Riches in God’s Dwelling Place

“Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering…. And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:2–8).

Let’s revisit the tabernacle blueprints in Exodus for a bit and consider some ideas about God’s dwelling place I didn’t have space to cover in my 90-day devotional, A Place for Me in God’s Tent.

We travel back in time to Mount Sinai, soon after God made an appearance on the mountaintop. He’d already demonstrated his power to not only deliver them from slavery, but to provide for them in the wilderness. As Exodus 25 begins, God has just finished pronouncing the laws of his kingdom, and Moses cut a blood covenant between God and his people.

Having established this new relationship with Israel, God wanted to set up residence right in the middle of their camp. Though he required his people to fashion the tent, he didn’t ask them to come up with their own blueprint. He gave them one that would emulate his dwelling place in heaven.

Bring Me an Offering

The first step, he said, was to “Bring me an offering.” This is the first occurrence of the tabernacle’s description in Scripture, and it’s immediately clear where the materials are to come from. His people.

When you consider the shopping list God hands them in Exodus 25:3–7, it’s a wonder he expected such extravagance from people only recently released from slavery. Where was this troop of nomads, wandering around in the back of beyond, going to find such opulence? Precious gems and metals. Yarns colored with the most expensive of dyes. Huge quantities of spices not even native to Egypt.

It came from the newly acquired wealth from the slave masters they left behind. On their way out of town, the Israelites plundered their neighbors at God’s direction. (Exodus 3:22, 11:2, 12:35) I can only imagine the Egyptians were more than happy to give them whatever they asked for, after their God had so dramatically demonstrated his power. And they must have been liberal in forking over their treasure, because when Israel brought their offering, they poured so much loot at Moses’ feet, he had to call a halt to the donations. (Exodus 36:7)

The purpose for all this extravagance? A holy habitation for God where his people could come to worship and inquire of him.

One Dwelling Place

Now, God certainly makes a home in each one of our hearts, as I mention in A Place for Me in God’s Tent, but Scripture focuses more on the communal aspect of this holy dwelling place.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We love thinking about this as it applies to us individually. That’s because “you” in English can be either singular or plural. We determine its meaning from context clues. In Greek, however, the distinction is clear. And in 1 Corinthians 3:16, every “you” in the verse is plural while “temple” is singular.

In other words, Paul was saying, “All of you together form a single temple where the Holy Spirit lives.” He reinforces this in Romans 12. We are many members of one body. Peter likens us to individual bricks in a single building by saying, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). Again, “you” is plural while “house” is singular.

Let Each One Give

A tent as elaborate as the tabernacle could never have been built by an individual because no Israelite possessed a full complement of materials needed. Our need for each other’s contribution is clear from Paul’s writings in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.

But there’s another implication we can take from the original building project. These gifts came as a result of each Israelite’s shared yet unique experience in Egypt. Each one collected a different type of plunder because of who they came into contact with while enduring their particular type of slavery. Whether a relationship began in mistreatment or abuse, it yielded something they could offer for the communal good.

But the plunder we take away from these experiences builds nothing for God’s dwelling place if we insist on “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” So, let’s be diligent about staying connected to the many-membered body to stir and be stirred up in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24–25). Love and good works that build up the body of Christ “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7–11, emphasis added).

Riches in His Dwelling Place

This is what Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:19. God will supply all our needs “according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” We are those glorious riches, delivered from death and tucked away in his body. So too are the gifts we gained by holding fast to our faith in him to the end.

We are (not I am) the Bride of Christ, because she is a body, a tabernacle, a building, a city filled with people. With Jesus as our cornerstone, the whole edifice who is the bride, “grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19–22, NKJV).

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