{"id":14083,"date":"2025-06-23T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=14083"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T14:12:27","slug":"putting-god-in-our-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2025\/06\/23\/putting-god-in-our-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting God in Our Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 7:44-50 44<\/sup>The tent of witness was with our fathers in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45<\/sup>Our fathers, receiving in turn, also brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers until the days of David, 46<\/sup>who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for [the God of] Jacob. 47<\/sup>But Solomon built a house for him. 48<\/sup>However, the Most High does not dwell in hand-made things, as the prophet says,\u00a0<\/span>49<\/sup>\u2018Heaven is my throne,\u00a0<\/span>and the earth is my footstool.\u00a0<\/span>What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,\u00a0<\/span>or what is the place of my rest? 50<\/sup>Did not my hand make all these things?\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Stephen began to focus in on the topic of where Israel worshipped. Verse 44 still deals with the forty years of wilderness wandering as a result of Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf. The people came up with the golden calf, but God provided the plans for the tabernacle. God had provided Moses with all the plans, which included the special Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum where God’s presence dwelt. The tabernacle was located in the middle of the Israelite camp, symbolizing the centrality and importance of worshiping God alone. The tabernacle should have cured the problem of idolatry, but as history shows, the people continued to be enticed and deceived by the false promises and lure of idols. The name for\u00a0Joshua<\/em> is the same in Greek as the name\u00a0Jesus<\/em>. Stephen did not make any implication of this name but simply recounted Joshua’s role related to the conquest of the land of Canaan.<\/p>\n

The tabernacle continued to serve as a place of worship after the people entered the land . However, in spite of God’s blessing them with the promised land, during the period of the judges, Israel returned to idol worship and suffered many consequences for this. They eventually cried out for a king, which God granted with Saul. Even Saul had problems with worshiping God and not himself. The tabernacle did not solve the deep human problem of sin.<\/p>\n

Stephen’s focus on the place of worship shifted in his summary of Israel’s sacred past. A significant change happened with the reign of David. Stephen made two key points about David in verse 46. First was how David found\u00a0favor\u00a0<\/em>(charin<\/em>) or grace before God. David made good choices about worshipping God alone and was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). The second point has a textual problem, as noted in most modern Bibles with a footnote. The question is about whether the original text had the God<\/em> [theo] of Jacob<\/em> or\u00a0the house [oik<\/em>\u014d] <\/i>of Jacob<\/em>. The first option makes better sense in the context, since the tabernacle and temple were said to be the place where God dwelt among the people. The stronger manuscript support has the second reading about the temple being the house of Jacob. The pronoun\u00a0for him<\/em> (aut\u014d<\/em>) in verse 47 does not help because it could be used with either “God” or “house.” The overal point is clear, that David wanted to build a temple for God but did not. His son, Solomon, was the one to build it. David’s house came in a different form, through the Messiah, who would be a descendant with Davidic lineage.<\/p>\n

The Jews studied and debated about these things. Stephen shifted the debate to the more important theological point that God does not dwell in human-made buildings. The shift in topic with the broad theological claim of verse 48 and the quote that follows in verses 49-50 from Isaiah 61:1-2 was significant in Stephen’s speech because it showed the misplaced priorities and faulty theology of many of the Jewish leaders listening to him. Isaiah offered a critique of how the people of his day put false hope in the temple and not in God. Jews of both generations had put God in a box of their own making, and their theology was too narrow and defined in a way that actually ended up showing their selfishness. The temple had once again become a form of idolatry. The Jews of the first century had fallen into the same deceiving trap as their ancestors.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 7:44-50 44The tent of witness was with our fathers in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45Our fathers, receiving in turn, also brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14109,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14083\/revisions\/14109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}