The other compound of the verb ‘skeno’ is used only once in the NT, but it is a beautiful and significant usage, and it leads us into the next stage of our central theme, God’s desire to be with his people. So far, we have traced this from Eden to Emmanuel, from God walking in the garden to Jesus walking the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee. But once Jesus has returned ‘through the veil’ into his Father’s presence in the heavenly sanctuary, it seems that ‘God is no longer with us’. But that was only for 10 days ! On the Day of Pentecost Jesus returned to his disciples, as he had promised, in the person of his Holy Spirit, and it is through him that God now delights to be present, not just among his people but within them individually. The verb we are now focusing on occurs in one of Paul’s most personal passages, 2 Corinthians 12. 7-10, where he talks about his “thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (AV). Three times he prayed to the Lord to remove this thorn; the answer was ‘no’ – but a ‘no’ accompanied by one of the most wonderful promises of scripture: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Cue for a ‘therefore’ ! “Therefore”, Paul concludes, “I will rejoice all the more in my weaknesses” (plural ‘weaknesses’, so even more grace !) “so that the power of Christ may possess me”. This last verb is ‘episkeno’ and this is its only appearance in the NT; but the lexicon most helpfully cites a usage by the historian Polybius, where it refers to an occupying army “taking possession of the houses of the citizens and living in them”. What in history happens, all too often, by ‘force majeure’ in scripture only happens by personal invitation: in the person of his Holy Spirit Jesus will ‘pitch his tent and make his home’ in the life of any one who invites him in. And here we find a nice echo of scriptural history. We have seen how, as the Israelites moved from the wilderness into the promised land, and evolved from wanderers into settled residents, living not in tents but (many of them) in a great city, so under David’s inspiration and Solomon’s direction the Tabernacle was transformed into a Temple. But, as Solomon had realised and Stephen had said, “the almighty God does not live in buildings made-by-human-hands”: the Temple in Jerusalem had had its day, and now God dwells by his Spirit among his people collectively as the church, and within the heart of each one individually who puts his trust in Jesus. For Jesus promised that “if any one loves me, he will keep my word, and the Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14.23). The Greek word for ‘dwelling’ here is ‘mone’, derived from the verb ‘meno’, to ‘stay’ or ‘remain’. It is only used in one other pace in the NT, at the beginning of this very chapter, where Jesus reassures his disciples that he is going on ahead of them “to prepare a place for you” (just as the two delegated disciples had gone ahead of Jesus to prepare the upper room for the Passover supper). “In my Father’s house are many ‘dwellings’ (‘mone’)”. If we bring these two uses of ‘mone’ together we can see that Jesus is promising that he and his Father, in the person of the Holy Spirit, will make their ‘mone’ in our hearts during this life, but that a ‘mone’ in God’s house in heaven is waiting for us in the next. We might liken this arrangement to a foreign exchange scheme in which we welcome a French teenager to our two-up-two-down terrace house in, say, Slough, and then, in return, find ourselves invited back to his or her palatial chateau on the French riviera. That is the glorious asymmetry of God’s grace! So, to use the well-known imagery of Revelation 3.20, when someone hears Jesus knocking at the door of their life, and opens the door and invites Jesus to take up residence, at once their body is transformed from a tent to a temple – “the temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you”, as Paul expresses it (1 Cor 6.19). And what is true of each Christian individually is also true of the church collectively, as Paul has already said earlier in the same letter (1 Cor 3.16): “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God makes his home among you ?” In his second letter to Corinth, he expresses the same truth, but sets it in the broader OT context that we have already explored: “for we are the temple of the living God” (6.16). He supports this statement by quoting from two OT promises of God’s presence with his people. The first is from Leviticus, a classical statement of the Old Covenant: obedience to God’s law brings prosperity, disobedience brings disaster. The promise attached to obedience is “I will put my dwelling-place among you --- I will walk among you” (c.f. the garden of Eden) “and be your God, and you will be my people” (Lev 26. 11-2, NIV). It is worth noting that LXX here has “I will place my tabernacle (‘skene’) among you”, and NIV recognises this in a footnote. The second verse Paul is quoting is from Ezekiel’s prophecy of a new covenant, an everlasting covenant of peace, where the Levitical promise is repeated in this new, Messianic context: “I will put my sanctuary in their midst, and my tabernacle (‘kataskenosis’ – my ‘nest’ !) will be among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people” (Ez. 37. 26-7, LXX). This “new covenant”, the covenant of grace, is now no longer prophecy but glorious reality; God’s people are now the church, and the church is now God’s temple, a temple not-made-with-human-hands, where he delights to dwell.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
