Acts 7:44-53 (NRSV)
Solomon's temple cannot contain God
"Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,
'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?'
"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."
Reflection
"Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,
'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?'
"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."
Reflection
Stephen infuriated the religious leaders in his statement that God doesn't dwell in a house made with human hands. He was talking about the great temple after all! This was one of the most precious and special places for the Jewish people.
It wasn't unusual for people of the day to build a temple and a beautiful structure to contain the gods of the people. Stephen was trying to make the point that God could not be contained in a temple or a house or any structure that humans could create. Even the idea that humans could create something that could contain God is absurd.
Yet we still do this same thing today. Maybe not with temples or buildings, but certainly with our ideas and actions and thoughts. We try to contain God into something we can grasp, control, understand and even manipulate. I am certainly guilty of this in one form or another.
How foolish it is to try to contain God. If earth is God's footstool and heaven is God's throne just think of how wonderful eternal life in God is now and in the future. This gives a hope for something unseen. Through God's act of sending Jesus to earth and to your life and mine, we can believe and have an awesome hope and faith in a God that promises us something we can't even imagine. What joy this brings! Thanks be to God, that we can look forward to and live now, a most amazing life. If this is God's footstool that we live on just imagine what heaven will be like. What hope!
Prayer
Lord, forgive me when I try to limit you. I can only imagine what it would be like. And oh what fun it is to imagine. And the joy you bring to my life knowing that you cared enough to come to me to save me and lead me to you...today...tomorrow...and forever. --- Amen
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