In Every Place
For Yahweh has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His
dwelling place: “This is My resting place forever;
here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly
bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints
will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout
for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed. His
enemies I will clothe with shame, but on Him His crown
will shine.” (Psalm 132:13-18)
According to Yahshua,
the Messiah, this Psalm must be fulfilled, for it speaks
of Him. There must be an eternal dwelling place for Yahweh
(God) in which He provides for His people, where everyone’s
needs are met, where there is a holy priesthood full of
mirth and revelation, and who are victorious over His enemies.
Where is this happening?
The temple, Levitical priesthood, and prescribed sacrifices
and offerings of the Old Covenant were all physical types
that looked forward to their spiritual fulfillment in the
New Covenant. Every detail of their intricate design and
prescribed order was of great significance, beginning with
the choice of location for priestly service, as Deuteronomy
12 lays the foundation for the spiritual life of God’s
people:
1 These are the statutes and rules that you shall be
careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your
fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you
live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the
places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served
their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and
under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars
and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim
with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their
gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall
not worship the LORD your God in that way.
5 But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God
will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and
make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there
you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,
your tithes and the contribution that you present, your
vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn
of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall
eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you
and your households, in all that you undertake, in which
the LORD your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do according to all that we are doing
here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own
eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to
the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.
10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land
that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when
he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that
you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the LORD
your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there
you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings
and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution
that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that
you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the
LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your
male servants and your female servants, and the Levite
that is within your towns, since he has no portion or
inheritance with you.
In the Old Covenant there was only that one place
(verses 5, 11, 13) where God would dwell by His Spirit.
There and there alone could Yahweh be worshipped in all
that He commanded them, in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
tithes and heave offerings from their hand, and all the
choice offerings which they vowed to Yahweh. And there they
could rejoice before Yahweh their God, with all their sons
and daughters (verse 12).
But there was a solemn warning following this promise:
13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings
at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the
LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall
offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all
that I am commanding you.
Ultimately that one place that Yahweh chose was Jerusalem,
in the tribe of Benjamin, which David captured for Yahweh’s
dwelling place, to build for Him a temple where offerings
could be offered up to His name by the Levitical priesthood
who ministered before Yahweh on behalf of the whole nation.
Only there, in that place, would Israel’s offerings
be acceptable to Him. If they were obedient, it would go
well with them:
28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command
you, that it may go well with you and with your children
after you forever, when you do what is good and right
in the sight of the LORD your God.
But it did not go well with them. Rather than driving
out God’s enemies who worshiped their gods “on
the high mountains and on the hills and under every green
tree” (verse 2), thus enjoying rest from their enemies
(verse 10), it was repeatedly and tragically recorded that
they built for themselves high places to worship the gods
of the nations “under every green tree.”
Just as Deuteronomy 12:8 solemnly warned them against, “everyone
doing whatever is right in his own eyes,” the very
last word in the book of Judges describes them doing,
and the books of Kings and Chronicles only continue the
sad story of their apostate condition.
Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, pronounced
the fall of Old Israel, which John the Baptist echoed
400 years later, laying the ax to the root of that dead
tree. But Malachi also prophesied of the restoration
of a new, spiritual priesthood that would offer acceptable
sacrifices in prescribed places where Yahweh’s
name would be made great outside the borders of physical
Israel, even to the ends of the earth.
The spiritual life and priesthood of Psalm 132, fulfilling
the prophecies of Malachi, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc., began
to happen for a short time in the first century, but
it did not endure. One by one, in every place, their
light went out and the lampstands were removed. Rather
than learning from the lessons of Old Israel, as Paul exhorted
them, they also became proud and fell, to the point
that Deuteronomy 12:8 exactly depicts Christianity today.
Does it seem impossible to you that Christianity could fall
and be cut off? If so, then there are many warnings in the
New Testament that you have not taken seriously, or considered
the consequences of ignoring. For example:
…but Christ is faithful over God’s
house as a son. And we are His house if
indeed we hold fast our confidence and the rejoicing of
our hope firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:6)
…for we have become partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast to the end. (Hebrews 3:14)
The word “if” indicates a condition. “To
the end” means to the end of the age (to its accomplishment
or fulfillment). “Confidence” in Hebrews 3:6
means “outspokenness” in the Holy Spirit, such
as Paul assumed was every person’s right, and
such as comes from a good conscience. That confidence
produced lively celebrations of their faith, their “common
salvation,” with merrymaking, singing, dancing,
praising, and speaking. A “partaker” in Hebrews
3:14 is a joint participant, a partner, a companion, sharing
in fellowship with Him and with one another daily:
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but
exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,”
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13)
So according to Hebrews 3:6 and 13 we can know for certain
that that house has fallen. Just as Israel of old fell,
so did the first church, failing to obey Hebrews 3:13, or
10:24, or 12:15, proving that Hebrews 3:12 had come upon
them.
