What is the House of Yahweh?

The house of God is that which bears His holy Name, as He says, “which is called by My Name” (Jer. 7:10-11, 12, 14, 30). In Old Testament times this could be said of either the Tabernacle or the Temple, but of no other such structure then or since. Both are mentioned here (vv. 1-11, 12-14).

We need not ask what this house is. It is “the house” of Haggai 1:8—“the temple of the Lord” (Hag. 2:15), God's dwelling-place on the earth.

God had taken up Israel to be His people. He had redeemed them by the arm of His power at the Red Sea (Ex, 15:13), in fulfillment of that promise to Moses, which He commissioned him to communicate to Israel (Ex. 6:6). Redemption being now an accomplished fact, God would dwell among them. Now this was something quite new. In patriarchal days God had from time to time visited earth, but He had never dwelt upon it. As soon, however, as He had a redeemed people, He made known His desire and intention at once to dwell among them. The thought was His, for though, in the Authorised Version of Exodus 15:2, the people are made to say, "I will prepare Him an habitation," it seems better to translate the Hebrew there, as the Revised Version has done "I will praise Him." A Sanctuary the people looked for in the land (Ex. 15:17), but God's purpose was to have one in their midst in the wilderness, and about it He gave Moses full directions. He desired to dwell among them.

God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people is one of the great truths of the Bible. The book of Exodus is occupied with the details involved in this great and wonderful blessing (Ex. 25-40). After the nation of Israel was delivered from its tyrant Pharaoh, God gave directions to the nation through Moses, the man of God, concerning the Sanctuary. He desired to dwell in the midst of His redeemed and covenanted people. The pattern was given to Moses by God, and Moses obediently directed the building of the Tabernacle according to that pattern. When the Tabernacle was completed according to God's will, His glory filled the beautiful structure. From out of the Tabernacle God gave instructions how He was to be approached in worship, etc. (Lev. 1:1). God was worshipped and the people were blessed.

This leads on to the third thing — God dwelling in the midst of His people. This was the declared object of the erection of a sanctuary (25:8). and the end of His dwelling with them was that they might be brought into relationship with, and know Him as the God of redemption, as the One who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. The ground indeed of His dwelling in their midst was accomplished redemption. Thus, as has been already said, He never dwelt with Adam, Noah, Abraham, or the patriarchs, however intimate the intercourse with Him which they were permitted to enjoy. Nor did He, nor could He, dwell with Israel while in the land of Egypt; but after He had brought them out of the house of their bondage, and across the Red Sea, He then desired to have His sanctuary in their midst. The sweet savour of the sacrifice — emblem of the acceptability of the sacrifice of Christ to God — made it possible for Him thus to surround Himself with those whom He had redeemed. But there is more than even dwelling with them: there is also relationship. "I will be their God." It is not, be it remarked, what they shall be to Him, though they were His people by His grace, but what He will be to them. "Their God" — words fraught with unspeakable blessings; for when God undertakes to become the God of His people, deigns to enter into relationship with them, He assures them that everything they need, whether for guidance, sustenance, defence, succour — yea, everything, is secured for them by what He is to them as their God. It was in view of the blessing of such a wondrous relationship that the Psalmist exclaimed, "Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." (Psalm 144:15.) As, however, we have seen, if He dwelt among them it was that they might know Him — and know Him through redemption. This was the desire of His heart, and in pursuance of it He had visited them in Egypt, smitten Pharaoh and his land and people with judgments, brought them out with a high hand and an outstretched arm, brought them unto Himself, and now directed that His tabernacle should be erected. He would have His joy in the happiness and joy of His redeemed — in surrounding Himself with a happy, rejoicing people. Such was His thought, however little they entered into it; but a thought which, if postponed, will one day find its full and perfect embodiment. The Tabernacle in the wilderness, indeed, surrounded by the tribes of Israel, is a figure of the eternal state. The purpose which God expresses here was repeated (Lev. 26:12) and reaffirmed as to the millennium. (Ezek. 37:27-28.) But these were but shadows of the full blessing that God designed for His people, and could not be more because of what they were; and hence it is not until the eternal state is reached that it is realized in perfection. Even now God dwells upon the earth, for the church is His habitation through the Spirit; and every believer, who has received the Spirit of adoption, is a temple of the Holy Ghost. But when all God's purposes in Christ are accomplished, the redeemed of this dispensation will, as the new Jerusalem, form the eternal tabernacle and dwelling-place of God. (Rev. 21)

