“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” – Revelation 21:3 (ESV)
For hundreds of years, many in the church have kept a sacred event called Advent. It is the prelude to Christmas. One of the focal points of Advent is to consider that the same Jesus who came to us as a baby will one day come again, bringing the kingdom of God and his full reign over a new heavens and new earth. So it is fitting that for the next 3 weeks, we will be memorizing the beautiful verses of Revelation 21:3-7, the end of the old story and the beginning of the new story. We’ll start with verse 3 this week.
One incredible theme that carries throughout the story of the Bible is that Yahweh, the Creator God whom the heavens cannot contain, desires to dwell with humans. In the first pages of the Bible, we see him walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. When he delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he gave them the blueprints to build the Tabernacle, a mobile temple in which God would dwell with his people. When he entered it at the end of Exodus, even Moses couldn’t approach, so great and full was his glorious presence. When Israel became a kingdom, David set in his heart to build God a permanent house of worship. God gave that privilege to his son Solomon. Seven years later, God entered the Jerusalem temple and filled it with his glory.
But in every one of these instances, the people God wanted to dwell with rejected him. Adam and Eve took the fruit in rebellion. The people of Israel grumbled against God even while he was in their midst. Solomon himself turned to false gods and abandoned Yahweh. As the prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision, God left the Jerusalem temple because it, like his people, no longer represented him to the nations. But Ezekiel also saw a vision of a new temple where God would once again dwell with his people.
Centuries later, God came to dwell with his people again, this time as one of them. John 1 tells us that Jesus, the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us. Matthew tells us his ancient name by the prophet Isaiah: Emmanuel, God with us. He came near to the poor, the weak, the blind, the lame, the leper, the outcasts, the sinners. He too was despised and rejected as he was crucified on a cross. But as he promised, his body, the true temple of God that Ezekiel foresaw, was raised 3 days later. This God will not relent in his pursuit of dwelling with humans. And as he also promised, Acts 2 shows us that his followers received the Holy Spirit. We are mini temples of God’s glory, filled with his presence, power, light, and life.
Which brings us to Revelation 21:3. Christians often talk of going to heaven when they die, but that is not how the story ends. In a mind-blowing declaration, we see instead of us going to be with God, he comes to dwell with us! The entire story of the Scriptures is showing us that God has always and will always desire to dwell with us, so great and unsearchable is his love.
Rejoice, Refuge Church! We are his people; he is our God, and he longs to dwell with us. May we celebrate the birth of Emmanuel, the God who broke through our darkness and came to dwell with us, who is coming again one day to dwell with us. As Charles Wesley wrote in his Christmas hymn:
Pleased as man, with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”