“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.” (Jeremiah 51:51)
This chapter in Jeremiah is the prophecy of Babylon’s fall. The people of God are told to leave the city and to remember Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 51:50) But in their remembrance, they remember how the sanctuary of the Lord was defiled by the Babylonians. When the Babylonians came to Jerusalem, they pillaged the sanctuary. They took all the brass, the caldrons, shovels, snuffers, bowls and spoons that were used by the priests to minister. They took the basons, the firepans, and everything that was made of gold and silver. They took the two pillars, sea, and the twelve brazen bulls which king Solomon had made. (Jeremiah 52:17-23)
When God’s people remembered Jerusalem, they were confused and disgraced because the holy of holies has been defiled. It’s difficult for us to imagine what they felt. The thing today that is most precious to people is life itself. To violently disrespect someone’s life is shocking and astounds us if we are normal. We cannot imagine such a thing. Such were the feelings of those who escaped the destruction of Babylon when they thought of returning to Jerusalem.
Today there is such disrespect for life that we don’t understand. Life is precious because only God can give it. To destroy a life is to do something that cannot be undone. For the Jews, the defiled holy of holies was the destruction of their connection to God. Their whole existence is dependent on God. He created the nation, protected it, guided it and punished it to bring it to Him. He gave them the secrets of the knowledge of Him. Now that was lost. But this was not to be the first and only time the holy of holies would be defiled.
Of course, we know that a temple made with human hands is not the place where God dwells. But for the Jews, it was where God came to meet with them. God did not stay in the holy of holies. “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;” (Acts 17:24-25)
Where does God live? Many would say heaven. Yes His Throne is in heaven. “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66:1 & repeated in Acts 7:49) But God has done a marvelous thing in those who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. To those who make Jesus their Lord and receive His free gift of salvation, God gives the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead. The Father, the Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit make the Godhead. All three are one. That is a concept that we cannot understand here on earth because true oneness is impossible here on earth.
When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:4-6) The Holy Spirit is sent to us to indwell in us. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1Corinthians 3:16)
God the Holy Spirit dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and Jesus. So, God dwells in us. He communicates to us what the Father and Jesus are saying to us and for us. He leads us in the way of the Lord. We must listen and obey. “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” (John 16:13) No man can come and defile the temple where God dwells anymore. God is eternal and has made us eternal.
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