“Ichabod” from Shiloh (1 Samuel 4:21-22) until Shiloh comes (Genesis 49:10)… There is a prophetic significance concerning the transition of Shiloh in the fulfilment of the prophecy that God had spoken to Judah. Shiloh was neither about a physical location nor a tribe in the natural, but a chosen foreshadow, a Chosen One, a chosen body of peoples, and a chosen place in the Spirit.
Psalms 78:58-60, 67-69
For they provoked Him with their high places and aroused His jealousy with their graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath and greatly abhorred Israel; so that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent which He had pitched among men… He also rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He has founded forever.
Mount Zion in Jerusalem, belonging to the land of the tribe of Judah, was not the first choice for God’s appointed dwelling place in the Promised Land. It was Shiloh in the land of the tribe of Ephraim. But God rejected Shiloh on account of Israel’s idolatry, disobedience, and corruption. When the Israelites decided to bring the Ark out of the Tabernacle at Shiloh to be used as a religious charm, God “ichabod” from Shiloh.
While God’s eye remained with the Ark of His covenant at Kiriath-jearim after He left Shiloh, God’s dwelling presence among Israel was transferred to a choice man named Samuel who loved God’s dwelling; and this “mobile dwelling” of God travelled wherever Samuel travelled. God’s voice was heard wherever Samuel went throughout the cities of Israel, without being limited by the tent of meeting at one location. When the people gathered, they gathered before him (and Him). In other words, Samuel was the “mobile tent of meeting”, and he was the prophet, judge, and priest before God who tabernacled with him to the people. God could have continued this “mobile dwelling” arrangement with Samuel and subsequent sons of the prophets if not for the unfaithfulness of his sons and faithlessness of the people, who demanded an earthly king to rule over them.
It was not until God found a man named David, and loved him so much for being a man after His own heart, that God chose Zion, the stronghold of David, in Jerusalem within the territory of Judah, to be a physical dwelling of His presence and His Ark. Even though God did not need a house made with hands, He honoured David’s desire to build Him a house – first the Tabernacle, then the Temple – by making His name and presence known through that house.
Genesis 49:10
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes [Or until he comes to Shiloh; or until he comes to whom it belongs], and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
John 2:19-21
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
Fast forward to the day when Shiloh – the appointed Messiah whose the peoples are or belong – came onto the scene, God’s dwelling among His peoples transitioned from a natural temple in Judah to a spiritual temple in the heavens. This event – the resurrection of Jesus Christ – provided for the contiguous (continuous without break in sequence, time, and space) progression of the temple from the physical into the spiritual, and the material fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies pertaining to the eternal (or everlasting) nature of the house of God on earth, even in Jerusalem. As long as there is a temple of Christ’s body in Jerusalem, God has fulfilled His promise to Israel. However, it is not about a physical temple built on an earthly place, but spiritual ones in spiritual places.
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
On account of what Jesus, the begotten God, did on the Cross as the Christ, God was pleased to move His dwelling presence from the physical Temple to the spiritual temple of His beloved Son’s body, which is the church of Jesus Christ. This temple of Christ’s body is an everlasting temple (or eternal church) that bears the name and fullness of God in spiritual body form. It is also the eternal bride of Christ who is joined to Christ in one spiritual body.
God was also pleased to move His dwelling presence from natural Mount Zion to spiritual Mount Zion where Jesus is seated at, and ruling from, the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1-4); and from earthly Jerusalem, the earthly city of God, to heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly city and better country of God with firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God (Hebrews 11:10, 16).
Furthermore, on account of the Pentecost, individual believers, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, can now carry the abiding presence of the Spirit of God with them wherever they go, just like Samuel.
So, just like Moses and the Tabernacle, Samuel and the Ark, David and the Temple, and Jesus in the flesh and the temple of His body, God is always looking for a man who is after His heart, and a corporate church that is built according to His design, to make His name, presence, and voice known to the world. Just as mobile units cannot operate in isolation from the corporate headquarters in missions, the man and the church cannot operate separately from one another in fulfilling God’s purpose on the earth.
1 Peter 2:5
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us look at an example to illustrate the important principle of man and church. We, as individuals, are living stones; and living stones do not exist for themselves, but they are to be built into a spiritual house for the holy habitation of God. Every stone that is separated from the house is an idle stone; every stone that is not cemented as one structure with another stone is a useless stone; and every stone that does not carry beyond its own weight within the structure is a dangerous stone. Of course, God can use one stone to slay a Goliath, but the primary purpose of man as living stones is for building up a spiritual house called the church. Too many congregations are simply gatherings or piles of loose stones, not a spiritual house where every stone is fitted and built up according to heavenly blueprints. On the other hand, too many stones are Therefore, while the man is a “mobile dwelling”, thus living stone, of God, he is also a functioning stone within the structure of the spiritual house built for God’s holy habitation, priestly ministry, and kingly rule in a city.
For good measure, this illustration can also be used to analyse the relationship between a bodily member and the body, and reinforce the importance of man and his church.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
As believers, we are individually members of Christ body. So, Christ’s body is broken for our grafting, and we are re-created for the life and mission of Christ’s body. This is truly Christ in us, and we in Christ, for apart from Christ, we have no life and can do nothing.
God has a foreordained purpose for both the individual member and the corporate body to function as one in the nations. While the body of Christ can be viewed as a local body (local church) or an universal body (universal church), and many local bodies are in turn members of the universal body, we are focusing our discussion here on the operational dynamics of the local body, which were the focus of New Testament writers and the testimony of Jesus in Revelations.
Ephesians 4:15-16
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Every individual member of a body is mobile, but it is only mobile within the envelope of the body because it is attached to the body. Every member is called to function properly and orderly within the body by joining structurally to the other members of the body, and supplying the needs of other members to whom it is joined, so that other members can also function properly and orderly within the organisation of the body as instructed by the head, thus causing the whole body to grow up wholesomely and be built up strongly for its missional works. Every member that is isolated from the body is a gangrenous member; every member that refuses to function properly and orderly within the body is a spastic member; every member that does not work properly and supply to the functional needs of other members within the body is a crippled member; and every member that does not know which members are connected to him and how to supply to them is a dissipated member. I apologise if it sounds offensive, but the analogies are nonetheless true. In the final analysis, such members are either not members of this body (but of another) or members who require healing, grafting, rehabilitating, and disciplining.
In conclusion, the man is a bodily member, a living stone, and a mobile temple of the Holy Spirit. The church is the body of Christ for the embodiment of the fullness of Deity; the spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; and the eternal temple for the holy name, glorious habitation, and kingly reign of God on earth.
Friends, once we understand this concept of man and church, we will understand what God is about to do in and through the church in these last days, until it becomes an “administration [Lit of] suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things [Lit upon] in the heavens and things on the earth” (Ephesians 1:10). We will understand the true workmanship [Gr poiēma] of God (Ephesians 2:10) on the man and on the church. This is the subject of the book Poiēma, God’s Workmanship.
Are you that man or woman after God’s own heart, whom God is seeking to manifest His presence and become His voice wherever you go? Is your church that spiritual house which God is desirous for a holy habitation to make known His glorious name and mighty presence in the nations?
Psalms 84:1-5
How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah. How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion!
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