WILL GOD INDEED DWELL WITH MEN?
Saturday, 13th August 2016
2 Chronicles 6:1-42 (NKJV)
Then Solomon spoke: “The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud.
2 I have surely built You an exalted house, and a place for You to dwell in forever.”
3 Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.
4 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,
5C‘Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel.
6 Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.
’7 Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
8 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart.
9 Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.’
10 So the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke, and I have filled the position of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised; and I have built the temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
11 And there I have put the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which He made with the children of Israel.”
12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands
13 (for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven);
14 and he said: …
Solomon built a magnificent temple for God, “an exalted house … a place for God to dwell in forever” (2 Ch. 6:2). Solomon’s Prayer for the temple he built was that God’s eyes would be continually open towards the temple and that God would answer prayers made towards the temple. Now take note of v. 18,”But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” It was clear to Solomon that God cannot dwell in the temple he built for Him.
Where then does God dwell? The Apostle Paul in his amazement asked the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”(1Cor. 3:16). Our bodies indeed should be God’s spiritual dwelling place, hence an exalted house of prayer with the eyes of God continually fixed on it. Therefore, be ye holy for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16). Are you a sanctified and holy temple fit for God’s habitation?
Prayer: Make this prayer by Matthew Henry your personal prayer today: “May our hearts become His resting-place; may Christ dwell therein by faith, consecrating them as His temples and shedding abroad His love therein.”(Matthew Henry’s Commentary).