Psalm 132:13 NASB “For
the LORD has chosen
Psalm 87:2 NASB “The
LORD
loves the gates of Zion More than all the {other} dwelling places of Jacob.” When
you come to
1 Kings 8:1 NASB “Then
Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the
leaders of the fathers’ {households} of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in
Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the
city of David, which is Zion.”
From the very beginning God
creates Adam and Eve and places them in the garden, and what does he do? On a
daily basis he comes and spends time with His creatures. He walks with them.
Genesis 3:8, just after they sinned, NASB “They heard the sound of
the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day …” This was presented
as normal procedure. God would come every day and spend time teaching, talking;
they had the presence of God in the garden. The next verse we come to that
teaches us something about this is Genesis 6:3 NASB “Then the LORD said, ‘My
Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh;
nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’.” This immediately
precedes the flood. There is an interesting word here that is usually
translated in the KJV and NKJV as “strive.” The word “Spirit” is simply a reference
to Himself, it is not a technical term here for the
Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word that is translated “strive” here was a hapax legomena, a
word that is only used one time in all of the Hebrew Old Testament. The
translators basically guessed at what that meant and it led people to guess
that it had to do with an antagonistic relationship. But that is not what is
going on there. The modern discoveries of cognate languages
indicates that the core meaning of the root of this word has to do with
abide. It is very likely that the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the second person
of the Trinity, stayed in the garden of Eden. There
was the presence of God in the garden of Eden throughout
the entire period up to the flood. This is why there was no delegation of human
government to man until after the flood. Who was adjudicating criminality prior
to the flood? God at the garden of Eden. There was a
guard posted around the garden of Eden but man would
meet with God there for the judicial decisions. God was still present but he was
going to leave at the time of that judgment. He will return with relationship
to His special people,
There are basically four
periods of history related to the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament.
The first was the tabernacle which was constructed after that first year after
the exodus. The first temple is built by Solomon and this is dedicated in 966 BC, and that is
referred to as the first temple period. Then there was the seventy-year captivity,
after which there is a return in 536 and the second temple is constructed and
dedicated in 516 BC. That is the second temple, the Zerubbabel
temple. This entire period is referred to as the second temple period, even
though there were two different temples, the Zerubbabel
temple and then its reconstruction by Herod which was finished about AD 64.
When the first temple was
built Solomon dedicated it. 1 Kings
The next time we have the
dwelling presence in John 1:14 NASB “And the Word became flesh, and
dwelt [skhnh/tabernacled] among
us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full
of grace and truth.” So there was the dwelling presence of God again with His
people in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified,
resurrected, ascended and this was followed by the sending of the Holy Spirit. With
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we also have again the presence of God
dwelling with His people. 1 Corinthians