Throughout the Biblical text God expresses his desire to dwell with his people, in prophecy and fulfilment. We examine this uniquely Christian theme in this article.

“Tabernacles” festival foreshadows the Definitive Temple

The Jewish Festival of Booths/ Tabernacles/ Sukkot. Historical significance: God’s providence the desert years. Agricultural significance: end of the harvest. (15th of Tishrei- late September to late October)

“The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days….” (Lev 23:33-35, 39-43).

Sukkot occurs after the harvest has been completed. It is a festival of rest from one’s labor and rejoicing in what God has done in providing for his people. Jews are also called upon to remember God’s providential care for them during the forty years of wilderness wandering when they lived in temporary booths. (“sukkah” the word for a single booth, derives form a Hebrew root meaning “to cover over”, and the branches used to form the roof of a sukkah are known as s’khakh, a covering. “Shakhah” is “branch” (as of a tree) in some Indian languages).

On the first morning of Sukkot a procession of priests went down to the pool of Siloam to bring up to the Temple a golden container of water sufficient to last throughout the seven days of the feast. The water was brought up with great ceremony. The shofar was blown and the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the feast waved their lulavs as the priests carried the water around the altar. On the last or “great” day of the feast, the water libation rite reached its climax. The priests circled the altar seven times and then poured out the water with great pomp and ceremony. This was Hoshana Rabbah, the great “HOSHIANA,” (“save now”).

“Temple” and “Tabernacle”

When God says that He will dwell in the midst of the Israelites it is the verb form: שָׁכַן shakan or shekinah. During the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert, the Temple was a portable sanctuary of cloth covering over a frame. The Hebrew word used for this sanctuary tent is “mishkan“, which is the participial form gained through the addition of the “mi” prefix. In the NT when Peter offers to build three tents for Jesus, Moses and Eiljah he uses σκηνή skene, which is again the same s-k-n Hebrew root (Mt 17:4, Lk9:33, Hb 8:2,5)

(footnote- This word gets translated as “tabernacle” from the Latin “tabernaculum”, the Roman for “tent”, which comes into English as “tavern”.)

(footnote 2- mishkan is not actually the Hebrew word for “tent” for that word is ohel אֹהֶל,  which is used in the phrase “Tent of Meeting” itself (Ex 35:11,21 and 36:14,18,19,37, 38:8,30, 39:2). In 39:2 both words are used עֲבֹדַ֕ת מִשְׁכַּ֖ן אֹ֣הֶל abodat mishkan ohel, the “work of the tabernacle (mishkan) of the tent (ohel)of meeting”. Again in 2Sam7:6 God uses both words “I have dwelt…in a tent and in a tabernacle…”. Lastly in the same verse from Samuel we see another word for “house” and “live” (in a house) which is בְּבַ֔יִת babayit and יָשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ yasabti respectively. Thus just like in the English there are many words for the place that men take shelter like “shelter”, “home”, ”house”, “dwelling” “tent” and so on.)

From the point of fulfilment, this feast day points to the Lord’s promise that He will dwell with His people, so to reign forever in their midst, the definitive redemption that both Jews and Christians look forward to, and the definitive Temple or “Tabernacle”.

(footnote -Catholics Christians would see in this promise the dwelling of the Lord in the Eucharist inhabiting all the tabernacles of the world, as dealt with in the next section).

That it is fulfilled in the NT is announced at the very outset in John 3:16 “and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” is really “tabernacle” amongst us, it is the same word ἐσκήνωσεν eskenosen from the Hebrew root shekinah.

(footnote- The actual Hebrew name of the feast “Sukkot” is not etymologically related to the tabernacle or dwelling place of God among the Israelites in the desert, but rather the dwelling places of the Israelites in the desert themselves, the “sukkah”).

