God Dwells Among Us

• By G.K. Beale and Mitchell Kim

• : “We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with a sense of ‘exile.’”- J.R.R. Tolkein

• “The longings of our hearts are frustrated from this exile, but these longings are properly satisfied in the dwelling place of God originally found in Eden. God’s presence in his dwelling place satiates our longings for relationship, satisfaction and significance, and the opening chapters of Genesis show how God intended for these longings to be properly satisfied- in Eden.”- Beale and Kim

• “God continues to establish his dwelling place among the patriarchs until the construction of the tabernacle and temple. After the destruction of Solomon’s temple, the prophets anticipate the coming of a new and expanding temple, and these prophecies begin to be fulfilled in Jesus and the church. The church as the dwelling place of God must expand until one day it fills the entire heaven and earth; the entire cosmos becomes the dwelling place of God.”

Eden

Eden

• “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day….”-Gen 3:8

• “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people.”- Lev 26:12

• “For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved [or I have been walking] about in a tent and in a tabernacle.”-2Sam 7:6

Eden

• “You were in Eden, the garden of God…. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God…. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities…..”- Ezek 28:13-14, 16, 18

Eden

• “A number of other lines of evidence help us see Eden as the first temple. The ark in the Holy of Holies, which contained the Law (which led to wisdom), echoes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which also led to wisdom). Both the touching of the ark and the partaking of the tree’s fruit resulted in death. The entrance to Eden was from the east (Gen. 3:24), just as the entrance to the temple was from the east (e.g., Ezek 40:6). Both Eden and the temple are characterized by the holy presence of God that brings wisdom.”

Eden

• “…in later descriptions of the temple, a river flows with trees of life on its banks. In Ezekiel 47, a river flows from below the threshold of the temple with trees on the banks of both sides. The waters of this river make seawater fresh, give life to creatures, and cause leaves of healing to blossom on the tress of its banks.”

Eden

• “Since the river of life flows from God’s presence into the lands of nations, so our mission to the nations must flow from the life found in God’s presence.”

Eden

• Psalm 36:7-9- “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house [temple], and you give them drink from the river of your delights [literally ‘Edens’]. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”

• “Adam was created in the image of the triune God to indicate his presence and rule over the earth. As God’s image, Adam and Eve were to reign with God as kings and representatives of God.”

• “Worship transforms us increasingly to reflect and represent God’s presence more clearly as his image and icon. As we are transformed to reflect God’s presence as his image through worship, then this worship fuels our mission to represent God’s authority and ‘subdue the earth’ (Gen 1:27-28). God created humanity in his image, and this image is expressed through humanity’s work in having dominion and subduing all the earth (Gen 1:26, 28). Just as God subdued the chaos, ruled over creation and then filled the earth with all kind of animate life, so Adam and Eve were to ‘subdue’, ‘have dominion…over all the earth’ and then ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ with images of God (Gen. 1:26, 28).”

Daniel 7:13-14- “ I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man [Adam!]… and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

Mk 1:13-“And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.”

Little Sanctuaries- the Patriarchs

• “The mission of God given to Adam continues even as sin spreads to fill the earth. Adam’s mission in Eden was to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen 1:28), and sin does not undermine this mission. Adam’s commission is passed down to the patriarchs in the context of the building of small sanctuaries, just as Adam’s commission was originally given in the context of the sanctuary of Eden. God’s presence guarantees the fulfillment of this mission in the face of the spread of sin.”

Little Sanctuaries- the Patriarchs

• Genesis 12:7-8: “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.”

Little Sanctuaries- the Patriarchs

• “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”-Gen 26:3-4

• Gen 26:24,25-“And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.’ So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.”

Little Sanctuaries- the Patriarchs

• Genesis 28:16-17- “ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’ And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’”

• “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”-Gen 28:13-14

Little Sanctuaries- the Patriarchs

• “God commissions his servants in a context of temple worship. With each of the patriarchs, we have stressed that the commission of Adam is passed down in a small sanctuary. As God reveals himself to the patriarchs in the sanctuary, they are propelled forward in their mission to the world. The sanctuary of worship is the engine that propels God’s people forward to bless the nations. Without worship, mission stumbles, but the fire of worship kindles a persevering passion for mission.”

Sinai

• “At Mount Sinai, the Lord appears to Israel as he had appeared to the patriarchs, and Mount Sinai anticipates the building of the tabernacle and temple in four ways:

• Sinai is called ‘the mountain of God’ (Ex 3:1; 18:5; 23:13) where Israel worships (Ex 3:12)

• Just as with the tabernacle and temple (and Eden), so Mount Sinai was divided into three sections of increasing holiness: the majority of the Israelites were to remain at the foot of Sinai (Ex 19:12,23), the priests and seventy elders were allowed to come some distance up the mountain (Ex 19:22; 24:1), but only Moses could ascend to the top and directly experience the presence of God (Ex 24:2).