There was a dwelling of God in the midst of Israel of old, after He had wrought redemption for them and brought them out of the land of Egypt. At once they sung His praise when delivered from the house of bondage. "Thou leadest forth thy people whom thou hast redeemed; thou guidedst it in thy strength to the habitation of thy holiness … Thou wilt bring them and plant them on the mountain of thine inheritance, the place, O Jehovah, which thou hast wrought for thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, thy hands have established." (Ex. 15:13, 17) But there was more than anticipation; for He adds (Ex. 29:45-46) "I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God, and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them." The temple was the same thing in substance; only it was suited to the established state of Israel in the land, not the tabernacle which wandered with the Israelites up and down the wilderness. But in either case, as this was but an external redemption, so His dwelling was of an outer sort and contingent on their fidelity to Him as witnesses of the one true God and placed under the responsibility of His law. The result was, as it must always be for the first man, ruin.

The tabernacle, which had been the house of God in the wilderness, together with its sacred furniture, was carried by the children of Israel into Canaan, and was pitched in Shiloh. (Joshua 18:1.) It was accordingly to this place that the children of Israel resorted with their yearly sacrifices (1 Sam. 1:3), and it was still called "the tabernacle of the congregation" (1 Sam. 2:22), but also "the temple of the Lord," and "the house of the Lord." (1 Sam. 3:3, 15.) These latter names did but foreshadow the house which should hereafter be built in Jerusalem. While the children of Israel were pilgrims in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents, God Himself abode in a tent (2 Sam. 7:6), suiting Himself, as He has ever done in His precious grace, to the condition of His people; but when He had established His chosen in the glory of the kingdom a house was erected — "exceeding magnifical" — which in some measure should be the expression of His majesty who deigned to make it His dwelling-place in the midst of Israel. (2 Chr. 2:4-6.)

The tabernacle, which had been the house of God in the wilderness, together with its sacred furniture, was carried by the children of Israel into Canaan, and was pitched in Shiloh. (Joshua 18:1.) It was accordingly to this place that the children of Israel resorted with their yearly sacrifices (1 Sam. 1:3), and it was still called "the tabernacle of the congregation" (1 Sam. 2:22), but also "the temple of the Lord," and "the house of the Lord." (1 Sam. 3:3, 15.) These latter names did but foreshadow the house which should hereafter be built in Jerusalem. While the children of Israel were pilgrims in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents, God Himself abode in a tent (2 Sam. 7:6), suiting Himself, as He has ever done in His precious grace, to the condition of His people; but when He had established His chosen in the glory of the kingdom a house was erected — "exceeding magnifical" — which in some measure should be the expression of His majesty who deigned to make it His dwelling-place in the midst of Israel. (2 Chr. 2:4-6.)

The tabernacle gave place to the temple. God, who had dwelt in the former, dwelt in the latter, till the bright cloud of glory, the Shechinah, departed from the house, as seen in vision by Ezekiel (10), loth to go, yet unable to stay because of the iniquities of the children of Israel. From that time to the present God has never dwelt in His house at Jerusalem. It was His house when rebuilt; the Lord acknowledged it as such, and He graced it by His presence as God's house, His house, on the occasion of His triumphal entry into the doomed city and temple. By-and-by, as Ezekiel shows, the Lord Jehovah will return to it, never again to leave it, the place of His throne, and the place of the soles of His feet, where He will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever. (Ezek. 43:7.)

The tabernacle gave place to the temple. God, who had dwelt in the former, dwelt in the latter, till the bright cloud of glory, the Shechinah, departed from the house, as seen in vision by Ezekiel (10), loth to go, yet unable to stay because of the iniquities of the children of Israel. From that time to the present God has never dwelt in His house at Jerusalem. It was His house when rebuilt; the Lord acknowledged it as such, and He graced it by His presence as God's house, His house, on the occasion of His triumphal entry into the doomed city and temple. By-and-by, as Ezekiel shows, the Lord Jehovah will return to it, never again to leave it, the place of His throne, and the place of the soles of His feet, where He will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever. (Ezek. 43: 7.)