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Hebrew Word Study – Sanctuary/Home  Midkodesh    Mem Qop Daleth, Shin   

The above study verse opens the door to much theological debate and argument. Recognizing that there are many different views and positions on this matter, I will just share with you my position for your consideration only. 

The theological issue is whether the Holy Spirit dwells within a righteous human being before Jesus’s death and resurrection, that is how were people in the Old Testament saved if Jesus had not yet died on the cross? Without the death of Jesus and his resurrection where did people go after they died in the Old Testament?  Dispensationalism offers a very logical answer.  That is that God dealt with people differently throughout the ages.  Although it supplies a logical answer I struggled throughout my years of Bible College and seminary which taught dispensationalism to really be Biblically convinced of this theory. Bible verses such as Malachi 3:6: “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  Or Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Stood in my way.  If God is unchanging and the same throughout the ages then He doesn’t change the way He operates.  At least in my thinking, I could not justify that God dealt differently with humankind throughout the ages. 

I remember one professor I had at Moody Bible Institute, a strong dispensationalist school, who responded to a student’s question as to how people were saved in the Old Testament by saying: “The same as today.”  For me, that made sense because I had just finished reading a book by C.S. Lewis where he said that God does not live in time. He created time and in His realm, he lives outside of time. It is hard for us in the flesh to wrap our brains around the fact that God lives in the past, present, and future at the same time, but as Einstein said: “Time is relative.”  It makes sense that in God’s realm, the atonement for our sins was made long before the actual event in the physical realm. The death of Jesus on the Cross was a done event when the first person on earth sinned.  In the natural realm, the people in the Old Testament believed a redeemer would come and trust in the coming redeemer as we, today, believe our redeemer has already come and we look to the past to put our trust in a redeemer.  In Job 19:25 he says: “I know my Redeemer lives.”  His redeemer was alive in God’s realm during the time of Job.

For this reason, I have no problem believing that God dwelled within humans the same as today.  He cannot dwell within a human where there is sin but the work of Jesus Christ removed those sins so that our bodies are truly a dwelling place for God.  Now it is true that God dwells everywhere Jeremiah 23:23: “I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only.”GNT

So why does God need to dwell within us, why did He need a sanctuary?  The Midrash teaches that God can be in the world without the world being a home. This world is inhospitable to God and it cannot be His home, not with the sin and darkness in this world.  God wanted a home here on earth. Home is a place where you are welcomed, accepted, and loved,  where you are comfortable and can be yourself. God is not comfortable around sin and thus He cannot dwell on this planet in comfort. Only through us, the redeemed can He dwell and feel at home. 

Thus, he needed a sanctuary.  The word sanctuary is mikodesh, literally “from holiness.” He instructed the people of Israel to build such a sanctuary, a mikan or tabernacle. It was to be built to his exact specifications. The exact specifications it was to be built by the offerings or gifts of the people.  To deviate from one item specified by God would be giving God a gift that was not built with loving care.  To leave out one item would be careless.  To build the tabernacle or temple to meet one’s own personal desire would be like giving a gift to someone that you like, that meets your personal need. What kind of gift is that?  

God did not ask for a great and beautiful edifice but a simple design to show His humility.  It was a place, being built to His precise specifications that made it holy.  The word holy in Hebrew is kodesh which means separate but separate in the sense of being separated from all impurities, anything that was not compatible with God or harmony with God.  One could then come to this sanctuary and be made kodesh before God, be cleansed from any impurities that would not be compatible with God and thus their bodies could be a home for God to go out into the world to share the message of God. 

Did not the Apostle Paul declare that our bodies are the temple of God? In I Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul asks: “Know you not that your bodies are the temple of God.”  He is stating common knowledge.  This was nothing new to the Jewish community, they knew that their bodies were the temple of God and the earthly temple was like a maintenance garage where they would go to have their relationship with God restored so they could continue carrying the living God within them. 

God has not changed, he still longs for a home here on earth and we are his vessels to provide that home, a place he can be comfortable, accepted, and loved. He is knocking at the door of your home right now wanting to make it His home.  Is He welcomed in your home? Are you willing to make your home, His home? 

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