Sinai

• Just as an altar was in the outermost section of the temple, so an altar was built at the lowest and least sacred part of Sinai, where Israel offered sacrifices (Ex 24:5-6).

• Only Israel’s ‘high priest’ Moses could enter the top part of Sinai where God’s presence dwelt (Ex 24:15-17), just as God’s presence dwelt above the tabernacle (Ex 40:35; Num 9:17-18, 22; 10:12) and temple (I Kings 8:12-13). Furthermore, the ‘ten commandments’ and the ‘ark’ were created at the top of Sinai (Deut 10:1-5) just as later they found their place in the inner sanctum of the temple in God’s presence.”

Parallels

• “While the parallels between the tabernacle and temple are clear and widely recognized, David’s preparations to build the temple also parallel the small-scale building activities of the patriarchs. Both begin their preparations on a mountain….with a theophany…as altars are built to the Lord… for sacrifices to God… at a place called ‘the house of God’”.

The Tabernacle (and Temple)

• “1) The Holy of Holies symbolized the presence of God with his heavenly host in the invisible dimension of the cosmos; 2) the Holy Place in the temple was emblematic of the visible heavens and its light sources; 3) the outer court represented the habitable world where humanity dwelt.”

The Tabernacle (and Temple)

• “The lampstand in the Holy Place symbolized the lights of the visible heavens. The seven lamps on the lampstand were associated with the seven light sources visible to the naked eye in the sky (five planets, sun and moon). In Genesis 1, the word for ‘lights’ (5x) of the heavens is a unique word, used elsewhere in the Pentateuch (10x) only for the ‘lights’ on the tabernacle lampstand. In addition, John’s Apocalypse also closely identifies the seven lamps on the lampstand with stars (Rev 1:20).”

The Tabernacle (and Temple)

• Proverbs 11:30- “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.”

• Psalm 141:2- “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”

• “As we saw earlier, the incense from this altar was taken into the Holy of Holies by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, and God would appear in this incense cloud to the priests (Lev 16:2, 12-13). In the Holy Place, the priests would pray at the altar of incense so that their prayers from this altar would ascend before the presence of God. In our role as priests (1 Pet 2:9), our prayers similarly rise before God’s throne as incense (Rev 5:8; 8:4). Just as priests’ prayers came before the throne of God’s presence in the Holy Place, so now the prayers of all believers as priests ascend before the throne. Since our prayers come before the presence of God, we pray with confidence that ‘we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb 4:16).”

The Tabernacle (and Temple)

• “also, the water imagery is enhanced with ten smaller washbasins in the Holy of Holies (I Kings 7:38-39), and the earthly imagery is further seen in the twelve bulls ‘entirely encircling the sea’ and the ‘lily blossom’ decorating the brim, a miniature model of land and life surround the seas of the earth (2 Chron 4:2-5; so NASB). Twelve bulls also supported the washbasin and were divided into groups of three, facing to the four points of the compass and four quadrants of the earth. That twelve oxen held up the ‘sea’ and designs of lions and oxen were on the washbasin stands points further to an ‘earthly’ identification of the outer courtyard.”

• “At the cross, Christ the High Priest offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin in the invisible temple of God. The sacrifice of Christ opens access for sinful people into his end-time sanctuary that reestablishes the sanctuary at Eden and escalates it. Christ, the last Adam, finally obeyed, in contrast to the first Adam. Consequently, his death and resurrection launched the temple of the new creation, which Christ expands through bringing believers into that temple. As more believers become part of this temple, the temple expands, and will continue to do so until Christ’s final coming. At that time, the temple will be expanded to cover the entire new and consummated cosmos for eternity.”

Gen 1:31 And God saw everything that

he had made, and behold, it was very

good. And there was evening and

there was morning, the sixth day.

Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the

earth were finished, and all the host of

them

Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God

finished his work that he had done,

and he rested on the seventh day from

all his work that he had done.

Ex 39:43 And Moses saw all the work,

and behold, they had done it

Ex 39:32 Thus all the work of the

tabernacle of the tent of meeting was

finished, and the people of Israel did

according to all that the LORD had

commanded Moses; so they did.

Ex 40:33 So Moses finished the work.

Ex 39:43 And Moses saw all the work,

and behold, they had done it; as the

LORD had commanded, so had they

done it. Then Moses blessed them.

• Hebrews 10:19-22- “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

• “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”-John 7:37,38

• Matt 21:42-“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

• Matt 21:44- “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Daniel 2:34-35- “A stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image…. And broke it” and it became “a great mountain [that] filled the whole earth”.