A House for My Name

Good morning! Today after a short message we will spend time together remembering the Lord with the bread and the cup, doing what He asked His disciples to do in remembrance of Him. Following this, we will have a sharing time, where whoever wishes to share what the Lord has been doing in their life will be free to do so. Our sharing times are also motivated by Scripture; this was the kind of meetings that the early church had when they met together. And Scripture is also clear that all the members of a local body of believers are gifted by God in different ways, and by sharing and encouraging one another together, Christ’s body, the church, works as God equipped it and intended it to work.

I have titled today’s message “A House for My Name,” in part because my message is based in part on a book of the same title. This book is subtitled “A Survey of the Old Testament,” but it is unlike any survey I have seen anywhere else. This book shows how there are certain grand themes in the Bible, there are some grand questions that are explored and revealed little by little as we go from the creation of the universe up to the writings of the last prophets a few hundred years before Christ. These themes invariably find their ultimate fulfillment and understanding only in the New Testament, and one way or another, they are always fulfilled in the Person or work of Christ. Today I want to look at one of these themes, the one for which the book has its name.


This theme has to do with the idea of a house. House is normally one of the first words someone learns in any language, and in Hebrew it is bayit. It is the building block of a number of larger words; for example, bread is lechem, and house of bread is bayit-lechem, or bayt-lechem, which is the Hebrew pronunciation of Bethlehem. Bethelehem, the birthplace of Christ, the One who called Himself the bread of life, is the house of bread.

If you look at the very beginning of Genesis, you see God building something we can call a house. He separates the light from the darkness, and separates water from water using something He calls sky, and He moves the water under the sky all to one place, so that there is dry ground; this is the literal meaning of the words in Genesis 1. God is forming, and building, and moving; He is making a house during the first three days of Creation. And then He starts to fill up His house; with plants, also on day three, with lights, day four, with creatures in the air and in the sea, day five, and with creatures on the land, day six. And God says it is good; He likes the house He has made. In Genesis 2, you see this idea of house building on a smaller scale. The Lord plants a garden; this garden is in Eden (we often think of the garden being Eden, but what the passage actually says is that the garden was in Eden). In a way, we have a house within a house within a house. The outer house is the world; inside this house is Eden; and inside this house is the garden.

Now, God made this house in a house in a house for man. God gives two separate commands for what man is to do; in Genesis 1, God tells man to subdue and rule the land, the outer house. Is this not the role of a king, to subdue and rule? So God made man a king. Then, in Genesis 2, God tells man to work and take care of, or guard, the garden, the inner house. Now, the Hebrew word used for work is the same used later (in Exodus and Numbers) as the service of worship. And the idea of guarding is also something we see later, for example in Numbers 1:53 and 3:8. And who was to later do this job? Who was to do the service of worship and guarding? Priests. And so, from the very beginning, God made man both king and priest of this house. And we know that, in this inner house, God walks and talks with man, and so, this is not just a house God has made for man, but it is a house man is to keep for God.

But what happens? Adam (and Eve) sin; they do evil; they obey the serpent rather than trust and obey God, even though God has made this wonderful house for them, even though God lives in this house. And so what happens? God is holy, and cannot stay in the presence of sin, or He would cease to remain holy, and so God casts man out of the garden, the inner house. And then, in Genesis 4, a son of Eve, Cain, also does evil; rather than trust and obey God, he murders his brother. And the result is that Cain is cast out of Eden; Gen. 4:16 says he went to Nod, east of Eden. So man was first cast out of the inner house, and now is cast out of the middle house. And then, in Genesis 6, the descendents once again, rather than trust and obey God, turn to greater and greater evil, and so, with the exception of one small family, God casts them out of the outer house. Now, the outer house is the world; there is no place to go when you are cast out of this house, not in this life, anyway. And the way God casts them out is with a flood; with the waters over the earth, the world looks a lot like it did before God started separating everything and building the house.

From the ark, man began to multiply again, and many moved eastward together to a place where they decided to build a great tower to the heavens; it says in Gen. 11 that they want to make a name for themselves; another way of saying this is that they wanted to build a great house for their name. This too was evil; this too was sin; they wished to exalt themselves rather than God. You know what happened; God confused their speech so that they could not continue to build the tower; instead, they scattered. Did you know that ancient Babylonian literature mentions the building of a great tower? It states that the purpose was so that man could go up and down between earth and the realm of the gods; that is, the Babylonians viewed the tower like a ladder that they could use to, in effect, force their way into God’s house, heaven.

