God’s Word for You
Acts 7:44-47 A dwelling place for God
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, December 30, 2019
We return to Stephen’s apology or defense of his Christian faith before the Jewish Sanhedrin.
44 “Our fathers had the tent of testimony in the desert. It was made exactly as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, just like the model that he had seen. 45 After they received it from him, our fathers brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the Gentiles God drove out before them. The tent was here until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
Stephen’s defense has been that he is not opposed to the house of God nor the word of God, but that the whole point of the true house of God is that it was to be portable and temporary, a place that pointed ahead to Christ. This was changed by David and Solomon. They had their reasons for the change, and God did not disapprove, but that did not change the word of God that had come down to them through Moses (Stephen was specifically charged with opposing the word of God through Moses).
Joshua moved the tabernacle to Jericho at God’s command (Joshua 6). It seems to have remained near the ruins of Jericho, perhaps up at Bethel, during the campaign against Ai (Joshua 7:1-6). From there the ark was taken by Joshua to Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30-33).
There is a gap in our knowledge about the tabernacle and the ark after Joshua’s time but later during the days of the judges (1325-1050 BC), the ark was moved to Bethel (Judges 20:27) until it was moved once again to Shiloh, where it still stood when Samuel was a boy (1 Samuel 1:3).
The strange history of the tabernacle is that shortly after the time of Joshua, the tabernacle ceased to be a unified entity. The curtains and other fabric portions, it would seem, became so tattered and worn with use that some kind of structure was erected at Shiloh unless that location saw the construction of a new tent which would have been in keeping with God’s will (the original curtains were never intended to be permanent, but were meant to be easily replaced in case they were damaged). But from Shiloh, the ark itself was removed along with certain other items.
The ark was taken from Shiloh into battle against the Philistines, who captured it (1 Samuel 4:10-11; Psalm 78:60) and took it to the temple of Dagon in Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:1-2). It remained there until it was sent on to Ekron. After a total of seven months in Philistine territory (1 Samuel 6:1), it was sent back to Israel once again.
In David’s time, the ark and the tabernacle seem to have been together once again (1 Chronicles 16:39, 21:29). It was there at Gibeon that Solomon prayed for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:5-10). Gibeon also seems to have been the location of the tabernacle when David wrote Psalm 27 (see Psalm 27:5-6).
This tabernacle or temporary tent that David made is probably also the one he prays about when he says: “I will not enter my house or go to my bed—I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psalm 137:3-5). The importance of the shrine was not its location, nor the material from which it was built. Its importance was the presence of God; the invocation of God’s holy name.
It is interesting and I think very significant that Stephen omits any reference at all to sacrifices apart from those brought to the golden calf (Acts 7:41). The one sacrifice that matters is the one that was made on the cross. All of the ancient artifacts—the tent, its curtains and poles, its waterproof covering, its candlesticks, table for bread, altars for incense and offerings, and even the ark of the covenant itself—all of these were nothing more than images that pointed ahead to the arrival of the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. To dismiss Christ was to dismiss all of it. To embrace Christ was to understand and revere all of it and to put it all into the proper context.
To put it in more modern terms: Imagine that you have been given a Christmas present. You tear open the wrapping paper to find out what’s inside, but other people gathered around the tree become angry with you when you seem to forget about the wrapping paper to find out what the gift really is. The Jews were focused on the trimmings; the wrapping paper of the Messiah. They were ready to throw away the Messiah himself, the Gift given by God the Father, and in fact, they had put him to death. Now all they wanted was the packaging, the temple and its trimmings, like so much wrapping paper with a ribbon and bow.
Over the centuries, they had not been so careful with that package. But now that the Gift had arrived, it was time to focus on the Gift. Turn your attention to Jesus. Don’t allow any sleep to come to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids until a place for Jesus has been pitched in your heart, and then he will give you the rest that is truly restful, forevermore.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.