Names of God 13. Jehovah Shammah
The last name I am going to look at is Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, found in the last verse of Ezekiel, but I would like to take a tour through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to arrive there by following the presence of God with mankind and the lack thereof.
Let's start in Genesis. God made Adam and Eve and placed them in a garden and they were without sin. The Bible says "they were both naked and felt no shame" Gen 2:25. After they sinned we see God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from Him. Gen. 3:8 Shortly after that, they were forced to leave the garden due to sin. Gen. 3:23. So we see, in the beginning without sin, mankind had direct contact with God in paradise. This is the contact we look forward to as paradise will be restored in the new Heaven, new Earth, and New Jerusalem. Rev. 21:1-3, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
In the remainder of Genesis we see two episodes of God's presence. We see Him through preincarnate appearances of Christ. First, one of the three men that visit Abraham and Sarah at the tent is called "the Lord" in Gen. 18:10. In Genesis 32 we see Jacob wrestling with a man whom Jacob identifies as God when he says in Gen. 32:30," I saw God face to face and my life was spared". Here we see that there was already a common understanding that sinful man cannot enter into the presence of a Holy God and survive. It doesn't end in death in these instances because God's son, Jesus, temporarily puts on a man's body foreshadowing the day when He will come as Jesus Christ, but we are getting ahead again.
In Exodus we are introduced to a man named Moses who experiences God's presence through phenomena like burning bushes, pillars of fire, cloud, and ark of the covenant but we see that direct contact couldn't be had like in the garden. Moses gets as close as anyone (except maybe Saul on the road to Damascus who got his eyeballs fried by the glory of God's presence) when God places him in the cleft of the rock and Moses sees God's backside causing his face to glow for some time afterward. Ex. 33:21-23, 34:29-33. Moses got directions on that mountain how to build the tabernacle where God's presence would abide in and on the ark in the Holy of Holies, and this presence of His glory would have to do for the meantime. We see God's glory filling the tabernacle in Ex. 40:34, and in Leviticus we see specific rules on how to approach that presence by a select group of individuals once a year and how to do that without dying. We do see some dying, losing kingdoms, and getting diseased by improper following of these rules in Lev. 10:1,2 1 Sam 6:19 2 Sam 6:6,7 1 Sam 13:11-14 1 Sam 2:16,17,34 2 Chron. 26:19. So even though God chose certain people such as prophets to speak to and through, His presence was closely guarded because of the over arching theme of the Bible that sinful mankind cannot enter into the presence of a Holy God.
In 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, we see somewhat of a change in the presence of the glory of God where Solomon builds the first of 5 temples that we will see in the remainder of history and God's glory fills the temple until the days of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was called to be a prophet at the age of 30 to the exiles in Babylon approximately five years after their second deportation of which Ezekiel was a part. He was given a series of visions similar to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with Ebeneezer Scrooge being transported by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. We see in Ezekiel 8-11 that Ezekiel sees an angel who grabs him by the hand and hair, takes him to Jerusalem and shows him the horrendous idolatry occurring even among the elders and then shows Gods future judgment on the people as if he is looking in on the people but they can't see him. With this judgment comes the departure of God's presence from the temple slowly as if reluctantly or patiently leaving from between the cherubim on the ark of the covenant to the threshold of the temple( Ezek 10:4) then from there to the entrance of the East gate(Ezek.10:19), and lastly from there to the mountain east of it.(Ezek. 11:23). The temple was razed and completely destroyed and burnt to the ground shortly thereafter as described in 2 Chron. 36:18-19.
The second temple was built by Zerubbabel as he led a group of refugees back from Babylon to Jerusalem as commissioned by Cyrus (Ezra 1:2) in 536BC. When the temple was finished there was a dedication service in Ezra 6 very similar to the one in Solomon's day but the thing missing was the glory of God's presence did not enter the temple. Herod remodeled it 37-4 BC and the Romans destroyed all but one wall (the wailing wall) in 70AD and throughout that time God's glory never entered it. Or did it? The glory of God came to the temple in 4/6/32 in the person of Jesus Christ - fully God and fully man - Immanuel God with us, but he was rejected. As he grieved over Jerusalem he said "If you had known on this day what would bring you peace.... but you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Look your house (temple?) remains desolate (empty of God's presence?) . You will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"
That didn't occur until the time of the third temple. What is it ? We are currently in the time of the third temple which is stated in 2 Cor. 6:16" we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” God's glory is in us and on us. Paul says that the mystery is revealed which is Christ in you the hope of glory. That means, currently, the only "Holy Place" on Earth is you if you are a believer. Everywhere you go you are an Ark of the Covenant with legs. We need to let His glory shine through us. Jesus says, "Let your light (my glory) so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven" Matt. 5:16.
The fourth temple is called the tribulation temple. This will not be filled with God's presence as God's presence will have been removed from the world (2 Thes. 2:6,7) and replaced with God's wrath. People will still get saved during this time but I wonder if it will be in an Old Testamental way without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as He has been removed. The existence of the temple is spoken of in Rev. 11 and Matt. 24 and Dan. 9:27
The fifth and last temple is the Millenial temple spoken of by Ezekiel 40-46 and illustrated in this way.
In Ezekiel 43 we see the Glory of God coming back to the temple. Jesus comes back from Heaven after the seven year Wedding Feast of the Lamb with His resurrected and raptured saints, leading them to the battle of Armegeddon which will be no battle but an extermination. (Zech. 14:12-15 and Rev. 19:9-21) He will land on the Mt. of Olives (the one He left from in Ezek.11:22,23), the Mount of Olives will split and a great river will run from it (Ezek. 47, Zech. 14:4-8) and He will reverse His path of exit, seen in Ezek.10 & 11, placing His presence will be there throughout the Millenial reign. In fact, Jerusalem's name will be changed from that time on to Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there.
This is not just His glory as seen in the Ark and its various dwelling places, nor is it like in us where we spiritually commune with Him. Rather it is physical presence of Jesus where we can see Him and talk to Him.(Hag. 2:6-9) What could be better than that?
Only one thing. No temple! In the New Jerusalem coming down to Earth after the Millenial Kingdom, the millennial temple will be destroyed (2 Pet. 3:10) and Rev. 21:22 -25 says
" I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut"
We will have free access to God for all eternity in a way much improved from the Garden of Eden though brought to fruition through thousands of years of unbelievable pain, suffering, and torment not only for saints but also God Himself. Come quickly Lord Jesus!
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