The Throne

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

 THE THRONE

Acts 7:44-50

44 "Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.   47 But it was Solomon who built the house for him. 48 "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:

49 "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?       says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?'  

NIV

We are still in the response Stephen made as he stood before the Sanhedrin. He is recounting the times when Moses received the detailed instructions from God to build the tabernacle, a place that signified the Lord's presence. It had two chambers: the outer chamber and the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber where the Ark of the Covenant was. This was the place of meeting with the Lord, during the time of David and Solomon, who built the temple in Jerusalem, where the presence of the Lord now rested. However, Stephen is making the point that men cannot build anything capable of containing God's presence. Heaven is his throne. What kind of house will be built for him? How could we build a building for God? Men have built some great edifices, some with great amounts of gold, filled with all sorts of places for the living and the dead. Others have built large auditoriums that have no appearance of a place of worship; one man built a cathedral of crystal glass. There are many smaller places, or what we would call a church, some adorned spectacularly, others as plain as could be. However, the point is that every building is a testament to human ingenuity and skill, and if we are not careful, we can become proud of our building. We might consider the building as a place to meet with the living God, but how could that be if God's throne is in heaven? Although God did instruct Moses to build the tabernacle, and Solomon to build the temple. God can certainly inhabit a building for a moment, as he did when he met with Moses, but it is not a place he dwells. It is possible for God to temporarily fill every church in all the world, for God is omnipresent, and there is nothing impossible for him. We can surely invite the Holy Spirit to fill our sanctuaries, and he will. Jesus has told us we can ask and he will do it. When the Spirit fills the sanctuary, it becomes a holy place, just as the tabernacle and the temple were considered holy. Still, our God sits upon the heavens, the whole earth is his, and everything, including the heavens, was made by his hand. Let us not worship a place, or put too much value in a place, but let us worship the One True God, who sits on his throne.