The Eternal Walk
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” — Revelation 21:3, NIV
What do you see when you imagine heaven? Do you see the golden streets, giant mansions, angels singing, the river flowing, a lion and a lamb relaxing together under a tree, etc.? Do you just imagine what will not be there—no tears, no pain, no suffering, no war? Do you get intimidated by the idea of an eternity of worship (admittedly, that can be difficult to wrap our minds around when we often complain about the length of our Sunday church services)? Recently, as I read Revelation 21, the truth that the Lord impressed upon my heart was this:
God will dwell with us.
I know, at first, that may not sound as exciting as the prospect of never experiencing pain or suffering again, being reunited with a loved one, or walking along some streets of gold. But, this promise is the most extraordinary part of the reality of heaven. When we look at the entirety of Scripture, we can see that this has been the true desire of God’s heart from the very beginning—to dwell in perfect fellowship with the people he created and loves.
We can trace it all the way back to Genesis, when God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Before sin entered the world (darn snake), humanity enjoyed an unhindered relationship with its Creator. This verse always breaks my heart a little:
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8, NIV).
God was walking in the Garden, something I like to think he did every day with Adam and Eve, giving us a beautiful picture of the fellowship humanity was created to enjoy with him. Before sin entered the world, there was no shame, no hiding, no separation—they were able to enjoy the presence of God in a way that we can hardly comprehend today.
And then, as we know, everything changed. When Adam and Eve sinned, that perfect fellowship was broken. Instead of running joyously toward their friend and Creator, they hid from God’s presence, and ultimately, were banished from the Garden. The very relationship humanity had been created to enjoy was now stained by sin, shame, and separation. What had once been a place of perfect communion with God became a paradise lost.
But God’s desire to dwell with his people was never lost or abandoned.
Throughout the Old Testament, we see God continually making a way for his presence to remain among them. When he delivered the Israelites from Egypt, he instructed Moses to build a sanctuary, saying, “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8, NIV. Incredible—the God who created the heavens and the earth desired to dwell among his people!
The tabernacle became the place where God’s presence was manifested among Israel, and later, the temple in Jerusalem served that same purpose. But still, there was a significant separation between a holy God and sinful humanity. Within the temple was the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies), where the high priest could enter only once a year, under very specific conditions— we’re talking special garments, sacrifices, purification rituals, a.k.a. the whole nine yards, to make atonement for sin (see Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:7). God’s presence was among his people, but access to him was not yet what it would one day become.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14, NIV).
Then came Jesus! The Greek word translated as “made his dwelling” is related to the word for a tent or tabernacle (see the connection?). In other words, the God who had “dwelt” among Israel through the tabernacle and temple had now come to physically dwell among humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
And through his death and resurrection, Jesus made a way for us to approach God with a confidence and freedom that would have been unimaginable under the old covenant. Remember, a few days ago we looked at Hebrews 4:16, where we are invited to approach the throne of grace with confidence? We have access to the Father through Christ, and even now, the Holy Spirit dwells within believers (1 Corinthians 6:19).
That is incredible, but Jesus no longer walks the earth with us. However, the Bible tells us that something even greater is coming. In Revelation 21, John describes a new heaven and a new earth. He talks about the passing away of all former things, and the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. And then, a booming voice from the throne drops this extraordinary announcement over the PA system: “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.”
I don’t know about you, but that for sure would make me drop whatever I was doing and look that way…It is almost like John is being told to pay very close attention because something absolutely wonderful is happening (considering everything he has already witnessed in the last 20 chapters, that is really saying something!).
As I mentioned earlier, the word translated as ‘dwelling place’ comes from the Greek skēnē, meaning a tent or tabernacle. It takes us right back to the imagery we see all throughout the Old Testament. But here, something is different. There is no longer a restricted inner sanctuary separating God’s people from his presence. John sees no temple in the city, “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22, NIV).
Wow. Think about that—the entire new creation will be a place where God dwells with his people. I hope your arms are covered in goosebumps like mine. No barriers, no sin separating us from him, no limited access to his presence. The fellowship that humanity lost in Eden will be fully restored, and God’s people will enjoy his presence forever. In Genesis, we see paradise lost. In Revelation, we see paradise restored.
“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4, NIV).
Not only will we dwell with God. We will dwell in perfect relationship. There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, because the old order of things will have passed away. That promise is hard to comprehend when we consider the current world in which we live. We are surrounded by suffering, grief, disease, broken relationships, injustice, and the consequences of sin. It feels almost impossible to imagine an existence where none of those things remain.
Oh, but the promise here is so tender. Look who wipes away the tears—God himself. The Creator of the universe, the One who spoke everything into existence, will personally dwell among his people and wipe away their tears. What a beautiful picture of his affection for us! We are not simply promised a future where suffering no longer exists, but a future spent in perfect fellowship with the One who loves us enough to wipe away our tears—boogers and all (imagery added, but I think it's appropriate)!
Do you overlook that when you think of heaven? I think we sometimes focus so much on what eternity will be like that we forget who we will spend it with. We wonder about what we will do, what we will see, and what our lives will look like. Will we work? Create? Explore? Pal it out with the saints? Will we recognize one another? Will there be food? So many questions!
The Bible does not answer every question we might have about the details of eternity, but it gives us something far more important: the assurance that we will be with God, and he will be with us. We will not spend eternity as disembodied spectators watching something happen far away. Revelation describes a renewed creation in which God’s people will live in his presence. Revelation 22:4 says, “They will see his face.” The fellowship that was broken in Genesis will finally be restored in its fullness.
This has been his desire from the beginning. God didn’t come up with this idea after we made a royal mess of things in the Garden. Throughout the narrative, we see the same promise repeated in different ways: I will be their God, and they will be my people. From the Garden to the tabernacle, from the coming of Christ to the final restoration of all things, we see the faithfulness of God, who has never abandoned his desire to dwell with the people he loves.
We can even see evidence of this overarching desire in the prayer Jesus prays for us the night before his death: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24, NIV). The ultimate desire of the heart of God is to walk with his people, whom he loves.
The ultimate goal of God’s redemptive plan is not merely the removal of suffering, as wonderful as that will be. It is the complete restoration of our relationship with him. Everything that sin has broken, everything that has separated us from the perfect fellowship we were created to enjoy, will finally be made right.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18, NIV).
We still live in a world affected by sin, surrounded by grief, disease, injustice, and brokenness. And sometimes, it is difficult to imagine a world without any of those things. But the God who first walked with humanity in the Garden has promised that one day, his people will walk with him again, forever.
Most of us spend so much of our lives longing for things to be made right, for relationships to be restored, for suffering to end, and for the brokenness of this world to finally be healed. And one day, through Jesus Christ, all things will be made new. God's beautiful promise is not simply that we will finally be free from everything that has caused us pain—it is that we will forever dwell in the presence of the Almighty: we will walk with our perfect Father, our Savior, our friend, our God.
Friends, I eagerly await that eternal walk.
bytaylormcgee
