This Article: (4 Pages)
1) ConsiderThis House
For an architect, there is a beauty in things being both one thing and, on another level, another thing. For example Joern Utzon's Bagsavared church roof is many layered curves. Utzon intended it be like clouds over a beach. This form also saved on the use of concrete. The roof both symbolises clouds and is a rational structural solution. This phenomena is a characteristic of the design of all objects to a lesser or greater extent.
The Creator of the world, and the Designer of all life on earth is the greatest architect.
His capacity for both/ and in design is endless. Just one example is the leaf on a deciduous tree. At one level it gives the tree itself a source of nutrients, on another level it provides seasonal shade for other plants (and humans). If we take this view to the study of the scriptures, we can understand what Yahweh has done, and will do.
This article will examine how the 'house of God' of the future is both a unified 'family' of people and the greatest structure the world has seen.
House means both a physical building and a family
In English the word 'house' means both a building and a group of people. We have keys to our house, but the house of Windsor is not the building but the people. There is no difference in the word. Just as in English, in Hebrew the word translated 'house' may refer to the people or a building.
The LORD said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark; for you have I seen righteous before me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1)
But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. (Genesis 19:10)
In both cases the Hebrew word for 'house' is bayith. Clearly Noah did not dismantle his house and take it on board the ark, his house is his family.
2) The figurative orspiritual 'house'
The apostle Peter makes an analogy, saying the followers of Christ are part of or living 'stones' in a 'house' for God.
You .., as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1Peter2:5)
But this is not a New Testament idea. Yahweh has had a spiritual house for a long time. Yahweh says,
My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. (Numbers 12:7)
The house of Israel in the time of Moses was the spiritual 'house', or family, of Yahweh. They, the people, were Yahweh's 'house'. Moses knows this, and in the song of victory over the Egyptians says,
Yahweh is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my Mighty Ones, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's Mighty ones, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)
Preparing the “habitation” is the same as to “exalt” Yahweh. This was said before the plans for the tabernacle were given. This was not about a physical building!
You in your mercy have led forth the people which you have redeemed: you have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation. (Exodus15:13)
Moses says that the people who are redeemed are guided into Yahweh's habitation, or 'house'. Peter was saying nothing new. Yahweh had in the people of Israel a spiritual 'house'. We note that Yahweh caused them to after this time to build him a tabernacle. This is the record.
This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before Yahweh: where I will meet you, to speak there unto you. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar:... And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am Yahweh their Elohim, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am Yahweh their Elohim. (Exodus 29:42-46)
This clarifies that the tabernacle, the physical house was a place to meet, while dwelling among the people who were his holy people, set apart, or sanctified by His glory, who were his spiritual 'house'.
Yahweh had for most of the years from this time until Peter both a spiritual house and a physical house.
3) Understanding the nature of the House
Stephen may be quoted by those arguing that a physical temple in the future is irrelevant and that prayer, in whatever place or in whatever way it is presented, will be heard. Stephen said,
“ Howbeit the most high dwells not in temples made with hands; as said the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? said the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?”
However Stephen is quoting from Isaiah 66, which presents a vision of the events that culminate in the establishment of the Kingdom on earth and all nations coming to Yahweh's place of worship. This matches the temple of Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Stephen recognises that human works are futile and his emphasis was on the question in this quotation from Isaiah 66:1, “where is the place of my rest?” This word ‘rest’ (Strong’s 4496) is not used often. The same word is used of the land of Israel in Deuteronomy 12:9. “For ye are not yet come to the rest and the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you.” Again the Psalmist states, “I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” (Psalm 95:11). Many of the Israelites, at that time the spiritual 'house' of Yahweh, would have no part in the ultimate promise made to their fathers. Stephen’s quotation warned his audience that they stood in danger of rejection by God, as they had rejected their Messiah and consequently they would not enter into that promised ‘rest’. Isaiah had said the Israelites treated the Law and commandments as a dreariness. Yahweh’s word was not in their hearts.