For if we sin willfully after we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment,
and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
(Hebrews 10:26-27)
The deceitfulness of sin hardens the heart of believers,
resulting in their departure from the living God. This is
the way the early New Testament church fell. Unbelief is
caused by a hardened heart, which is caused by deceitfulness
of sin. The result is apostasy —departing
from the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, which
is tantamount to departing from the living God. When there
are no apostles, there is no community, and when there
is no community, there is no church, no constant caring,
no encouragement daily — daily, daily. Being partakers
of Messiah requires a continuance in faith which comes by
hearing from one another the very utterance of God in
the daily gatherings (spiritual sacrifices). When or
where there is no daily or constant caring, encouragement,
there is no community of believers where grace, abundant
grace, is upon them all.
Paul’s last word in his letter to the church in
Ephesus was, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus
Christ with an undying love.” Forty years later,
their love for Messiah was no longer fervent. They had
ceased doing the deeds they did at first. Their light
went out.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your
first love. (Revelation 2:4)
In Revelation 2:4, it is made clear that the church in
Ephasus had died — because their love died. Don’t
be surprised — churches can die.
A Place of Rest
Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said,
“They always go astray in their heart, and they
have not known My ways.” So I swore in My wrath,
“They shall not enter My rest.” (Hebrews 3:10-11;
Psalm 95:8-11)
There is a place of quiet and rest near to the heart of
God, but grumbling, complaining, and unbelief destroy
this place of rest.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers
dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running
down to the edge of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there
the LORD has commanded the blessing, life everlasting.
(Psalm 133:1-3)
Only there—
“If anyone serves Me, he must follow
Me; and where I am, there My servant
will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor
him.”
— in that place, can eternal life dwell. Where brothers
dwell together in unity, there
(the only place) is where eternal life is.
In Deuteronomy 12:5 we see only one place where God dwelt.
Now in the New Covenant relationship He dwells in every
place where His name is being made great by His disciples
who live together in unity, loving one another just
as He loved them. His dwelling place is without division.
There is where everyone holds fast to their
confidence because they obey His commandments and do the
things that are pleasing in His sight, because He is
their King, the High Priest over their house.
In every place such as this, Messiah dwells by His Spirit
in those who serve Him where He is:
“If anyone serves Me, he must follow
Me; and where I am, there My servant
will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor
him.”(John 12:26)
That is what it means to be His Body, the Church —
a corporeal (not ethereal) expression of His life,
lived before all in every place where He causes His name
to dwell.
Yahshua is the Hebrew name of the Son of God; see
“What’s in a
Name?” for more about this name.
Luke 24:44
1 Kings 14:22-23; 2 Kings 16:3-4; 17:9-10; etc.
Judges 21:25
Malachi 1:10
Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9
Malachi 1:11
Malachi 1:5
Isaiah 49:6
Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37
1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Timothy 2:8
Revelation 2:4-5
1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Romans 11:21-22
1 Corinthians 14:26
1 John 3:21
Jude 1:3
Philippians 3:10-11
See also: Acts 2:46; 5:42; 6:1; James 2:15-16; 1 John
1:7
Revelation 18:2
Matthew 21:43
Hebrews 3:7-8,12
Acts 2:42
Ephesians 4:11-16
Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35
Hebrews 3:6; 1 Peter 4:11
Hebrews 3:13; 13:15
John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:14-24
Acts 4:32-35
Ephesians 6:24
Revelation 2
1 Peter 1:8,22; 1 Corinthians 16:22
Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37
Revelation 2:5
Numbers 10:33; Psalm 132:13-18; Isaiah 11:10
Hebrews 3:7-15; Isaiah 28:12
John 12:26
Malachi 1:11
John 17:23
John 13:34-34; 1 John 3:14-18
1 Corinthians 1:2,10-13; Matthew 12:25; 1 Timothy
2:8
1 John 3:21-22, not Deuteronomy 12:8
Hebrews 10:19-23
Ephesians 2:21-22
corporeal — having material or physical
form or substance.
ethereal — characterized by insubstantiality;
as impalpable or intangible as air.
See also the article, “Where,
Oh, Where Can it Be?” in our freepaper entitled,
The
Stirring of the Heart.
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