God's Desire

When I love someone, I want to spend as much time with them as I can. I want to talk to them, and listen to them. I want to have fun with them, and to make plans with them. If they are rejoicing, I want to shout from the rooftops. If they are mourning, my heart aches to walk beside them. I want to celebrate their wins, and to share in their discouragements.

My deep desire is to live life among those that I love. It is the same for our God.

From the very beginning of time, his desire was to walk and live among his people. The Garden of Eden was the first place we see this occur. He had created a beautiful space to share with the people he loved. He had come down to walk with Adam and Eve among the cool evening breeze when he was instead faced with the sin that separated them from himself (Genesis 3). This grieved him. He could not live in community with rebellious people.

During the exodus out of Egypt, we see God’s grace. He gives his people another opportunity to dwell with him in their midst. His instruction was to build a tabernacle, a mobile sanctuary for him to live with them. “I will place my residence among you, and I will not reject you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” (Leviticus 26:11-12).

Once the kingdom of Israel became more established, King Solomon prepared to build a permanent dwelling place for God. The Lord spoke to him, “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them… I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel” (1 Kings 6:12-13). Unfortunately, his people did not hold up their end of the agreement. They betrayed God in their hearts and fell in love with other things.
The Lord allowed his people to be carried away by their enemies to foreign lands. But God still loved his people and he would dwell among them once again.

He met with the prophet Ezekiel while still in exile to share this hope of community to come, “I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Ezekiel 37:26b-27). What God did here was so clever. While he was speaking of the near future in reunifying Israel and rebuilding his temple, he was also speaking of the ultimate fulfillment of his covenant: Jesus.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us”. Jesus came to the earth, fully God, to dwell among his people as a human being. He loved us so much that he sent his son to live with us, to teach us, to build a relationship with us, and then to die for us. But it didn’t end there.

After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he sent his Spirit to us. This time, not to merely dwell among us, but to dwell within us. When we commit our lives to Jesus and turn away from our sin, he makes us pure and holy, a perfect temple where he can dwell forever.

When God makes his home in us, we do not live life alone. He talks to us. He listens to us. He laughs with us. He cries with us. He rejoices in our wins, and feels our discouragements.

God so loved the world that he wants to live every moment together with us forever. Even when we don’t measure up to his standard, because his Spirit is at work, sanctifying us and making us more like Jesus, we can have assurance that we are his, no matter what.

Dear Immanuel, thank you for your overwhelming desire to live life with me. Thank you for never leaving my side, and for going to great lengths to make me a holy and blameless sanctuary for your Spirit. Amen.

Throughout this Day: When is the last time you took the opportunity to accept what Jesus did for you? Do you remember the first time you surrendered your life to Jesus? Take time to reflect on this today. Invite him to come into your life, to change your heart, and to live every moment with you.