Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

7 February 2024

Reading From Exodus 25-27

“Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.”

–Exodus 27:20-21

     Yahweh is instructing Moses on how to set up the Tabernacle with all its furnishings, the portable focal point for His worship as His people travel from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land of Canaan.  The floorplan of the Tabernacle was used to build the temples in Jerusalem and was based on the Tabernacle currently in Heaven.[1]  In the description of the New Heaven and the New Earth, there is no temple.    The Apostle John recorded, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”[2] 

     In the Tent of Meeting that the Israelite craftsmen constructed there was light 24/7 because the lamps were kept burning brightly throughout the night.  The Tent was the place where the localized Presence of God was.  From the very beginning of human history, God has wanted to dwell among His people.  He yearns to gather us to Himself and to be with us.  The Tabernacle and its furnishings were powerfully symbolic of many deep spiritual truths, but today what speaks to me most profoundly is the light of His Presence shining brightly among His people.  He wants to light up our lives and spend time with us, His eternal family, forever.

     The new birth experience heralds the Holy Spirit taking up residence in the heart of the believer,[3] making him or her a temple of God.[4]  These human temples of God throughout time and space are being unified into one massive temple in which God dwells by His Spirit.[5]  This great temple is the Church, the Body of Christ, made up of every blood-washed, Spirit-filled Christ follower throughout history.[6]  In this way, God’s dream of dwelling with His people is coming true.[7]  His light shining through us is the light of the world[8] and He is Immanuel, God with us.[9]

“Lord, keep the light of Your Presence burning brightly within my heart.  I pray that I will shine Your light into the world around me.  May Your Word light my path forward.  Thank You that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, You are always with me.  You never leave me nor forsake me.  I love You Jesus.  Amen.”

For this is what the high and exalted One says—
    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

–Isaiah 57:15

However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

“Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
    Or where will my resting place be?”

–Acts 7:48-49

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[1] Revelation 15:5

[2] Revelation 21:22-27

[3] I John 4:12-16

[4] I Corinthians 6:19-20

[5] Ephesians 2:19-22

[6] I Corinthians 12:27, Romans 12:4-5, Ephesians 1:23, 4:16, John 20:22-24

[7] Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:11, Numbers 35:34, I Kings 6:13, Ezekiel 37:27, John 1:14, Revelation 21:3

[8] Matthew 5:14-16

[9] Matthew 1:23