Jesus references this and describes the “rivers of living water” referring to the Holy Spirit who is to be poured out upon believers in John 7:39

Jesus Himself the New Temple and Davidic King

We’re saying a strange thing here, that Jesus himself “is” a Temple. An analogical consideration to the way in which humans might speak of their own bodies as “temples” might be useful here with the implication that they carefully tend and protect that they eat, exercise etc. But in Christianity everything is based on the concept of “Temple”, as we shall continue to see and as it is finally confirmed in the the Book of Revelations that God himself “is” the heavenly temple (as we shall also see). As we saw before, David’s kingdom is established by a divine covenant (2 Sam5:3; 2 Chr.13:5, Ps. 89:3-4)

The final form which the covenant is to take is revealed at the time of King David, the promise of an eternal kingdom of his dynasty. The prophecy from the book of Samuel ostensibly refers to David’s son Solomon, but contains the promise that David’s “house” will be an eternal kingdom, or dynasty. The Solomonic kingdom disintegrates very quickly after Solomon’s death, first divided and then destroyed completely in around 400BC, never again for a king to sit on the throne in Jerusalem.

“Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: (…) the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.  When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me (…) Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. ” (2 Sam7:11-14a,16)

A few hundred years after the time of King David and Solomon we can again pick fup the prophecies of the “chosen one”, the coming King who will fulfil the covenant. Note the consistent use of the name of “David”, which used hundreds of years after the death of David himself, can only point to the dynasty of his bloodline. The second of these pinpoint the place of his ministry (Galilee) and a further prophecy by the prophet Micah gives also the date of his birth (Bethlehem) (Jesus is raised in a different place to that in which he is born):

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,  my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations (…edited portion in the section on the suffering of the Messiah) He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching (…) am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations…” (Is. 42:6).

In that same scroll, it is later reiterated that it is the Davidic covenant that is being referred to: “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.

“I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” (Is. 55:3).

But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” (Jer.30:9)

“But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish (…) but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them a light has shined (…) For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:1)

This is a tremendously important and celebrated verse which a mature Christian will rattle off by rote, and it has been committed to celebratory song by some famous composers with good reason.

In Jeremiah once again God confirms that it is the Messiah who will fulfil the promise: “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah …a righteous branch to spring forth for David…” (Jer.33:14,15)

“for the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah,  and will make them like his proud war-horse. Out of them shall come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg,
out of them the battle bow” Zech.10:3,4

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,” Zech. 9:9-11

“But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” (Jer. 30:9)

“My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes (…) I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an eternal covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Ez 37:24–27).

“I will save my flock, they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken. (Ez 34:22–24). Roughly thirty years after the death of Ezekiel, Daniel received a vision from God that it would take about five hundred years (“seventy weeks of years”) for all the prophecies to be fulfilled (Dn 9:24–27) which brings us right up to Jesus’ time.

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.”

Temple Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus’ Person

John 2:19-21 “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Rev 21:22-24 “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” (repeated in Rev 21:22 and also see Isaiah 60:19)

Indeed all the imagery in the Book of Revelations is the imagery of Temple, the candlesticks, incense burners, the white robes of the priests, books that are opened and read, the chanting and singing. God could well have, in a single sweep said “all this will pass away”, rather it seems, that “all this” is what is eternal and that the ritual and chanting we have on earth are a copy of the heavenly temple and the heavenly “ritual”. Indeed the 144,000 break at one point into a new song that “no one else could learn”!

“The Jews then said to him, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. (Jn 2:18–21)

Jesus again confirms this: “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” (Matthew 12:6-8). St. Paul reiterates this in Ep. 2:19-22, that Jesus himself is the cornerstone of the holy temple in the Lord…the dwelling place for God.  

The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the new temple of the end times, in which a miraculous river, the river of life, flowed out from it (Ez 47:1–12), and Jesus again refers these verses to himself both in the passage about the woman at the well (John 4) as well as in John 7: (it is thought that the “last day of the festival” in the verse refers to the last day of the seven days of Sukkot), the feast of Tabernacles): “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive…” (John 7:37,38).

Definitive Eschatology- God Dwells with Us

From the earliest revelation, one thing has been clear: God wishes, and it is his Will that He dwell with His people. Let us trace this fascinating trend going all the way back to the first books of the Bible.

In the Torah

“You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

(Miriam’s song in Exodus 15:17,18)

“And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.” (25:8) “I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.” (29:45) “They shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God.” (Ex.29:46)

(Numbers 5:3) ‘You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel.” 35:34 “You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.”

in Numbers Ch.14, We see the Glory of the Lord appearing to “all the Israelites” (v.10) “…the people who have seen my glory” (v.22) and God stating “all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord” (v.21)

“I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.” (Lev. 26:11)

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.” (Lev. 26:12)

“I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.” (1 Kings 6:13)

The Psalms

King David expresses his desire to dwell in God’s Temple in the Psalms:
“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Psalm 84:2 and

Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

Psalm 5:7 “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house,
I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.”