SKENE 22: the tent as the Temple of the Holy Spirit
The other compound of the verb ‘skeno’ is used only once in the NT, but it is a beautiful and significant usage, and it leads us into the next stage of our central theme, God’s desire to be with his people. So far, we have traced this from Eden to Emmanuel, from God walking in the garden to Jesus walking the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee. But once Jesus has returned ‘through the veil’ into his Father’s presence in the heavenly sanctuary, it seems that ‘God is no longer with us’. But that was only for 10 days ! On the Day of Pentecost Jesus returned to his disciples, as he had promised, in the person of his Holy Spirit, and it is through him that God now delights to be present, not just among his people but within them individually. The verb we are now focusing on occurs in one of Paul’s most personal passages, 2 Corinthians 12. 7-10, where he talks about his “thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (AV). Three times he prayed to the Lord to remove this thorn; the answer was ‘no’ – but a ‘no’ accompanied by one of the most wonderful promises of scripture: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Cue for a ‘therefore’ ! “Therefore”, Paul concludes, “I will rejoice all the more in my weaknesses” (plural ‘weaknesses’, so even more grace !) “so that the power of Christ may possess me”. This last verb is ‘episkeno’ and this is its only appearance in the NT; but the lexicon most helpfully cites a usage by the historian Polybius, where it refers to an occupying army “taking possession of the houses of the citizens and living in them”. What in history happens, all too often, by ‘force majeure’ in scripture only happens by personal invitation: in the person of his Holy Spirit Jesus will ‘pitch his tent and make his home’ in the life of any one who invites him in. And here we find a nice echo of scriptural history. We have seen how, as the Israelites moved from the wilderness into the promised land, and evolved from wanderers into settled residents, living not in tents but (many of them) in a great city, so under David’s inspiration and Solomon’s direction the Tabernacle was transformed into a Temple. But, as Solomon had realised and Stephen had said, “the almighty God does not live in buildings made-by-human-hands”: the Temple in Jerusalem had had its day, and now God dwells by his Spirit among his people collectively as the church, and within the heart of each one individually who puts his trust in Jesus. For Jesus promised that “if any one loves me, he will keep my word, and the Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14.23). The Greek word for ‘dwelling’ here is ‘mone’, derived from the verb ‘meno’, to ‘stay’ or ‘remain’. It is only used in one other pace in the NT, at the beginning of this very chapter, where Jesus reassures his disciples that he is going on ahead of them “to prepare a place for you” (just as the two delegated disciples had gone ahead of Jesus to prepare the upper room for the Passover supper). “In my Father’s house are many ‘dwellings’ (‘mone’)”. If we bring these two uses of ‘mone’ together we can see that Jesus is promising that he and his Father, in the person of the Holy Spirit, will make their ‘mone’ in our hearts during this life, but that a ‘mone’ in God’s house in heaven is waiting for us in the next. We might liken this arrangement to a foreign exchange scheme in which we welcome a French teenager to our two-up-two-down terrace house in, say, Slough, and then, in return, find ourselves invited back to his or her palatial chateau on the French riviera. That is the glorious asymmetry of God’s grace! So, to use the well-known imagery of Revelation 3.20, when someone hears Jesus knocking at the door of their life, and opens the door and invites Jesus to take up residence, at once their body is transformed from a tent to a temple – “the temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you”, as Paul expresses it (1 Cor 6.19). And what is true of each Christian individually is also true of the church collectively, as Paul has already said earlier in the same letter (1 Cor 3.16): “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God makes his home among you ?” In his second letter to Corinth, he expresses the same truth, but sets it in the broader OT context that we have already explored: “for we are the temple of the living God” (6.16). He supports this statement by quoting from two OT promises of God’s presence with his people. The first is from Leviticus, a classical statement of the Old Covenant: obedience to God’s law brings prosperity, disobedience brings disaster. The promise attached to obedience is “I will put my dwelling-place among you --- I will walk among you” (c.f. the garden of Eden) “and be your God, and you will be my people” (Lev 26. 11-2, NIV). It is worth noting that LXX here has “I will place my tabernacle (‘skene’) among you”, and NIV recognises this in a footnote. The second verse Paul is quoting is from Ezekiel’s prophecy of a new covenant, an everlasting covenant of peace, where the Levitical promise is repeated in this new, Messianic context: “I will put my sanctuary in their midst, and my tabernacle (‘kataskenosis’ – my ‘nest’ !) will be among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people” (Ez. 37. 26-7, LXX). This “new covenant”, the covenant of grace, is now no longer prophecy but glorious reality; God’s people are now the church, and the church is now God’s temple, a temple not-made-with-human-hands, where he delights to dwell.
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