Higher, Wider, Broader, Deeper. The awesome make-up of God’s new dwelling place (Ephesians 3 and Chronicles)
Ephesians Chapter 3 is where our patience will really pay off.
Up until now, we’ve been considering that the Gentiles are included in the people of God. We’ve seen that that has been God’s plan since Genesis, we’ve seen that the Holy Spirit cares a lot about this in Acts, we’ve seen
that Jesus’ rule over the whole world was an important idea in Daniel, and we’ve
seen that Isaiah showed that Jews and Gentiles would both be included in God’s people
by the same means.
These themes of Gentile inclusion continue throughout
Ephesians. The Daniel idea is particularly important in Ephesians 3. Paul sets himself
up as the Joseph/ Daniel figure, who is a Jew entrusted with the privilege of revealing
a mystery to Gentiles, which he rejoices in, though it means being imprisoned.
But is that all? Gentiles have what Jewish believers
have. That is a relief for those feeling excluded, but it’s not positively that
exciting.
Greater than they dared hope
Thankfully, Paul doesn’t stop there. He takes these
outsiders and shows them that not only are they inside, but that what they are now
inside is far greater than they would ever have dared hope.
We can sense that Paul is getting emotional because
of the language that he starts to use. He’s much more personal. He talks about what
he’s going through, and why he’s rejoicing. All this Gentile inclusion is what all
of history has been waiting for (3:5, 3:9). He’s also personal in the way he talks
about them: "So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you,
which is your glory" is a really direct plea.
Odd prayer postures
But we can see that Paul is going even bigger when
he does something a bit weird in 3:14... He kneels. “For this reason I bow my knees
before the Father, ...” Why does Paul bow his knees? Why kneel to pray? We may think
that kneeling to pray is a really normal thing to do, but biblically speaking, there
aren’t many examples of it. Maybe it’s a reference to Daniel praying on his knees.
This allusion would make sense given the other Daniel allusions in Ephesians. Ezra
also prays on his knees in Ezra 9:5. But other than those two, there is only one
example of someone praying on their knees in the rest of the Bible. And that one
is probably the most theologically significant.
Solomon kneels to pray, when he dedicates the temple.
This is a massively significant moment in the history of God’s people. It is recorded
in 1 Kings 8:54, and it is also recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:13. It was a moment of
great joy, where all of God’s promises for his people seemed to have finally come
together. He had a people, He was dwelling with them and blessing them, and now
had a permanent place of dwelling to symbolise that.
Let Chronicles speak
It is recorded in 1 Kings 8:54, but it is also recorded
in 2 Chronicles 6:13. We generally neglect Chronicles. Christians have for centuries.
Typically when there is an event that is recorded in both 1/2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles,
we go focus on the version recorded in 1/2 Samuel. Typically when there is an event
that is recorded in both 1/2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, we go focus on the version
recorded in 1/2 Kings. Chronicles has often been seen as basically backing up what
we already know from the other books of the Bible.
That’s not fair! Chronicles has its own theological
messages and God has decided to communicate them in their own way. One thing that
Chronicles is particularly big on, that we miss out on if we don’t notice it, is
the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant, first dwelling in the tabernacle,
and then in the temple. Chronicles is about God’s dwelling place.
Chronicles and God’s dwelling place
Both Samuel-Kings and Chronicles deal a lot with
both the Davidic line of kings and with the temple. Samuel-Kings seems to emphasise
the line of kings, whilst Chronicles emphasises the temple more.
We can see this in at least three ways:
1.
We can see this by the way the books end: whereas
Kings ends with the unlikely survival of the Davidic line of kings through exile,
Chronicles ends with a pagan king, stating that the LORD (God’s people’s name for
God) has tasked him with the rebuilding of the temple.
2.
We can see this by the fact that the largest uninterrupted
amount of material unique to Chronicles (i.e. not in either Samuel or Kings) comes
in the final chapters of 1 Chronicles and is all about David’s stipulations for
the construction of the temple.
3.
And we can also see this in the contrasting ways
one particular story is told…
It’s Coming Home
2 Samuel 6 records the return of the Ark of the
Covenant to Jerusalem. It had previously been in the house of Abinadab, who was
taking care of it, after it had humiliatingly been captured by an enemy nation in
the early chapters of 1 Samuel. 2 Samuel 6 presents an interesting and intense narrative,
which includes great seriousness and joy about the significance of the ark of the
covenant. But the same event is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 15-16, with different
emphases.
2 Samuel 6 has much more content on Michal (Saul’s
daughter) despising David’s celebration. This makes sense if the succession of the
Davidic monarchy is central to 1/2 Samuel, since Saul’s household were the clearest
rivals to that. However, 1 Chronicles 15-16 spends less time on that, but much more
time on the celebration of God’s dwelling place coming to God’s chosen city, Jerusalem.
