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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
I don’t think I am any more ignorant today than I was fifty years ago, but I surely know about a lot more things that I don’t know! Can you relate to this statement? All I’m saying is the more I learn, the more I find that I don’t know. I recall wondering as a youngster about heaven. We frequently referred to heaven as being up, but up is relative to some fixed location, not an absolute. It occurs to me now that heaven is the absolute and all physical things are relative! Let’s visit a few select Old Testament passages which talk about heaven.
In Jerusalem, Solomon had erected the first temple and was in the process of dedicating it. As a part of this public ceremony and prayer, Solomon said, “If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.” (2 Chronicles 6.22-23). Among other things of great importance, Solomon prayed that God would hear from heaven the proceedings that went on inside the temple. Our focus today will be on this phrase, Hear from heaven.
It is of no little significance that Solomon used the term hear from heaven no less than seven times in his prayer (see 2 Chronicles 6, verses 21,23,25,30,33,35, & 39). In four of these instances, he added the phrase Your dwelling place to this expression, making it clear that God did not dwell in the temple but only His presence would be there to hear and to act (see verses 21,30,33, & 39). When Solomon finished praying, the inspired record says, “…fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.” (2 Chronicles 7.1). This Divine act was visible proof that the temple was an acceptable place where God would meet His worshippers.
About three weeks after the fire came down from heaven, The LORD appeared to Solomon with the following message: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [the prayers of the people] from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” (2 Chronicles 7.12-16).
Heaven, as used in the previous passages, is identified as God’s dwelling place! His eyes, ears, and name would be in the temple as would His heart, but His dwelling place would continue to be in heaven. It is an absolute fact that no physical place can contain God. Only the concept of heaven is large enough to hold Him (and that only in human terms)! There were instances where Old Testament characters used another expression to depict an infinite capacity and even that could not contain God; that expression was the heaven of the heavens (2 Chronicles 2.6, Nehemiah 9.6, and Psalm 68.33).
Solomon said it exactly right when He said, “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (2 Chronicles 6.18 & 1 Kings 8.27). I suppose I will keep on wondering about heaven for awhile!
Questions:
1. How did God signify the fact that He was pleased to meet the Hebrew worshippers in the temple
2. Did Solomon have any illusion that the temple could contain God? Why did the Levites in Nehemiah 9.5-6 say that God could not be contained in the heaven of heavens?
3. What is the difference between God’s presence being with us, and God dwelling in the earth or in some other physical place or thing?
4. When, if ever, will we understand about heaven? What human terms, if any, are adequate to describe heaven? If none, why not?
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