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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Building the House of God, #7
When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious—that you, O LORD God, might dwell there. (Psalms 68:18—NIV)
The Lord has come from Sinai, from the Law of Moses, into His people through Jesus Christ. At one time God's people were governed by the Law of Moses. Now we are governed by the forming and dwelling of Christ in us.
The forming and dwelling of Christ in us is the new covenant. Christ must be formed in us, which is a transformation of what we are in personality. Then the Father and the Son come to dwell in our transformed personality. Once the new covenant is formed in us we become God's covenant with the nations of the earth.
The gifts from men, or consisting of men, are given for the purpose of forming a dwelling place for God.
Several times in the Scriptures we find reference to God's plan to build a house for Himself.
You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. (Exodus 15:17—NIV)
The above verse may be the first indication of God's plan for man—that man be the dwelling place of God.
Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8—NIV)
The Tabernacle of the Congregation was to be a sanctuary for God where He could dwell among the people of Israel.
And then the great question:
This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:1,2—NIV)
Heaven is God's throne, not His house. God's house is composed of those who are humble and contrite in spirit and tremble at God's Word.
When Jesus said, "In My Father's house there are many dwelling places," He was not referring to Heaven but to Himself and His Body.
Don't you believe I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (John 14:10—NIV)
Can you see from the above verse where we get the idea that Jesus Christ is the House of the Father?
However, we also are living stones in the same house.
The question of Isaiah, Chapter 66 is repeated by the first martyr.
"Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?" says the Lord. "Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?" (Acts 7:49,50—NIV)
Paul states clearly that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are being made the eternal house of God.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22—NIV)
To be continued.