‘Hi, how are you?’
Ben stared at the girl before him. Unperturbed, she continued, ‘I’ve been quite busy recently.’
Ben mulled over the options in his mind. He had no idea who was communicating with him, but she obviously seemed to know him. It was uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing to ask her who she was, so he decided to play along and try and work it out.
‘To see my Aunt, who lives on the other side of the city. And you?’, was the less than revealing replied.
‘Oh, I’ve got some things to do in the city centre.’
‘OK. It was nice last summer, wasn’t it?’
Now, things got tricky. What did she mean about last summer? She was a teenage girl, so it could only have been to do with church, or maybe they had bumped into each other somewhere? It was difficult being a foreigner in a place where there weren’t many foreigners. Everybody remembered meeting an Englishman in a place where you don’t regular meet Englishmen, but it was hard for him to remember every Moldovan he met, as he was meeting them every day, and many of those meetings were just brief!
As Ben was hesitating about his response, a bus pulled into the bus stop. The girl turned to check the number and then looked at Ben.
‘That’s mine. Nice seeing you. Bye!’
And with that she was off, whisked away from Ben’s presence by the number 25 bus, leaving him to speculate who this mystery girl might have been…..
In life, there are many people all around us, but most of them are unknown to us. In order to know someone, it is necessary to find out some information about them, whether it be directly by communicating with them, or indirectly from other sources.
The same could be said to be true of the spiritual realm. To know what’s there and indeed to know any beings that exist there, it would be necessary to have a source of information. Thus, many ancient peoples used nature as their source of information about the Gods. They saw that there was a bright object that rose every morning to give warmth and light to the earth, thus they concluded that this was a God who by day roamed over the Earth and by night entered the underworld. Alternatively, they saw that there were seasons of the year when it rained a lot, so they developed the idea that there was a god who needed to be pleased in order to give rain at the right time to water their crops.
These ideas however were human speculations based on observing the world around. As a result, these gods were often very human in their characteristics, which is shown by stories of their power struggles amongst themselves such as Zeus’ battles with the Titans and various woes connected to his wives and their offspring.
There would be a different way of looking at things though. What if there was a god who knows us and seeks to make contact with us? Many religions present to us different ways that humans have developed to understand and communicate with the gods. But what if there is a god who knows each one of us and wants to tell us what he’s like and what he requires of us? This is the very claim of the Bible.
The gods of various religions are usually distant from humans, occupying a different plain of existence. Indeed, there is even a way of viewing god as simply a force that set things in motion, but now is not directly involved in his creation.
However, how would it be if the god who set things in motion was also intimately involved with his creation? Again, this is what we see in the Bible.
In the beginning, things weren’t created randomly out of various interactions or whiles and whims of the gods, rather than was an intelligent mind behind it all, who intentionally created a certain order.
Firstly, light, then sky and the water below and thirdly, land with vegetation and sea. Then, in a sort of symmetry, on the fourth day, the great light of the day and the lesser light along with the stars to govern night, on the fifth day, he populated the sky with birds and the seas with fish. Finally, on the sixth day, he filled the land with living creatures, capping off his creation with human beings, who were the masterpiece created in his image to rule over this creation.
More so than this, we see that he didn’t just create things and then sit back to let them be. He interacts with his creation. He interacts with humans, giving them commands about what to do (and what not to do!) and after they break the rules, he seeks them out to find out why and gives out punishments, banishing them from the good, perfect creation and condemning them to live in a fallen, broken world. This is by no means the end of his dealings with them. Indeed, it is just the beginning.
Straight after this, we see humans, Cain and Abel seeking to repair their broken relationship with their creator by offering sacrifices to him. God interacts with them, accepting Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s and hen speaking with Cain. In other words, he is not a far-removed god, but rather a god who is very much concerned for and involved with his creation. From here on, we could say that the Bible is actually the story of how God restored His relationship with His creation that was damaged by human disobedience. There are a number of stages in how He does this.