…and the Prophets

Ezekiel 37:27 “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people”

Ezekiel 43:7 “He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever…”

Ezekiel 43:9 “Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them forever.”

Zechariah 2:10 “Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the LORD.”

Zechariah 2:11”Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.”

“Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
devastation or destruction within your borders;
you shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
The sun shall no longer be
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give light to you by night;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down,
or your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.”
(Isaiah 60:18-20)

“For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.” (Ez 34:25–26).

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
    who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
    from ancient days.
 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
    when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
    to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth; 

and he shall be the one of peace.

-(Micah 5:2-5)

Solomon’s Dedication Prayer- Atonement, Covenant, Incarnation

Here we analyze Chapter 8 of 1 Kings, which is central to the Solomon narrative, the Dedication of the Temple. There can be no doubt that the thrust of this chapter is that Temple (House) is built for the Name of Yahweh (v.17,18,19, 20,48) will dwell in that place in Jerusalem forever (v.13, ). The Lord’s “Name shall be there” (v.16,29), his “name is invoked on this house” (v.43). The eyes are always “open towards this House day and night” (v.v.29)

It is where the two stones of the covenant which was made by God with the Israelites at Mt. Horeb (v.9, 21) are stored in the Ark, the glory of the Lord filled the House in the Cloud of Smoke (v.11,12), all of which is in fulfilment of the promise to David (v.15,24,26) that there will never fail to be a successor to him on the throne of Israel, if his children walk before God as did David walk before him (v.25).

Solomon is fully aware that God is not literally confined in that tiny space enclosed by the Ark under the wings of the cherubim, for he is aware that “even Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built”, and that Heaven is the true dwelling of God (v.30,32,34,39,43,49), and he will forgive (v.36,39) those who “pray toward/in that place” (v.29,35,38,42,44/31.33,) for God knows what is in every human heart (v.39). There is no one who does not sin (v.46), and forgiveness (v.34,36,39,50) is to be given should they “repent with all their heart and soul” (v.48). Further even the prayers of a foreigner are to be heard, because “all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people Israel” (v.43). It is significant that he is able to grasp the possibility that there is some manner in which God really is present in that House, for he has seem the dark cloud in which the Lord dwells (v.12,13), and further, the Name is always associated with God himself (this can be seen in some of the exodus narratives like Ex.23:20-23).

At the same time the “promise to (his) father David” is that he shall never fail to have a successor on the “throne of Israel” (admittedly on the condition that his descendents walk before the Lord like David), and there is no notion here of the Temple ever being destroyed, even when the Israelites are taken away into exile, they will be able to pray toward the Temple (rather than toward the ruins of a Temple). As is revealed by the prophet Ahijah to Jeroboam: “I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever” (1Kings11:39) and “…so that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem” (1Kings11:36)

All this is fulfilled in Jesus, who is both the “God whom heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain” (these levels of Heavens are the seven domes above the Earth in ancient cosmology which merely refer to the sky above), yet really present on Earth also in finite form just like the dark Cloud which filled the Temple, the Lord’s very Name which was present in it, and as God who would “dwell” in his earthly Temple. Truly it was right for Zechariah to exult in Luke 1:67-69

““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his child David,… go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins….”.

Indeed it was appropriate for Jesus to state (Jn.2:19-21) that the true Temple is to be his own Body, in indeed we are forgiven when we pray toward Jesus. Indeed Jesus is the New Ark- as the visible Presence of God for us, “fillled with the Holy Spirit” as the Temple filled with the Glory of God, and in whom is the New Covenant “in my blood” (Lk.22:20, 1Kings8:9,21 as above).

The Confirmation in the New Testament

John 14:23 “Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.”

Indeed see how beautifully the prophecy of Isaiah is mirrored in the book of Revelations:

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever   in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.”

“…Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home^* of God is among mortals. He will dwell^* with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; (21:1-3)

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood….The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’(Rev.22:13-15)

There’s probably verses I’ve missed here, need to go through this myself to check: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/I-Will-Be-Their-God?fbclid=IwAR3A248HXyQZrev9BvqVr1pxwapWXKvWYQQ3pz5BNr7wMTA7AQV2ewhHOgk