Let us build a house for God

[atpollard]

First post in the New Testament forum. W00T!

Technically, this isn’t a NT question … or an OT question. This is one of those threads that runs through the Bible from the beginning to the end.

It started with a simple quote and just thinking about the answer. So FIRST, the quote:

2 Samuel 7 [NLT]

1 When King David was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, 2 the king summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!”​

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3 Nathan replied to the king, “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you.”​

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4 But that same night the LORD said to Nathan,​

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5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD has declared: Are you the one to build a house for me to live in? 6 I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. I have always moved from one place to another with a tent and a Tabernacle as my dwelling. 7 Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people Israel. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’​

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8 “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! 10 And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past, 11 starting from the time I appointed judges to rule my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.​

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“‘Furthermore, the LORD declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! 12 For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline him with the rod, like any father would do. 15 But my favor will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. 16 Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’”​

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17 So Nathan went back to David and told him everything the LORD had said in this vision.​

Now for some thoughts.

• It wasn’t a bad thing for David to want to build a house for the Lord. David’s heart was in the right place.
• God pointed out the logistical difficulties … how does one even begin to build a house big enough to contain God?
• Does God need a house? … Well, OF COURSE NOT! God doesn’t NEED anything.
• Does God want a house? … think about that. I think that God does, which leads to the next question …
• What sort of house does God WANT?

Now we can go back to the BIBLE and see that God eventually built for himself a house made from LIVING STONES (us) in which He desired to dwell. I will leave it for y’all to post NT verses about God’s NT House of Saints.

For me, I will post a verse from way back closer to the beginning (but not even the earliest verses on this subject):

Genesis 3:8-9 [NLT] When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

Before the fall (well, technically immediately after the sin but before the curse), we get a glimpse of what God desires … so stroll in the garden in the cool breeze and be with His people. A hint from Genesis 3 about the sort of house that GOD would build for Himself.

So what do you think?
Anyone have any thoughts on “building a house for God”?

[Of course it was presumptuous ‘click bait’ to talk about US building a house for GOD, but if you read this then it worked.]

 

[Carbon]

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

2 Corinthians 6:16
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

Romans 8:9
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

 

[atpollard]

Genesis 1 [NLT]

• 3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ...
• 6 Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth." ...
• 9 Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear." And that is what happened. ...
• 11 Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation--every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened. ...
• 14 Then God said, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. ...
• 20 Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind." ...
• 24 Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind--livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals." And that is what happened.

An illustration of HOW God created EVERYTHING ... God said 'Let it be so' and "that is what happened". Well, not exactly EVERYTHING. There WAS one exception:

Genesis 1:26-27 [NLT]

• Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground." So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7 [NLT]

• Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

First, the simple exegesis (it says what it says): God spoke (commanded) everything to exist, and it did, EXCEPT mankind. God (plural) MADE us ... and God made us to be LIKE HIM.

Permit me to indulge in some potential eisegesis (which I am convinced is nonetheless correct): For all the rest of CREATION ... planets, stars, oceans, plants, fish, birds, air, animals ... it was ENOUGH to merely SPEAK and command it to be so. It was certainly not beyond the POWER of God to do so with mankind, rather it was outside the DESIRE of God to do so. God wanted something more intimate for this act of creation. THEY (the GODHEAD) formed man from the dust of the ground. The hands of GOD (the Son) scooped up clumps of mud and caressed them into the form chosen by the plan of GOD (the Father) to be both the object of HIS/THEIR [this Trinity makes pronouns difficult] Love and HIS/THEIR Image Bearer (Imageo Dei). What can be a more intimate act of creation than to caress into being with your bare hands? Perhaps what came next! GOD leaned over His creation, man, and placed the lips of GOD over the face of man and with the first kiss ... God breathed HIS SPIRIT into His creation and "man became a living person". Our very breath is the breath of God, not the breath of animals.

I believe this was the first recorded image of the sort of HOUSE that God intended to BUILD for Himself.

