Welcome to my ROLLED SCROLL study, where I follow cultural and literary images found in the Bible in an attempt to unearth God’s meaning in His pattern of usage.
HOUSE
“ ‘My grandmother,’ I said in a low tone, ‘would have said that we were all in exile, and that no earthly house could cure the holy homesickness that forbids us rest.’ ”
—G.K. Chesterton, Manalive
I’m awaiting the upcoming movie adaptation of G.K. Chesterton’s 1912 novel Manalive, premiering this summer. Chesterton was the subject of my graduate thesis a decade ago, fascinating me with his ability to invest images with symbolic meaning. The spiritual theme of “finding home” played throughout his writings—not surprising, given the influence of Christianity in his literary development.
The Bible, too, is rich in word pictures relating to house and home, including terms such as dwelling place (or resting place, or place to return to), family (or dynasty, or household), human body, tent, tabernacle, refuge and sanctuary, the Church, Heaven, and many analogous expressions. Our contemporary English tendency to distinguish “house” from “home” is not evident in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, the Bible using the words interchangeably.
Let’s begin with the story of Creation, when God “laid the foundations” of the earth, intending to fill it with inhabitants—His household—made in His image (Gen. 1:27-28; Isa. 48:13; Eph. 2:19). Adam and Eve were evicted from their home of the Garden—that is, from intimate communion with their Creator—now just tenants in the fallen house of the broken world (Gen. 3:23-24). This loss was followed by God’s nomadic curse upon their murderous son, Cain, and the tendency of mankind’s fugitive heart has been to restlessly wander from the home of God’s presence ever since (Gen. 4:11-12; Isa. 53:6).
The generations following that first human family grew increasingly corrupt, so that God—whose own abode was in heaven—looked down upon His footstool of the world and decided to do a thorough housecleaning (Isa. 37:16; Isa. 66:1-2; Gen. 6:5-7). He sent a great flood to sweep away evildoers, but saved Noah and his family in a houseboat that carried them over the waters of destruction, settling them securely in the land once more (Gen. 7:7; Gen. 7:23; Gen. 9:1). But again and again the earth’s residents challenged God’s claim on them, until He called out a people of His own from the pagan world, promising Abraham (who left his homeland for a new home) that Israel would become a great nation, a great name, and a great blessing to all people (Gen. 12:1-3; Heb. 11:8-10).
Further to that, God made a covenantal promise to Moses of a new homeland in Canaan,
a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. (Deut. 8:7-8 ESV)
The Israelites sought this homeland with God in their midst, for on Mount Sinai, along with the Ten Commandments, He gave Moses a blueprint for the portable Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting, a “house on earth” for God to indwell (Exod. 25:8; 1 Kings 8:29). God accompanied them but—after forty years of wandering homeless in the desert before crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land, through centuries of His faithful provision and loving discipline that sometimes included exile from their homeland—the idolatrous children of Israel continued to wander away spiritually from their eternal Father, who was their “dwelling place” (Jer.13:10; Deut. 33:27).
Then Jesus left His heavenly home and came to reside on earth—God’s presence no longer a vaporous Cloud of Glory in the Holy of Holies but now a flesh-and-blood man “tabernacling” among us (Phil. 2:6-7; John 1:1-3; John 1:14). In Christ the whole fullness of God dwelt bodily (Col. 2:9). But though Jesus made His earthly home in Nazareth, He wasn’t recognized there; as He said when His neighbors took offense at His teaching, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” (Matt. 13:57 ESV). Jesus taught His disciples that as a father welcomes his prodigal son home, so too does God, our eternal Father, welcome the vagabond home into the embrace of His holy presence (Luke 15:21-24). Jesus not only showed us the way, He Himself became the road of our homecoming to Heaven, where He is preparing a place for us (John 14:1-6).
But for today Jesus promised that He would make His home with us, because we are God’s temple where His Spirit dwells; Christ dwells in our hearts through faith (John 14:23; 1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 3:17-19). One day the nation of Israel will know the indwelling Spirit and fully reclaim her status as God’s family, but presently the corporate Church makes up the household of God (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 3:3; Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15). In proper relationship with God’s Son, we the Church become the house of God ourselves (Heb. 3:3-6).
Perhaps you and I will still be alive when Jesus returns in the clouds to gather all believers together with Him in the air and takes us to our eternal residence (1 Thess. 4:17). But in the meanwhile for the rest of us, the day is coming when the tents of our human bodies will be plucked up in death and no longer house our souls; then we’ll “put on” our heavenly dwelling with the Lord (Isa. 38:12; 2 Cor. 5:1-8). We’re each instructed to let the Word of Christ (the truths of the Bible) dwell in us richly, as the Person of Christ (His Holy Presence) dwells in our hearts through faith (Col. 3:15-16; Eph. 3:17).
In this way, our hearts become Christ’s home and, simultaneously, we find our home in Him—our exile ended, our holy homesickness cured. The beloved Anglican prayer sums up our homecoming in Christ:
Father of all, we give you thanks and praise that, when we were still far off, you met us in your Son and brought us home. (Church of England, Common Worship)
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These short literary articles tied to the Bible explore what God might have been saying in His pattern of usage for each symbol. English rendition of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek varies with translations (e.g., “scroll” is sometimes interchangeable with “book”); however, the quality and underlying meaning of the selected emblem remain consistent across versions. Sketches are by Lorenda Harder. I recommend the website of Dr. Grant C. Richison for thorough expository Bible study: www.versebyversecommentary.com.
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