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Introduction

How do you feel when you are away from home? As I look back through my life, I realize that I’ve been a lot of places.

I’ve traveled all over the US… Even went to Hawaii.

I’ve been blessed to visit some other countries.

I’ve stayed at pretty nice places…

But none of those places were home.

I loved traveling through Israel. That was an amazing trip, and I want to go back again, but Israel is not home. Towards the end of the trip, I was ready to go back home where my family was, where Ruth was.

That’s the nature of home, isn’t it? We can stay at the nicest resorts and enjoy ourselves, but there comes a time where we want to go home. Home is where we belong because that is where our loved ones are. For humans, our desire is to be at home.

But this is a biblical concept as well, so this is what we are going to talk about in the lesson. I want to take you on a journey that explores this concept of ‘home’ in scripture. More specifically, I want to talk about being at home with God (God’s house and our place in God’s house). Here’s why:

One of the most amazing things about the Bible story is that it’s about God’s intense desire to dwell with us.

Throughout the Bible story it seems like God wants to dwell with us more than we want to dwell with him.

That’s upside down, isn’t it?

Shouldn’t we want to dwell with God more than he wants to dwell with us?...

That’s how it should be, but sometimes that’s not how it is...

...Many of us find that our relationship with God is not nearly as passionate as we want it to be. We find that our desire to be at home with him isn’t as strong as it should be.

Sometimes we want to keep God at a safe distance.

Instead of dwelling in our house, we put him in the guesthouse so he’s nearby when we need him, but he isn’t close enough to be in our business.

So, there are times when we must reorient our minds around this idea of being at home with God, and that’s what we are going to do in this lesson.

We are going to talk about how God, throughout scripture, has made his home with humanity.

In Scripture

At Home among His People in Eden

The first thing that we are going to talk about is God’s home in Eden

Genesis 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 tells us that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The idea here is that this creation, this Eden, was supposed to be a sanctuary where God would dwell with his people. This would be God’s home.

So, God begins building this home, and after seven days the home is fully furnished, and he and man dwell together.

But Adam and Eve threw out the welcome mat for an intruder, the Serpent, and they allowed Satan to make himself at home in God’s home.

We know the story:

They listen to the serpent

They try to hide it from God, but that doesn’t work out, does it?

Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were evicted from God’s home. They could no longer live in God’s holy home because they had become an unholy people.

But this didn’t put a stop to God’s desire to dwell with man. From this point, God began to work out a plan to purify this unholy people so that humanity could come back home.

So, we move to Abraham. In Genesis 12, Abraham is told to leave the home and go new land so that God could create a new home for him.

So Abraham goes.

Sometime later, God appeared to Abraham again. Genesis 17:7-8.

Genesis 17:7–8 ESV

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Do you see what God is building here?

Some would say that God is building a covenant, and that’s true, but it’s more than that. God is building a relationship.

God is saying, “I’m going to be a God to you, and I’m going to provide a home for you where we can dwell and work out this relationship.

God is building much more than a covenant. He’s building a relationship with people, and he’s bringing these people into his home so that they can dwell together.

At Home among His People in the Wilderness

This brings us to the second section: God’s home in the wilderness.

Exodus 25:8-9.

Exodus 25:8–9 ESV

8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

While in the wilderness, God wanted to dwell with his people. They were living in tents, so he intended to live in a tent as well. It was called the tabernacle. This tabernacle pointed both backwards and forwards.

It pointed backwards to the garden of Eden. The first home where God and man dwelled together.

The golden lampstand in the tabernacle is designed to look like a flowering tree. I think that it’s pointing back to the tree of life in the garden.

The priests would go into the outer room, the holy place, and light the lamps of this lampstand. They would do this two times every day…

And when they would see this lamp/tree, they would be reminded of the life that God offers to those that he loves.

Also, there was an image two cherubim woven into the veil of the tabernacle. It’s like they were guarding the way into God’s presence… Like the garden.

The final pointer back to Eden is what God says in Exodus 29:44-46.

Exodus 29:44–46 ESV

44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Just like in the garden, God would dwell with his people.

So, God was at home with his people while in the wilderness, but that wasn’t a permanent thing.

As the Israelites were getting ready to enter the land, God told them they he would make his home with them there.

At Home among His People in the Temple

As Moses was preparing the Israelites to enter the land, he told them to be on the lookout for a place where God could make his home. Well about 500 years later, King David finally found the place.

You can read the story in 1 Chronicles 21. God told David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and when David presented the burnt offerings, The Lord answered him with fire from heaven.

So, David is so amazed by this experience that he decides that this needs to be the place for God’s home.

So David wants to build God’s house, but God essentially says no. David needs to prepare the way for Solomon to build the Temple for the Lord.

So that’s what David does. He begins to collect all of the needed materials. He organizes all of the Levites, priest, and others who would be involved, so that Solomon would be ready to build.

The interesting thing about all of this is that we are given so much detail about the temple.

Chapter after chapter is devoted to building the tabernacle and temple. It seems like scripture goes into more detail about the temple and tabernacle than anything else.

Maybe that’s because God dwelling with man is a big deal to him.

So, when we get to 2 Chronicles 3, we see that Solomon begins to build God’s house.

2 Chronicles 3:1.

2 Chronicles 3:1 ESV

1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

So Solomon began to build God’s temple at the place where David had made a sacrifice and experienced God’s fire (also the place where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac), and after seven years, the temple was completed.

This temple pointed both backwards and forward, but let’s talk about how it pointed backwards.

If you happened to walk into Solomon’s temple, you would be reminded of the garden of Eden.

The temple had flowers carved into its cedar walls. It had pomegranates carved in different places. It had two cherubim made of wood guarding the most holy place. It also had lampstands made to look like trees.

