The day that Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant into the newly constructed temple in Jerusalem was one of the high points in Israel’s history. The Ark symbolized the presence of God (Exodus 25:10, 21-22) and its entry into the temple marked this building as the place where God would meet with His people. As a demonstration of this reality, when the Ark reached the Holy Place within the Temple, “a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand . . . for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:11).
This image of God’s glory coming to earth is picked up in the New Testament when John declares that Jesus “dwelt (or literally, ‘tabernacled’) among us” (John 1:14) and in the way Jesus referred to Himself as the new Temple (John 2:19, 21; Matthew 12:6). As the new meeting place between man and God, Jesus was the fulfillment of the temple Solomon dedicated hundreds of years before.
Incredibly, the New Testament takes it even one step further. As the body of Christ, the church is now “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Do you see this progression? Long ago, God dwelt with His people in a tabernacle. Later, Solomon constructed a temple so the priests could meet with God. Jesus brought the presence of God to earth in fullness by becoming the Temple of the New Covenant and now, as His Body, we are the very dwelling place of God on earth! And the communion that Christians experience now is still only a preview of what we will see in the world to come! In the new heaven and the new earth, there will be “no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22).
Have you ever thought about the community of God’s people as a dwelling place for God Himself? How does this image shape how you think about the church?
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