Hints of the melody in Ephesians
1 Chronicles 16 includes a long, joyful, triumphant
song, which is really the Old Testament Equivalent of the song “It’s Coming Home”.
And this song has a few interesting features which may be relevant in Ephesians.
It’s possible that this is a passage Paul was thinking of when he wrote Ephesians 1:3-14.
The word for “praise”, as in “to the praise of his
glory” (see Ephesians 1:6, 1:12 and 1:14), is not a massively common word in the
Bible. It occurs 11 times in the New Testament and only 4 times in the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, which would have been used during the first century. One of
these four times is in 1 Chronicles 16:27, which also uses the same Greek word for
glory as in Ephesians 1.
As well as this, the word for “purpose”, as in Ephesians 1:5 and 1:9, is a relatively rare word that occurs in only two places outside the
Psalms in the Greek Old Testament, with one of them being 1 Chronicles 16:10. It’s
striking that these two important Ephesians 1 refrains, “praise of his glory” and
“purpose of his will” are both more clearly echoes of 1 Chronicles 16 than any other
part of the Old Testament.
It could be that Paul is deliberately opening his
letter by making reference to a key point in the Bible story where God’s people
rejoiced at His dwelling place coming to the place where it belongs. This would
make sense because in the united Church of Jewish and Gentile believers, God really
has come to a better, more appropriate dwelling place than he ever had, even during
the glories of Solomon’s kingdom.
Back to Ephesians 3
This makes sense of some important features of Paul’s
prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul prays using some important temple/ tabernacle
words. He prays that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (3:17),
and he prays that they may be “filled with all the fullness of God” (3:19), which
may be a reference to the “filling” with God’s glory that happens when the temple
and the tabernacle are completed.
Noticing the importance of the temple makes sense
of verse 17 and verse 19. But it also makes sense of verse 18. This is a verse that
we often read wrongly. Look carefully at what verse 18, flowing into verse 19, does
and does not say:
“...comprehend with the saints what is the breadth
and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”
This does NOT say: “breadth and length and height
and depth of the love of Christ”, but rather “breadth and length and height
and depth, and to know the love of Christ”. Knowing the love of Christ may
be related to the dimensions of something, and we know that the love is very great,
because it does surpass knowledge. However, Paul is not praying that they would
know what the length of Christ’s love is, and what its breadth, height and depth
are. No, the dimensions are separate. He prays that they separately would know the
dimensions (of something) and also that they would know the knowledge-surpassing
love of Christ.
Dimensions of what?
This is weird, though, because Paul doesn’t tell
us what the dimensions are meant to be of. And yet, isn’t it becoming a bit obvious
by now? For Old-Testament-loving Christians of the first century, they would have
come across many breadths, lengths, heights and depths before in their Bible readings.
When the tabernacle was first built in Exodus, God was very particular about the
dimensions of it, dedicating several chapters to the exact specifications. Similarly,
the temple’s dimensions are given a large amount of attention, and the new temple
and city described in the final chapters of Ezekiel are measured very precisely.
Paul isn’t just saying “I want you to know how big
Christ’s love is” (though he does say that in 3:19), he is also saying “I want you
to know the specs of this new dwelling place for God”. Using the language of the
Old Testament, Paul is saying: you are now as cherished by God, and as central to
His plans as the tabernacle and temple were. You are what God wants to fuss over,
making sure you are built in just the right way, with just the right materials.
You are the privileged dwelling place of God.
God’s dwelling place throughout
Ephesians
Though Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 is a gorgeous
expression of this privilege, Paul has already talked about the blessing of being
God’s temple. There are hints in 3:12, which talk of the boldness, access and confidence
that is now available to the united church of Jews and Gentiles. This may be access
to God’s presence. There may also be a hint in the use of the word “workmanship”
in 2:10. But there is explicit mention of the temple towards the end of chapter
two. 2:19-22 shows that now the Gentiles are included in the household of God, which
is built on Jesus the cornerstone, this household is growing into a temple, as the
whole Church becomes a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
This thread has been going on all throughout Ephesians.
The united Church of Jewish and Gentile believers together are God’s new dwelling
place. This is what Paul wants these excluded Gentiles to know! Far from being unfortunate
outsiders to God’s blessings, they are really in. They are not only in God’s people,
they are God’s temple. They are the place that God now dwells. There is no higher
concentration of God’s presence in the world than among believers, whether Jewish
or Gentile.
For people who love reading the Old Testament, this is incredibly exciting. The kind of presence that caused God’s people to shout out in rejoicing and fear in Exodus 40 and Leviticus 9, or that burned up Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10, or that caused a whole nation to sing for joy in 1 Chronicles16, or that brought Solomon to his knees in 2 Chronicles 6 - that presence is exactly what is now present among God’s united Church, even among previously excluded Gentiles.
This is a massive privilege, and, as the next section of Ephesians will show us, it comes with great responsibility.
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