The narrative now comes to Abram. God makes Abram leave his house (quite literally, but also the land of his people, the presence of his family) because this is not a suitable house for either a man of God or for God Himself. God promises Abram a seed, and He promises Abram land; in Genesis 12:7, the Lord promises Abram, “To your seed I will give this land.” Seed means offspring, and it can be taken as either singular or plural. And although the promise has some fulfillment in the next generation, it also is a promise that goes out to the time of Moses and even beyond (see Gen. 15:13-18). We don’t get to see the connection yet, but this land and seed will be central to God’s plan for building a house for His Name.

Through the patriarchs, we see hints of undoing the failure of Adam. These men are all still sinners, but you see them doing some things right that Adam failed to do; you see them doing to some degree the things God instructed Adam to do. At creation God told man to serve as both king and priest; one of the things Abraham did right was a priestly act; he was willing to sacrifice his son, whom he loved, to God. (And yet God uses Melchizedek to show that there would be a much greater priest than Abraham.)

I don’t have time to go into depth with Isaac and Jacob, but I cannot resist pointing out that Jacob’s dream is the perfect counterpoint to Babel; in the dream, Jacob sees, in fact, a ladder to heaven, but this ladder has been built by God, not by man, as Babel was. In the dream, as he sees this ladder to God, God tells him He will bring his people back to this land (Gen. 28:15) – which land is this, the land on earth, or the destination of the ladder? Interesting question! And He also says that it is through his seed that this will take place. After he awakes, Jacob fascinatingly names this place Bethel, that is, bayt-el, or bayit-el, the house of God.

When we come to Joseph, we see another hint of the undoing of the failure of Adam. Recall that God told Adam to be like a king, to rule and subdue; and we see this in Joseph. Starting from nothing, he becomes the second in command in all of Egypt. In this he is like the Son, doing the will of His Father. He uses this power not for personal gain or selfish motives, but to help feed all the people of the land. As a picture of things to come, he was a kind of bread of life to countless people.

After several hundred years in Egypt, the Egyptians turn against the Israelites. To control what they view as a population growing out of countrol, the Egyptians start to kill every newborn boy by drowning them in the Nile. They are being killed in a way reminiscent of how the great flood killed all but Noah and his family. But just as Noah and his family was delivered on a floating vessel lined with pitch that kept them from drowning, Moses is delivered in a floating basket, lined with pitch. Just as Noah came out of the ark into a new world, so does Moses, being taken in by Egyptian royalty, but even more importantly, ultimately Moses delivers his people into a new land, a new world for them. And this ultimate deliverance from the Egyptians occurrs by delivering them through water.

After the people are delivered from Egypt, in Exodus 25-40 Israel now, under God’s specific directions, builds a house for God, a house for His Name, the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a house within a house within a house. The outer house is called the courtyard; the middle house is called the holy place, and the inner house is called the most holy place. Now what made the tabernacle holy was the presence of the Spirit of God dwelling there. From where did the Spirit come? Ultimately from God, yes, but, directly, it came from atop Mount Sinai, which was also a kind of house within a house within a house. All the general people had to stay at the base of the mountain, the outer house; the elders could ascend partway up the mountain, the middle house; but only Moses could go to the very top, to the very presence of God, to the inner house. In the same way, at the tabernacle, the Israelites in general could only go to the courtyard; the priests could go on into the holy place, but only the high priest could enter the most holy place, and he could only do so and live if he had done all that was required to purify himself; in effect, he had to be sinless when he entered the most holy place. Symbolically, we are reminded of the Garden of Eden; compare even the presence of the Cherubim with the flaming sword in Genesis 3 to the carved images of Cherubim built above the ark inside the most holy place. And just as sinners (all of us) are blocked from re-entering the Garden of Eden, sinners are also blocked from entering the most holy place. In both cases, the Cherubim seem to be saying, “Keep out.”

Recall how the Israelites were led by the Spirit of God appearing as cloud by day and as fire by night; the Israelites picked up the tabernacle and followed where God would lead. But they sinned and sinned, and their punishment was 40 years in the desert, continuing to pick up the tabernacle and follow God, until, ultimately, in Joshua 18:1, the tabernacle settled at Shiloh. Through the book of Judges, we see a dark time when by and large the people forget their God and do what they see fit in their own eyes. There is a repeating cycle of sin leading to God’s judgment, leading to the people crying out and repenting, leading to God giving a judge to restore the freedom of the people. But the people always, a generation later, go back to their sins.