“This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” Isaiah 28:12
In the same manner, the leaders to whom Stephen spoke, would not hear the Word. They would, therefore, not enter into that final 'rest' which would come through the promises and the Messiah who they had rejected. They had heard and seen Messiah but refused to “hear”. They had a form of religion and worship, but failed to heed the prophets of Yahweh and their warnings.
Also King David (approx 1000BCE) had called the physical temple he wanted to build for Yahweh a 'house of rest',
“And David the King stood up upon his feet and said. Hear me… I had in mine heart to build an house of rest (Strong’s 4496) for the ark of the covenant… for the footstool of our God.” 1 Chronicles 28:2
This takes us to Solomon’s prayer. Solomon built this Temple that David speaks of, in Jerusalem, to be a physical “house of rest”.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Yahweh my God, ... That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, 'My name shall be there': that you may hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. (1Kings 8:27-29)
Even though Yahweh is everywhere his eyes are open to the place of “this house” and he will hear those who pray toward that place.
This takes us again to the quotation of Stephen above and to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66 is the last chapter in Isaiah. It presents a vision of the establishment of the Kingdom and Yahweh's glory throughout the earth. The chapter describes war and upheaval. Following this, Yahweh’s glory will be established in a place, in Jerusalem, when all people will worship there.
“I will gather all nations and tongues; … they shall declare my glory among the Nations. And they shall bring all your brethren… to my holy mountain Jerusalem… into the house of Yahweh. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, says Yahweh.” (Isaiah 66: 18-23).
Stephen’s final warning to the leaders was that they stood in danger of loosing their place in the future 'rest'. His quote shows his focus was the future Temple, not on the temple of Herod of his day (which Jesus had prophesied would be destroyed within a generation, see Luke 21).
The use of that question, “Where is the place of my rest?” was a shorthand way of referencing many passages of scripture. Our minds are directed to Isaiah’s prophecy, to a future age. Yahweh’s glory will both be throughout the world in people at “rest”, andat Jerusalem the centre of worship and the “place of rest”.
Stephen was saying that people should serve Yahweh in spirit, that is, he was to dwell in their minds. The next line following Stephen's quote from Isaiah says,
said Yahweh: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)
These leaders rejected Jesus and Stephen and they fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy, the very one referred to by Stephen.
Hear the word of Yahweh, you that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let Yahweh be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. (Isaiah 66:5)
The leaders valued the physical building of Herod and in zeal persecuted Jesus and Stephen his disciple, but they were made ashamed, for within a generation that temple was destroyed. However it is equally false to value the idea of spiritual 'house' and reject Yahweh's prophecy that there will be in the future a physical house of rest. Stephen quotes Isaiah who speaks of a future physical house, but so do other prophets.
4) The Future Physical House of Prayer
The prophets say that Jerusalem shall be the place of peace and praise.
Give him no rest...till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62:7)
Jerusalem is the place Ezekiel comes to and is told by Yahweh that it is,
the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile,... (Ezekiel 43:7)
We note this promise to Ezekiel is despite the evil of Israel, and it is 'for-ever'. Ezekiel is shown a physical house. Just as Jesus is the cornerstone of the spiritual 'house', Jerusalem and the literal physical House of Ezekiel’s prophecy are the corner stone of the political kingdom of the future, where the spiritual and physical houses will together be part of the one worship of Yahweh in the future age.
Jesus went into the House of God, Herod's temple, and showed he valued the physical House, for he cast out the people who profaned it.
Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple,..And said .., It is written, My house shall becalled the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21:12-13)
Jesus here endorsed the prophet Isaiah who said that in the future Yahweh's house would be called the House of prayer.
For 2000 years there is a preparation of a people, a spiritual house, a family of Yahweh, just as Israel was when redeemed from Egypt. The prophets say there will come a time when there will be a physical house made where Yahweh can again dwell among his family.
It follows that Zechariah's earthquake will indeed physically shake the earth. The Architect of the work, Yahweh, has drawn plans and given us the specification. The earthwork will soon surely begin. Jesus said,
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions:.. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3)
The end is a people redeemed in Jesus, who has prepared us a 'place'. When he comes back to earth, we will be 'where' he is, at the place, of Yahweh's name. A place, that just as Ezekiel describes, has many "mansions".
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