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God's House

Often we talk about being 'in God's house' on a Sunday morning. What does the Bible mean when it talks about God's house?

In the Old Testament it refers to:

  1. Bethel, 'the house of God', a place where Jacob met with God in a dream, and God spoke to Jacob and renewed the covenant he had made with Abraham with him Gen 28:10-22. This place is mentioned frequently throughout the rest of the Old Testament
  2. The house built in Shiloh to house the ark of the covenant Jdg 18:31. It may just have been a tent, like the tabernacle, we don't really know, but we do know that the ark was kept in the most holy place, where God's presence was powerfully experienced
  3. The temple 1Ki 5; 1Ch 6:48 often referred to as 'the house for Yahweh [the LORD]' rather than 'God's house' 1Ki 6:1, and it was filled with a cloud representing Yahweh's presence 1Ki 8:10, though this wasn't actually where Yahweh lived, as the whole of heaven cannot contain him 1Ki 8:27

What we see in common to all three uses is the presence of Yahweh in a special way. The house of Yahweh was where heaven and earth met.

In the New Testament the temple is not replaced by the church as a building, but by us as God's people i.e. the church as a gathering. For example Paul says:

Do you not know that you* are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you*? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you* are that temple.  1Co 3:16-17 ESV
    *The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17

18 For through him we both [Jews and those from the nations] have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you [those from the nations] are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  Eph 2 ESV

Note how the theme of God's presence inhabiting the temple continues into the New Testament, but the place/tent/building has been replaced by the church worldwide, comprising people from every tribe, nation, language and tongue (Rev 7, which is a picture of all chosen Jews and all those chosen from all nations worshipping God and the lamb before God's throne). We, the church worldwide, are now the place on earth where heaven and earth meet! What a privilege, what a responsibility...

BTW I have avoided the Christian/Jewish jargon term 'Gentiles' in this blog, because it is too negative. The use of the term in Hebrew and Greek is 'nations'.



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