There is so much we can learn from the Old Testament (Romans 15:4). The prophet Ezekiel lived and wrote the book that bears his name while in Babylonian captivity. But he was allowed to travel in a vision to Jerusalem and witness the Spirit of God leaving the temple. The physical tabernacle (tent of meeting) and Solomon’s temple were where the glory of God would appear. It was how God lived with his people under the Old Covenant (Exodus 25:22; Leviticus 16:2). But Israel’s sin became so great the Spirit of God departed, “Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house,”-Ezekiel 10:18. It is one of the saddest Scriptures in the Bible.
But there is hope. In the next chapter, God promises his Spirit will return, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them,”-Ezekiel 11:19. Ezekiel is not referring to the temple in Jerusalem. He is referring to the Christian age and a new kind of temple, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”-I Corinthians 6:19. God had in mind a new kind of kingdom (John 18:36) and a new kind of temple (II Corinthians 6:16) where he would dwell (John 7:38-39; Galatians 3:14).
So how can the one God dwell inside every individual Christian? This question is similar to the one the Samaritan woman asked Jesus in John chapter four. She wanted to know where she should worship. Is God’s presence on the mountain where the Samaritans worship or in Jerusalem where Herod’s temple stands? The answer is not what she suspected. In her mind she probably understood God’s presence in the same way in which in his glory dwelt over the mercy seat prior to Ezekiel chapter ten. So she was wrong on both counts. God’s Spirit was not returning to the temple or a mountain in Samaria in that way. God was going to express his omnipresent nature by indwelling every Christian who entered into the New Covenant, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”-John 4:24.
One of great blessings of being a child of God is his constant abiding presence, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”-Jeremiah 31:33. We can have peace with God through the forgiveness bought for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can feel his presence because he is with us in Spirit: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”-I John 4:13-15.
But we must learn the lesson of the Israelites. The Christian who remains in sin, forces the Spirit of God to leave. Certainly the grace of God covers our sins if we walk in the light (I John 1:7). But if we knowingly remain in sin, we are in rebellion to our Father (I Samuel 15:23; Hebrews 10:26). The grace of God has limits, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.”-Romans 6:1-2 (KJV). If we wallow in sin after our baptism, we grieve God’s Spirit because he cannot stand sin (Ephesians 4:30). If we, like Israel, continue in sin, there will come a point when God’s Spirit will leave, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,”-Isaiah 59:2. May God always dwell in your temple through faith.
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