You get the point… This temple is the new Garden of Eden. This is God’s new home to dwell with man

But this home didn’t last too long.

Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, the Israelites threw out the welcome mat for Satan. They sin, so God sends foreign nations to punish them and destroy the temple.

So just like Adam and Eve, the Israelites lose their home with God, and God leaves the temple.

Ezekiel 10:4. While in Babylon, Ezekiel has a vision of God and the temple.

Ezekiel 10:4 ESV

4 And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.

In this vision, God is getting up from his throne and walking to the threshold. What’s God doing? He’s leaving the temple.

But God didn’t leave never to return again. Later in the book of Ezekiel, the prophet was given a vision of a future temple, and as we read through that vision, our minds are brought backwards and forwards. Ezekiel 47:12.

Ezekiel 47:12 ESV

12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

So as the reader looks forward to this future temple, they are also brought backwards because this temple Ezekiel tells us about looks like the garden of Eden all over again.

So, Ezekiel shows us that there is going to be a new temple where God will dwell with his people.

So, when we get to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Zerubbabel rebuilds the temple, but it’s a real letdown because God never enters it. There was no cloud or fire that came down to dwell in the temple.

So, Ezekiel’s vision talks about a new home where God would dwell with his people, but wasn’t talking about a new temple in Jerusalem. It was looking further into the future.

At Home among His People in Jerusalem

When I say God’s home in Jerusalem, I’m moving way forward to the time of Christ, and I want to start when Jesus was young. When he was only 12 years old. Do you remember the story?

When Jesus was 12, his family takes him to Jerusalem, and his parents accidentally leave him there. They eventually find him, but where do they find him?

They find him in the temple. As a matter of fact, he seems perfectly at home in the temple. Luke 2:49.

Luke 2:49 ESV

49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

For the first time, God was dwelling with his people in a different way (Immanuel: God with us). John makes this clear in his gospel.

John 1:14.

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

John 2:19.

John 2:19 ESV

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

The temple was how God could dwell with man, but in Jesus God is dwelling with man. Jesus is the temple in a sense. So, on the cross the temple was destroyed, but in three days the true temple was raised never to be destroyed again.

But after the resurrection, Jesus went to be with the father. He was no longer dwelling with man.

At Home among His People

Even though Jesus was no longer on earth, he promised his disciples that he would still be with them. That God would still dwell among them.

We see this throughout the New Testament, and we see it as early as Acts 2.

On the day of Pentecost, tongues of fire come to rest on the apostles.

In the OT, fire was recognized as a symbol for God’s presence.

Burning Bush

Fire on the Mountain

Fire resting over the temple

Etc.

But in Acts 2, this fire didn’t rest on a bush, or mountain, or tabernacle, or temple. This fire rested on people.

God was saying that he is going to dwell with his people.

We also see this in Paul’s letters. Ephesians 2:19-22.

Ephesians 2:19–22 ESV

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We are God’s temple.

We are God’s dwelling/home.

We are so afraid of becoming other religions that we refrain from saying that God dwells among us. We don’t need to be afraid to say that… Paul says it. God is at home with us.

But even though God dwells with us, we aren’t fully at home with God just yet.

At Home among His People in Eternity

This is the end of the journey…

This is what God’s people throughout history have been looking forward to.

2 Corinthians 5:8.

2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV

8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Even though God is with us, there is a sense in which we are not at home with God.

Hebrews 11:13-16. In this context, we see the hall of faith… By faith Abel/Noah/Abraham.

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

These people were all looking forward to something. They were looking for home.

Hebrews 13:14.

Hebrews 13:14 ESV

14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

This home that we have isn’t our permanent home. We are looking for the city that is to come.

What is this home that is coming?

Revelation 21:1-3.

Revelation 21:1–3 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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.

The home that we are waiting for is New Jerusalem. It’s the new creation where God will truly dwell with his people.

This new Jerusalem is what everything has been pointing to.

Earlier we talked about how the tabernacle, temple, and Ezekiel’s vision pointed both backwards and forwards.

This is what those things were pointing to.

The New Jerusalem is the home that we are all longing for. This will be the home where we will dwell with God forever.

Notice how John describes this place:

There’s no temple in this place. There’s separator between God and his people. Revelation 21:22.

Revelation 21:22 ESV

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

There’s no temple, but also the tree of life is there.

Revelation 22:1-3.

Revelation 22:1–3 ESV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

Not only are we dwelling with our God, but we are also given access to the tree of life. It almost sounds like the Garden all over again.

So this New Jerusalem is what everything has been pointed to. It’s God’s ultimate goal, and final home, for us.

Application

God wants to dwell with us.

Yes, we’ve done bad things.

Yes, we’re broken people.

This doesn’t mean that God wants to abandon us. Throughout the Bible humanity has continued to mess up, but God hasn’t given up. He's still working to bring us home.

God wants to dwell with me and you, and as long as we are loyal to him, we will dwell with him in eternity.

Home is where God is.

As we just said… God wants to dwell with us. It’s something that we see at every point in the Bible story. God wants to dwell with his broken people.

Do we desire to be at home with God the way that he desires to be at home with us?

Paul said “I’d rather be absent from the body, but at home with the Lord.”

Is that us? I sometimes worry that we have become so comfortable here, that we think that earth is our home. Earth isn’t our home. Earth is temporary. Earth is the hotel. Our home is where God is.

If we fail to realize this, then we will miss out on the tree of life.

Conclusion

At the beginning of the lesson, I said that we sometimes put God in the guesthouse. We don’t want him to be so close that he’s in our business, but we want him nearby for when we need him.

God in the guesthouse isn’t good enough… God’s want more than that. God wants wants to be with us...

… do we want to be with him?