2 Chronicles 6:18

New International Version (NIV)

“But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

For Meditation

When we talk about how big God is; we talk about an infinite being with human words – words that are incapable of describing eternity. The mind has its limits. It perceives and conceives only that which is within its boundaries and competencies. Our imagination can travel as far as is allowed by its endowment. Under no circumstances could the human mind know more than what its Creator permits. It conceives and describes in languages that naturally come to every tribe as God enables. Never could any word completely describe what is beyond the physical realm. What God reveals is expressed in human words, and that is why human words cannot describe the immensity of God and the vastness of His creation.

Solomon couldn’t perceive how such an infinite being, so beyond our imagination, could fit into the confines of the temple he had built for Him (2 Chron. 6:18). How could infinity dwell in the finite? Yet, God Himself directed and designed the building in David’s mind. How incredible it was to Solomon when he finished it!

It is only possible for God to dwell in a physical entity as far as God Himself makes it possible, and in what form He takes to do it. But, concerning the temple, God had something else planned for the future. “When the set time had fully come” (Gal. 4:4), God emptied Himself and took on a human body (Phil. 2:7-8), first in a virgin’s womb (Lk. 1:35), and as a man to live among us. It is something  the human mind cannot wrap itself around, never will, unless they are given faith to believe. As if that were not enough, God has made our bodies, His temple in which His Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 6:19).

Again, how can the infinite dwell in the bodies of mere mortals. That same question Solomon posed, baffles the world today.“But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (2 Chron. 6:18); except now, it is a temple God has built for Himself (1 Cor. 6:19).

1. Are you that temple?
2. Like Solomon, do you sometimes wonder how the infinite God of all creation, so immense, would fit His whole being in you as His dwelling place (Col. 2:9-10)?
3. How accommodating are you? How groomed is His place?
4. Are you sure He is comfortable, or is He always grieved by your life (Eph. 4:30)?
5. Have you introduced Him to your friends and neighbors as your Savior and Lord?

I pray you will grow to know Him more – the “King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17) – who has made your heart His dwelling place.

So: May the wonder of His Majesty humble and keep you in daily submission to the Holy Spirit; and may you rejoice in Christ at all times and in all circumstances.

The marvel of God is His dwelling in you.

Shalom