Greater Is He

And now, Yahweh, the God of Israel, let Your word that You promised Your servant David come true. “But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” – 2 Chronicles 6:17-18

Solomon (and almost all those who came before him, except for a few) only knew of a transcendent God who rarely, if ever, drew near to His creation. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was to be revered and sometimes feared, but seemingly dwelt in unapproachable light. Only Moses was able to enter into Yahweh’s presence (all Israel was forbidden to set foot on Mt. Sinai) and the high priest could only do so once each year.

This is what makes the psalms of David so enduring and endearing. David wrote of a personal love relationship between God and man, of a God who draws near, of the possibility of intimate contact with an infinite God. Yet, even David, “beloved of God,” did not get to experience an indwelling and abiding Holy Spirit that is the privilege of every single born again child of God. Though the heavens cannot contain our Lord, He actually came near and dwelt among us in the Person of Jesus, the Messiah.

King Solomon, at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, took one look at the magnificent structure he had commissioned and knew it was “much less” than the One for whom it was built. Today, if you belong to Christ and His church (the living temple of the living God), enter your world with the same humble understanding, but with one added insight. Greater is He that is within you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)!

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? – Paul, the Apostle (1 Corinthians 3:16)