Where is God’s home now?

God himself asked that question in Isaiah 66:1, when he said, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” 

It indicates that God wants a place to dwell in, but it’s also saying, “What kind of house could we ever come up with as mere humans to suitably accommodate the likes of God who built the entire universe?” It’s like asking, “What clever gift can I possibly come up with for someone who already has everything?” 

And this was the dilemma faced by the Israelites because every home they built for God to dwell in didn’t last, including “the tabernacle in the desert” that God himself designed, Acts 7:44. King David wanted to “provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob” too (45-46), but the temple that his son then completed didn’t last either. The message being that “the Most High does not live in houses made by men” (48).

Where God wishes to dwell and set up his home, then, isn’t in anything of our making. It may be nice to think we’ve “built a church to the glory of God,” but “God who made the world and everything in it….does not live in temples built by human hands,” Acts 17:24 – including the superb temple Herod built for the Jews, which only lasted 40 years.

So where is God’s home now? If it’s not in tabernacles, temples, or church buildings of any sort, where on this planet is the “house” and the “resting place” in Isaiah 66:1 that he seeks? 

Jesus’ answer to that in John 2:19 was himself. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” He said this while in the temple in Jerusalem, knowing that one day soon it would be destroyed, and comparing it to his own body (21) that would be destroyed as well. But he also knew his body would be raised up again (22) hinting, therefore, that the temple would also be raised up and rebuilt. It was a somewhat cryptic clue connecting the temple with his body, but Jesus was setting the scene for God’s future temple and home on this planet being raised up again and rebuilt in Jesus’ own body. 

But how can that be when Jesus isn’t here on the planet in person? Well, that’s where the story of Joseph comes in again, because from Joseph came Israel, from Israel came Jesus, and from Jesus came “The Church in which he dwells”….(next blog)