A house for God: Is 66:1-2

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)

What kind of house can we build for God and where is the habitation of God with man? Over the past 6000 years, man has looked to many things as “The House of God”. Probably one of the earliest references to God’s house is found in the Book of Geneses. Jacob was running from his brother Esau and, as he lay sleeping, had a dream of a ladder that reached into heaven and of angels ascending and descending on that ladder. When he woke, “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.’ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.” (Geneses 28:17-19) The name “Bethel” literally means “The House of God.” Jacob believed that place to be the House of God because it was there that he experienced the presence of God.

Hundreds of years later, Moses would construct a “Tent of Meeting”, a place where he and the people could meet with God. “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp… Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak with Moses.” (Ex 33:7, 9) Prior to the construction of a temple in Jerusalem, this tent was known as the House of God. It was a place where people could meet with God and hear His voice.

Fast forward many years and there was another man who sought to build a house for the Lord. King David desired to build a house fitting for the name of the Lord but, because David was a man of war, God would not have it. “Go and tell David My servant, ‘Thus says the Lord, “You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in; for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another.”’” (1 Chronicles 17:4-5) In the end, it was David’s son Solomon who would build a temple, a house, for the Lord.

But what kind of house can we build for the Lord? How can we build a place for His habitation? When Stephen was standing trial before the Jewish council and the High Priest, he quoted this passage in Isaiah and reminded us that, “the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.” (Acts 7:48) Our church recently built its own building. After many years of renting we finally had our own place. It was a blessing not to have to setup and tear down every Sunday and it was a blessing to have a place of our own to use as we pleased. However, some have come to think of the building as “God’s House”, as if the building, and especially the sanctuary, were hollowed and sacred. But can buildings built with human hands ever be “God’s House”?

Jacob understood what made a place, or a building, the House of God; it was the presence of God. A place, or a building, is only special and hollow if the presence of God is there. So where is God’s presence? He is in the hearts of those who know Him and love Him. Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) We are the temples of God; God lives in us. When we are present in a church building, it is hollow because we are there and God is there in us. God’s presence does not live in a building, but in our hearts. Where ever we are, there is the House of God. We carry Him with us and we carry Him to the world. What a privilege to be a living temple of His presence.

David Robison