The Third Habitation

There can be no happier thought than this that the Lord God purposes to be near to His creatures. It is a thought, as we shall find from this meditation, which the heart should always enjoy. As we travel through the Scriptures, we take it up at the beginning, we carry it along with us on our journey and find it full and fresh at the end. It accompanies us all the way, and is to be realized forever.
The children of Israel have to change their condition. They cease to be a traveling people and become a settled people. They leave the tents of the desert for the cities and villages of the land. The glory, accordingly, has to go from the tabernacle to the temple. There may be all these changes in circumstances, but there is no change in affection, no abatement in the fervency and desire of the Lord of Israel towards His people.
A great interval also took place and fresh provocations were given. As soon as the ark, the witness of the divine presence, had entered the land, the sword of Joshua began the work of conquest to prepare "a mountain" or a kingdom for the Lord. But Israel was untrue to Jehovah, and all through the times of the Judges and of Saul there is confusion and defilement and the restlessness of iniquity. The sword of David has, therefore, after so long a time, to finish what the sword of Joshua had begun until at length there is rest—n o evil or enemy occurring—and the peaceful throne of Solomon, the throne of the Lord is set in the land and over the people. Then the temple is built and the ark leaves the tabernacle of the wilderness (or tent that David had prepared for it which in principle is the same thing) for the house of the kingdom.
This long delay of many centuries during which the Lord of Israel was kept out of His rest, and that through the faithlessness of His people, does not change things. The glory enters the temple exactly as it had before entered the tabernacle. The priests cannot stand in the temple just as Moses had been unable to stand in the tabernacle because the glory had again so filled the house of God. (See 2 Chron. 5.) This was the Lord again seating Himself in the midst of His people, or entering His habitation there as with His whole heart and His whole soul.
In Eden He found His rest because all there was "very good"; now He finds His rest in the temple because "He is good; for His mercy endureth forever." We see this difference (Gen. 1:31; 2 Chron. 5:13), but still He takes His place and enters His dwelling with the same earnest affection and delight.