THE DWELLING PLACE OF ELOHIM

A couple of years ago, around the time of Sukkot, we reflected on the contrasts of this feast. Which are pretty much in line with the great number of contrasts in Scriptures. We should keep in mind that there is a clear DIFFERENCE between contrasts and contradictions. There are many contrasts in Scriptures. Like “to be able to live, you need to fall into the ground like a grain of wheat and die”. What we sometimes see as CONTRADICTIONS in Scriptures, are mostly because of our limited understanding of Scriptures. Yahweh never contradicts Himself. You will never run into contradictions, in your study of Scriptures, when you remain on the track of the truth. It is only when you try to ADD to the truth, or SUBTRACT from the truth, or when you try to be too clever with the truth, that you find yourself in the quicksand of confusion, where all of a sudden, it seems to you that Scriptures are filled with contradictions. The English word KISS is not only a word about the contact of human lips, but also an abbreviation, meaning KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STRAIGHT. When it comes to the Word of Yahweh, we need to keep things simple and straight, or else we are soon going to run into all kinds of confusion and contradictions.

Let us get back to the aspect of the CONTRASTS of Sukkot. One of the contrasts of Sukkot is illustrated by Proverbs 14:11 “The house of the unrighteous is destroyed, but the tent of the righteous flourishes.” Notice that it calls the dwelling of the unrighteous a HOUSE, while the dwelling of the righteous is called a TENT. It would not be wrong to interpret this verse as saying: “The permanent dwelling of the unrighteous will be destroyed, but the temporary dwelling of the righteous will prevail, because he or she will inherit a dwelling that is indestructible and incomparable to anything else in this world. How is that for contrast?

In terms of the Scriptural feasts, this is the time of the year when we focus on our DWELLING PLACES. A succah (from the word sukkot) or a booth or a tabernacle is usually understood to be a tent – a structure that you use as a dwelling place, but strictly speaking, it is not really a structure, nor a dwelling place in the true sense of the word. Because one of the most important Hebrew words for “to dwell” is “shachan” and this word “shachan” means to dwell permanently, to continue to inhabit a certain place or to remain or to abide where you came to rest. This is not really what we do in a tent. Quite the contrary. We are hoping that very soon we’ll be able to move on, or move back to a more permanent dwelling place. To a structure that is less flimsy, less flappy and more cozy, and above all, more permanent than a tent. And this is exactly the idea behind spending time in a tent during the feast of Sukkot (and here is that contrast again): We deliberately spend time in a tent to remind ourselves that Yahweh is going to take our tents away. There is going to be a point in time, somewhere in the future, where we shall become aware of something extremely significant happening around us, on a scale that we’ve never experienced before. There will be a blowing of trumpets. There will be signs and sounds in the heavens. Even the sun and the moon will look different than before. There will be a Master and messengers and a marriage. And there will be a notice saying: NO MORE TENTS BEYOND THIS POINT! Go ahead and you will discover a dwelling place that is unlike anything else you have ever seen!

When Y’shua said to his disciples, shortly before his death: Let not your hearts be troubled. In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places … I go to prepare a place for you, He was talking about a “SHACHAN” type of dwelling place, not a succah or a tent. This is confirmed in 2 Cor 5:1, where the apostle wrote: For we know that if the tent of our earthly house is destroyed, we have a building from Elohim, a house not made with hands, everlasting in the heavens. And once again in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11: Avraham sojourned in the land of promise as a stranger, dwelling in tents, for he was looking for the city having foundations, whose builder and maker is Elohim. And later on, in the same chapter: They were longing for a better place, that is, a heavenly. Therefore, Elohim is not ashamed to be called their Elohim, for He has prepared a city for them. And so also in Heb 13:14: For we have no lasting city here, but we seek the one that is yet to come.

When Y’shua was still with his disciples, he went up a mountain, one day – today it is believed that it was the mountain of TAVOR, near Nazareth – together with Kefa (Peter), Yaakov (James)
and Yochanan (John). On top of the mountain, the disciples had an experience that they would never forget for the rest of their lives. They saw a vision of a time that was YET TO COME. There was a sudden brightness around Y’shua that almost frightened them. His face was shiny like the sun. There was a light that was reflected, even by the clothes He was wearing. And what is more, they saw two other men that they somehow recognized as Mosheh and Eliyahu (Elijah). And poor Kepha was so confused and so completely oblivious as to what to say or what to do, that he blurted out the words, towards Y’shua: Let us build three tents – one for You, one for Mosheh and one for Eliyahu. But no tents were put up, that day. Because Kepha did not understand that what they were seeing, was a vision of a future time when tents would not be needed. And Y’shua actually told him in so many words: Do not even mention this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
When we came together for the first day of Sukkot, a few days ago, we looked at about 30 VERSES from the book of Revelation proving that each one of the seven feasts, was in some way or other, part and parcel of the vision that Yochanan had on the island of Patmos. And as we pondered upon these verses, we realized that this was only to be expected, because every single one of the feasts (not only some of them) was meant to be reminders, DRESS REHEARSALS, pointers towards the events and the prophesies with regards to the future. What future are we talking about? The entire future beyond the second coming of Messiah. The future, according to Scriptures, that will introduce the time when the believers in Messiah, whether they have passed away or not, will be UNITED with Y’shua, never to be divorced from Him again.

So, what does Revelation tell us about this dwelling place of the future that we are looking forward to, wishing that we knew a little bit more? Is it going to be crowded? Are we going to be with our families? Will we recognize our children and our parents and our friends? There are so many questions that we would love to be answered. But maybe even our questions prove how little we really know about the time that lies ahead. And I am not going to try to come up with answers to the many questions that we may have among us today. I shall try to find an answer to one question only. And the question is: Where will Yahweh be in this dwelling place that we are looking forward to?

We have already heard that Y’shua called this dwelling place the HOUSE OF HIS FATHER. So, in some way or other, we shall be connected to Yahweh and to Y’shua in this dwelling place. This is confirmed in Rev 21:3, where we read these words: The booth or the tent of Elohim will be with men, and Yahweh shall dwell with them, and Yahweh shall be their Elohim. This is almost too much for human beings to digest! We shall share in the same dwelling place as Elohim. While living in this dwelling place we shall have no need to go and look for Yahweh SOMEWHERE ELSE, because He will be there with us! Our Mighty One, our Elohim, will be less than a millisecond and a millimeter away from us. Y’shua, the one that is consistently called the Lamb in the book of Revelation, will be right there with us. As a matter of fact, the closeness and the connection between Yahweh and ourselves will be such that, strictly speaking, this is no longer a conventional dwelling place, where you need walls to keep out the unwanted elements, windows to see through and doors to come and to go. There are no longer any unwanted elements. One can see everything that you need to see, without the need for windows. One can come and go freely – no doors are needed. That is why John said, in the same chapter: Rev 21:22 In the new Yerushalayim I looked, but I saw no Dwelling Place, for Yahweh Almighty, is its Dwelling Place, and the Lamb will always be present. It is the true fulfilment of what was prophesied in Isaiah 33:20-24: Yerushalayim is the city of our appointed time (the city of our mo’ad); our eyes shall see Yerushalayim, an undisturbed home, a tent not taken down. Its stakes will never be removed, none of its cords will ever be broken, none of its people will become sick and all of them will have their iniquities forgiven! Let us today rejoice in the knowledge that Yahweh, the Creator, the King of all kings, is willing to share his dwelling place with us!

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