Firstly, He interacts with certain individuals. Cain, as mentioned, who doesn’t obey God’s words. Alternatively, there is Noah, who does listen to God’s words and sets about building the ark. After this, there is Abraham who again listens to God by leaving his home and travelling to the land God shows him and, in spite of some difficulties, also trusts in God’s promises, even if they are not easy to believe (such as a son being born to him in old age).
God also interacts with a number of others, including Moses to whom He gives His law, which is a covenant meaning that people who obey it will be blessed and those who don’t, will be cursed. A very significant event in Moses’ time is the building of the tent of meeting. This is a specific place where Moses could go to meet God (Exodus 33:7-9). This tent of meeting was ornately reconstructed to become the tabernacle. Again, the location of God’s presence on Earth, a place symbolising the relationship between God and man as God resided in the Holy of Holies, the centre of the tabernacle. Humans were required to offer Him very specific sacrifices and just once a year could a certain person, the High Priest, enter into the Holy of Holies, God’s presence, to offer a sacrifice of atonement for the people’s sins.
Thus, humans were now able to interact again with God, but in a limited way. The interaction increased as God chosen different people, prophets, through whom to communicate His message to people. Beyond this, the portable tabernacle, became a fixed building, the temple situated in Jerusalem.
This is the Old Testament period and the overall idea here is that God was present with His people in a limited way. He was present in a set location; He communicated His message only through a few chosen people and there was a very complicated way in which people could approach via a process of bringing various sacrifices.
However, we see things changing in the New Testament. An important verse is John 1:14. Here it says: ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’
The word has already been presented as God (John 1:1 contains the words ‘the Word was God’, pretty clear although some would debate the translation) and this verse tells us that this Word, i.e. that God became flesh and dwelt among us. This dwelling can be translated as ‘tabernacled’ among us, which is a clear reference to the fact that in the Old Testament God was present with His people in the tabernacle, but now He is present with them in Jesu Christ. Thus, God’s presence on Earth is no longer connected to a set place, i.e. the temple in Jerusalem, but rather it was now localised in Jesus while He was on Earth.
But Jesus is no longer with us on Earth so where is God’s presence now? An important event occurred as Jesus died on the cross. In Mark 15:38 we are told that: ‘The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.’
As mentioned above, this curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple and so signified the separation that exists between a Holy God and fallen human beings. The significance of Jesus’ death though, is that this barrier is now torn in two. The tear begins from the top, showing that it is God who initiated the breaking of this barrier. As a result, due to the work done on the cross, we humans can now have direct access to God. We no longer need to approach Him via the intermediary of sacrifices.
More so, Jesus promises in John 14:16 another helper from God, who was to come after He left. This in verse 17 is called ‘the spirit of truth’ that is the Holy spirit, the third member of the trinity. When we truly approach God via the sacrifice of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and so God’s presence on Earth is now not confined to a place, neither is it confined to a certain person, but rather it is inside everyone who trusts Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
This means that we can not just know somethings about Him by speculating from nature, but we can actually know Him personally. I can know a little bit about the Queen of Anglia but reading the news and observing her from a distance, but to truly know what she is like I need to communicate with her, so that I can I know her as a person. Likewise, many people know somethings about God, but there are those who know Him personally because they have entered into a direct relationship with Him via Jesus’ sacrifice, which broke down the barrier as described above.
This is not all though. At the end of the Bible in Revelation, we see the completion of this proves of the restoration of the relationship between mankind and our creator. Here, we are shown in chapter 21 God’s new creation. The key feature of this is the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, but this Jerusalem doesn’t have a temple because: ‘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
God is no longer confined to the tabernacle or temple, or to a specific person or even inside His people, but rather He Himself is living on the Earth.
When people approach us to talk, we may or may not recognise them. Even with the wonders of modern technology, there are still many problems communicating with others (whoever has used zoom knows that!). Often, we don’t understand what others say, even if they are speaking our language.
Likewise, even though God has opened up the possibility of direct communication with Him, there are still many barriers to fully knowing Him. There is much to distract our attention in and around us. However, the hope of Revelation is that one day these barriers will be fully removed, and we will return to the perfect harmony with God that was lost from the garden of Eden.