Meeting God in the Sanctuary

MEMORY SELECTION: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” —Psalm 27:4

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Psalm 84

WE, AS the footstep followers of Jesus, are invited to membership in the house of God. But as our memory selection suggests, we must make this goal the chief desire of our hearts if we hope ever to achieve it. By house, of course, the psalmist is not referring to a building but, as the Hebrew word bayith suggests, a family. What does it mean to be in the house, or family, of God?

The Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 3:1-6, states: “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”

In accordance with God’s ultimate purpose as expressed in the divine plan of the ages, God’s house, or family, will consist of many beings of his intelligent creation on several planes of existence. When God created Adam in the Garden of Eden, the psalmist spoke of him thus, “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.” (see Heb. 2:7) Adam in his perfection was part of God’s house. But when he disobeyed he was expelled from the house of God and became an outcast. God’s ultimate purpose, however, is to recover mankind during the thousand-year judgment day and reestablish him in his house on the human plane of existence in the perfection enjoyed by Adam in the Garden of Eden.

In the text quoted in Hebrews, the 3rd chapter, the apostle states that Moses was faithful in God’s house, but his relationship to God was as a servant. His faithfulness in doing God’s will resulted in providing types and shadows that spoke of things to come after. Moses was justified by his faith in God under difficult and trying circumstances.

In verse 6 of Hebrews 3 the apostle states that Christ is a son in God’s house and is of a higher order and plane of existence than Moses. When Jesus came to John at the river Jordan he was Adam’s counterpart in perfection and therefore was in God’s house as a perfect man on the human plane of life. But since he came to take Adam’s place in death, it was necessary that he give up that perfect life. And if there had been no further provision made, he would have gone out of existence. But God begot him of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:16); and for three and one-half years he was tried and tested under difficult and trying circumstances, during which time the apostle states that he learned obedience by the things that he suffered, or in other words, he was perfected as a new creature.

When Jesus died on the cross his human body took Adam’s place in the dust of the earth. But God placed the perfected new mind of Jesus in a divine body, and Jesus became the resurrected Christ to take a preeminent place in the spiritual house of God.

The apostle states, in verse 6 of the 3rd chapter of Hebrews, that we have the prospect of becoming a part of the spiritual house of God “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” The test in holding fast our confidence, or faith, and being joyful in our hope is centered around the requirement that the prospective members of the spiritual house of God must suffer; that is, be obedient under difficult and trying circumstances.—Rom. 8:14-17

How glorious is the prospect of being with our Heavenly Father and our Lord, of continually beholding their beauty of character, of being active in their beneficent purposes, and of inquiring in the Lord’s temple for eternity.

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