Acts 17:24-34 – “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.” As Paul reveals God to the Athenians he lets them know that although they make idols to worship unresponsive gods of stone, wood and precious metals, the God whom he is revealing to them is not one that needs to be imagined by human mind or fashioned by human hands. God is the creator of all (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-16). He always existed and He is eternal and always will. Since He is the creator of all, since he is more immense than all the universe, since His power is unlimited, He does not live in temples built by human hands. Nothing could contain Him. Well, we might then ask, what about when the High Priest would go into His presence in the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple? It is believed that it was not “God in the flesh” (so to speak) that the High Priest would see in the Holy of Holies, but it was His Shekinah glory. The Shekinah glory is a biblical expression the rabbis used so peak of a cloudy expression, or manisfestation of God’s glory. God gave Aaron direction through Moses about when he was to enter the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and what he would see inside it. God said that he would “appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.” (Leviticus 16:2) That is that He would be represented in the cloud, not that His fullness would be clearly seen. He would be within the cloud, but the cloud was not Him, and the entirely of Him was represented, but the cloud did not fully contain Him. The High Priest was allowed to see the cloud, not Him, just a representation of His presence. Earlier, before the Holy of Holies, a pillar of cloud went before the Jews as they escaped Egypt. That cloud led the Jews by day. It was a form of God’s glory for them to follow. Also, God spoke to Moses from the cloud. (Exodus 13:20-22, Exodus 33:11) That cloud is referred to as an instance of God’s Shekinah Glory. So, it was not that God, the fullness of God, resided in the temple, but rather, once a year at Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) He would reveal Himself to the High Priest in revealing His Shekinah Glory. Therefore, what Paul said to the Athenians was in alignment with the rest of scripture, God does not live in temples built by human hands. To use the catchphrase from Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith (A-Team) “I love it when a plan comes together.” Especially God’s plans. And they always do. The Holy Scriptures never contradict themselves, and they always align with the entirety of itself, and all of its prophecies come true. Praise our omniscient God! Praise God! Truly our confidence in Him is justified. God is so much more than we are! That is why we don’t depend on our thinking or the thinking of any man, but we depend on the Holy Scriptures in the Bible. We depend on God! (Isaiah 55:9, Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 John 3:20) Praise God at all times! Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”