway of heaven will be in rule over the earth; it will be a time of display, the testimonies of God have come out bit by bit, but they all centre in the heavenly city.
Now for us the heavenly city exists. I call attention to a passage in Galatians 4: 24 - 31: “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”. We have come to Jerusalem above; we have been begotten of it, we are her children, and children are largely formed in the character of their mother. We apprehend the point where every testimony rests, and that is in Christ and the church. I believe the church is the vessel in which all the testimonies of God are displayed. We have come to the city of the living God (Hebrews 12: 22). If you turn to Ephesians 3: 14 - 21, you get there the vessel, and I ask how can you distinguish morally between the vessel and Christ, when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith? Look at the intelligence of the vessel: “That ye ... may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height”. What a range of intelligence is opened up here to the church! “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”. What wonderful things to comprehend and to know, and to what end? “That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”, that is, that not a moral quality of God might be lacking. How else could it be the completeness of God? And thus “glory” is to be to God “in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end”. When the heavenly city comes out it has the glory of God, and her light is most precious. The church is formed now by the operation of the Spirit in the divine nature, so that it is all of God. What a wonderful vessel the church is, if you take in the divine thought of it as it comes out here, and will come out in display in the heavenly city. But we have come to it — to the church in Christ Jesus; and it is there God dwells to the eternal security of all else. We cannot separate Christ from the church. The church is the vessel where every testimony of God rests, and everything which God has witnessed to will be displayed there.
If we get into the light of the heavenly city we come into freedom, into the “liberty wherewith Christ has made us free”, and we shall not be “entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. It has a great effect upon souls in the way of liberty to come into the light of the city.
The present moment is different to all other times, because we have the vessel in presence, where every testimony of God rests. May God give us to be in the full light of the heavenly city, which is illuminated by the pleasure of God. As I have already said, it would bring us practically into liberty. May we understand better where everything testified of will be displayed!