 

[Sereni-tea]

I think it is astounding that God desires to dwell with humans.
"O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?" Psalm 144:3

From the beginning God established a home in the garden of Eden where His people enjoyed His presence. After the Fall, He chose the people of Israel to dwell among them, first in the tabernacle and then the temple. Even though His people rebelled time and time again, still He remained with them. When at last He removed His presence and sent His people into exile, He promised that He would bring them back and and they would be with Him once again.

His promise was fulfilled when:
"the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" John 1:14
How incredible that the Eternal Word, though whom everything was created, somehow became part of His creation, so that He could reconcile sinful man with the Holy God! It is breath-taking! Instead of abandoning us and leaving us in our depraced state, He sends Jesus and then He draws us to Himself and builds us into a temple for the Holy Spirit.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4

The Church is precious to God and He is making her into the body of Christ. And we rejoice and long for the Day that is coming:
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And 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. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4

Come, Lord Jesus!

 

[Rufus]

Wow! What a great thread. I'm actually in the middle of reading a book by G.K. Beale called "The Temple and the Church's Mission". Would highly recommend this very scholarly work. Beale traces the very first temple back to the Garden (as you guys have done here), which ironically will be where the last temple will be, according to Revelation 21. And he goes into some great detail about how even many of the ancient pagan temples had a distinct arboreal motif to them, as of course did the Jewish temple.

He then goes on to explain how Adam's mission was to enlarge God's Edenic temple by subduing the earth outside the Garden. The idea was that God intended for his Garden temple (presence) to grow as Adam and Eve fulfilled the creation ordinance of multiplying and filling the earth. And all of this, of course, points to the grand antitype of first this Gospel of the Kingdom age (think of the Great Commission) that culminates in the Final Restoration of Garden of Eden Glory that envelops the entire planet, which is how God and his Christ will be our Living, Eternal Temple. Just awesome stuff!

 

[makesends]

Wow! What a great thread. I'm actually in the middle of reading a book by G.K. Beale called "The Temple and the Church's Mission". Would highly recommend this very scholarly work. Beale traces the very first temple back to the Garden (as you guys have done here), which ironically will be where the last temple will be, according to Revelation 21. And he goes into some great detail about how even many of the ancient pagan temples had a distinct arboreal motif to them, as of course did the Jewish temple.

He then goes on to explain how Adam's mission was to enlarge God's Edenic temple by subduing the earth outside the Garden. The idea was that God intended for his Garden temple (presence) to grow as Adam and Eve fulfilled the creation ordinance of multiplying and filling the earth. And all of this, of course, points to the grand antitype of first this Gospel of the Kingdom age (think of the Great Commission) that culminates in the Final Restoration of Garden of Eden Glory that envelops the entire planet, which is how God and his Christ will be our Living, Eternal Temple. Just awesome stuff!

Interesting!

 

[Sereni-tea]

Wow! What a great thread. I'm actually in the middle of reading a book by G.K. Beale called "The Temple and the Church's Mission". Would highly recommend this very scholarly work. Beale traces the very first temple back to the Garden (as you guys have done here), which ironically will be where the last temple will be, according to Revelation 21. And he goes into some great detail about how even many of the ancient pagan temples had a distinct arboreal motif to them, as of course did the Jewish temple.

He then goes on to explain how Adam's mission was to enlarge God's Edenic temple by subduing the earth outside the Garden. The idea was that God intended for his Garden temple (presence) to grow as Adam and Eve fulfilled the creation ordinance of multiplying and filling the earth. And all of this, of course, points to the grand antitype of first this Gospel of the Kingdom age (think of the Great Commission) that culminates in the Final Restoration of Garden of Eden Glory that envelops the entire planet, which is how God and his Christ will be our Living, Eternal Temple. Just awesome stuff!

I have this book and am slowly working my way through it. So far what I have read is fascinating.

 

[Rufus]

It is indeed! It's absolutely mind-boggling how much typology is subtly weaved into the fabric of the glorious gospel!

 

[jeremiah1five]

I'm not the Carpenter.
I only live in the mansion.

 

[Rufus]

I'm not the Carpenter.
I only live in the mansion.

Praise God for that! Who can destroy what God builds?