The Dwelling Place

The Dwelling Place

Read: Mark 13:1-2

“Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Mark 13:2

“The worship of God is not a rule of safety—it is an adventure of the spirit.”

—Alfred North Whitehead

IN WORD Throughout God’s revelatory history, He has had a chosen dwelling place. In the wilderness and the early years in the Promised Land, it was the Tabernacle. After the reign of David, it was the Jerusalem Temple. That Temple had been rebuilt after Israel’s captivity and was being remodeled as Jesus spoke. It was an honor to God. Why, then, does Jesus herald—and apparently approve of—its destruction?

When Jesus walked this land, He Himself was God’s chosen dwelling place. With the advent of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who believe, God’s habitation is now those who are in Christ. We constitute a mobile, global body in which God lives and moves. No longer do people come from all nations to worship and pray to God in the building in which He dwells. The building in which He dwells goes into all nations.

The Temple—the one composed of stones—was temporary and inadequate. It was an illustration of the temple to come, one made of living stones (1 Peter 2:5). As living stones, we have moved beyond superficial appearances and formal structures. The worship of God is not contained in well-constructed walls, either literally or figuratively. As Jesus announced the downfall of the Jerusalem Temple, so He stands before the worship of our lives and insists on the collapse of all that is superficial. We may no longer confine Him to one segment of our hearts and say we’ll meet Him there one day a week. Our walls cannot restrain Him.

IN DEED What is your worship like? Is it like an archaic building, or is it fresh? Does the Spirit of God want to break out of your rituals like a butterfly breaking out of a cocoon? You are now the dwelling place of the living God; you do not have the option of defining your parameters for worship or service. He will move beyond your walls and take you wherever He wills—to new heights and new depths. And it will be glorious. Let the old stones fall.