All this time the ark is in the tabernacle at Shiloh. But in I Samuel 4, the Israelites do something unthinkable: after losing a major battle to the Philistines, they decide to go get the ark from the most holy place in the tabernacle and bring it to the field of battle! In so doing, you could say that they broke into and plundered God’s house. God does not kill them on the spot for attempting such an outrageous thing, but does something even worse: He lets them do it. Philistines are first afraid when they find out, but they strengthen themselves and win a tremendous victory against the Israelites. They even take with them the ark. When Eli, the chief priest, hears the news, he falls over and dies, and when his daughter-in-law, who is very pregnant, learns of this, she goes into labor. She name her son Ichabod, which means, “no glory,” and says what everyone is now starting to realize, “The Glory has departed from Israel.”

The Philistines bring the ark into a temple of Dagon, but this is no suitable house for His Name. The statue of Dagon falls twice, breaking into pieces, and the Lord greatly afflicts the Philistines living around the area. They bring the ark it to another city, where God afflicts them even more, and then the Philistines return it to Israel, even adding gold offerings. It comes to a town in Israel called Beth Shemesh (house of the sun), but even there those who look on it die. From there it is brought to a town called Kiriath Jearim (city of trees) where it remains for many years. We then go through the times of Samuel, Saul, and David.

In 2 Samuel 5 and 6, David conquers Jerusalem. David is serving in that role given to Adam but in which Adam failed, the role of king. He has the ark brought in a great procession towards the city. There is a great celebration as the ark traveled, but at one point as it starts to fall, one of them reaches out to save it and immediately dies. Fearful and even somewhat angry, David instead had the ark brought to someone’s house along the way, and Scripture says this person’s house is greatly blessed during this time. After 3 months, David finally has the courage to bring the ark to Jerusalem. He dances before the Lord, rejoicing, as it is brought in.

The ark is brought to rest at a new tent, a tabernacle, a house within a house within a house, as had been proscribed long ago, and the priests again serve as they did back in the days of Moses. David then tells the prophet Nathan he is thinking that it doesn’t seem right to him that he lives in a great palace while God’s house is just a tent. That night the word of the Lord comes to Nathan to speak to David. The Lord says,

Are you the one to build Me a house to dwell in?[…] I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked (people) will not oppress them anymore, as (they) did at the beginning and have ever done since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. – 2 Samuel 7:5, 7:10

So David offered to build a house for God, but God said He would build a house for His people, a place where they would never again be oppressed. Was he talking about the land of Israel? No, because the people were again oppressed; due to their own sin, God punished them and let them be captured, not once, but twice; after the time of Jeremiah and the prophets, and also after 70 AD, when the rebuilt temple, Herod’s temple was destroyed.

The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring [seed] to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. – 2 Samuel 7:11-14

So who is this talking about? Yes, Solomon was David’s immediate son, and Solomon did build the Temple, but it was not an eternal house, but a temporary one. The ultimate answer is Jesus! Jesus has built a house for His Name, an eternal house.

When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'" – 2 Samuel 7:14-16

Wait a minute; when he does wrong? Jesus didn’t do any wrong. Yet He was inflicted with the floggings of men. He even died on a tree, the ultimate punishment by God. So what is going on? Jesus received the punishment He would have received for doing wrong, but He took paid the price for our sin. God punished Him for our sin. But His love for Him was never gone; after three days Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death. By His stripes we are healed; by going to the cross, He has built an eternal house and kingdom for us; He is the king, and His throne is established forever. So where is this house for His Name? There are many verses that answer this; I will read just a few.

And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. – Ephesians 2:22

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. – I Peter 2:4-5

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. – John 14:23

And as we saw last week, For we are the temple of the living God. – 2 Corinthians 6:16b

For me the important question is, where is the innermost house? Where does God’s Spirit find a home? And the answer is crystal clear: it is in the innermost place of each believer. This is the precious and overwhelming truth: throughout the history of man, we have sinned and desecrated God’s house, and throughout history, because God is holy, He has cast us out of His house. How then can God reside in us? Because as believers, if by faith we have put our lives into the hands of God, we have died, and yet we live. As the baptism ordinance symbolizes, we are both those who have drowned in the flood and those who have been delivered through it. We are crucified with Christ; yet nevertheless, we live. And we are an eternal house for His Name.