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because he was speaking to Gentiles. This is an example of method and approach that
should not be lightly set aside. The fact that these words are a deduction drawn from the
confession of Solomon as recorded in II Chron. 2: 6, shows how great an impression the
witness of Stephen had upon that young man whose name was Saul (Acts 7: 58). The
language of Stephen and Paul, if isolated from the rest of Scripture, could be used to
flatly deny that God ever did or ever will `dwell' in any temple made with hands, but this
is not according to truth. The words of Stephen are based upon the prayer of Solomon,
which he goes on to quote. In II Chron. 6: 18 Solomon says:
"But will God in very deed dwell with men on earth? behold, heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built!"
The argument that would make it impossible for God to dwell in a temple on earth,
because it could not `contain' God, would also make it impossible for God to dwell in the
highest heaven, for they too cannot contain God. In both cases He must condescend, and
if He can do so in the one, He may do so in the other. Let us hear therefore the language
of the Most High.
"For thus saith the HIGH and LOFTY ONE that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is
HOLY; I dwell in the HIGH and HOLY PLACE",
and we might be pardoned if stopping here, we drew the conclusion that `God can never
dwell with man' but this is reckoning without grace, the Prophet continues:
"with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isa. 57: 15).
So God will dwell with men.
Upon arriving at Mount Sinai, Moses was instructed to build a tabernacle, and several
chapters are devoted to a description of this wonderful structure. Its purpose however
was simple:
"Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them" (Exod. 25: 8),
and we are told that Moses was given a pattern, and according to that pattern the
Tabernacle was made. This insistence upon a `pattern' is repeated when Solomon was
commissioned to build the temple (I Chron. 28: 11, 12). If this were all that had been
said, we might infer from the emphasis upon the `pattern' that both Moses and Solomon
were not left to their own devices, but the N.T. use of this emphasis upon `pattern'
reveals something fuller and deeper. Summing up what he had already said, the Apostle
in Heb. 8: 1, 2 concentrates the whole teaching in `A seated Priest in a heavenly
sanctuary'. Now the priests he says serve unto the example or shadow of heavenly
things, as Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle for,
"See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the
mount" (Heb. 8: 5).
These `patterns' are set over against `the heavenly things themselves' in Heb. 9: 23,
the holy places `made with hands' being `figures of the true'. These heavenly things