In the first chapter we saw that God wants to gain a house in the universe through His work of building so that both God and man can have a resting place. We saw that after the completion of the work of creation the Bible says that God rested (Gen. 2:1-3), yet in Isaiah 66:1 God says, “Heaven is My throne, / And the earth the footstool for My feet.... / Where is the place of My rest?” This word proves that although God created the heavens and the earth and has finished His work of creation, He has not obtained a resting place in the universe. Therefore, He needs to do a further work to build a resting place for Himself. The building work of God is emphasized repeatedly in the Scriptures. While the work of God’s creation took only six days, after six thousand years the building work of God is still not finished. Therefore, in the universe God’s work of building is a great and mysterious matter.
What then is the building work of God? And how will it be completed? In brief, the building work of God is the mingling of God and man. God mingling with man is God building Himself into man; man mingling with God is man being built into God. In God’s creation heaven was heaven, earth was earth, God was God, and man was man. The two sides were never mingled together. In God’s work of building, however, God wants to build Himself into man and to build man into Himself. When these two are mingled and built together, they become a building in the universe, which may be called the universal house. This building, or we may say this house, is constituted through the mingling of God and man. It is the house of God, and it is also the house of man. It is God taking man as His dwelling place, and it is also man taking God as his habitation. In other words, it is the mutual abode of God and man.
The Scriptures clearly show us that all God’s work in time is for gaining such a dwelling place, such a house. Although the universe comprises both heaven and earth, God does not take heaven as His dwelling place, neither does He consider the earth to be man’s habitation. If God does not mingle Himself with man to become one with man but remains outside of man, then God does not have a dwelling place; He is a God without a home. Similarly, if man is not mingled with God to become one with God, and if man continues to live outside of God, then man is a wandering, homeless man. For both God and man, the real dwelling place in the universe is neither heaven nor earth, much less any physical house; rather, it is the oneness of the mutual mingling of God and man, the oneness of God being mingled with man and man being mingled with God. This oneness is a great universal oneness, a spiritual building, and a great universal house. God’s building work throughout the generations is to obtain such a dwelling place, such a house.
In the previous chapter we mentioned that God’s building is revealed in Genesis 28. There it says that Jacob saw a ladder in his dream and heard God’s promise to him. After he woke up, he took the stone, which he had used as a pillow, and set it up as a pillar. Then he poured oil on top of it, saying, “This stone...will be God’s house” (v. 22).
We must pay attention to Jacob’s pouring of oil upon the stone. Why did Jacob pour oil upon the stone that he had set up as a pillar? The first time the house of God is mentioned in the Scriptures is in Genesis 28. This chapter is also the first time where such a pouring of oil is mentioned. At that time Jacob was a young man who had not received any spiritual education. Moreover, he was not a person who was seeking after God and none of his forefathers had ever poured oil upon anything. We have to admit that what Jacob did that morning was an extraordinary thing.
Immediately after God appeared to him, Jacob said, “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17b). For him to say this was already quite spiritual. However, what is even more amazing is that he took the stone that he had used as a pillow, set it up as a pillar, poured oil upon it, and said that this oil-covered pillar would be the house of God. What is the meaning of pouring oil upon the pillar of stone? When we come to the New Testament, we can see its meaning clearly. Bible scholars all know that in the Scriptures oil signifies the Holy Spirit and that a stone denotes a saved person. The Lord Jesus said to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). In Greek Peter means “a stone.” Peter himself also told us that all the saved ones are living stones being built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5a). Hence, we can see that oil being poured upon a stone signifies that God is poured upon man, that God is mingled with man.
In order for there to be the house of God, there must be the mingling of God and man, as typified by the pouring of oil upon the stone. When God as the Spirit comes upon and into His redeemed people, the two are mingled together. This is the house of God, the dwelling place of God.
I wish that all the children of God could see that whenever and wherever there are people who have the Spirit of God poured upon them and who are joined with the Spirit of God, there is the temple of God, the house of God. There, God is with man and dwells in man, and man also dwells in God.
After His resurrection, when the Lord Jesus came to His disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22), the Lord poured oil upon stones. Moreover, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured upon those people, this also was a picture of oil being poured upon stones. In both these cases oil was poured upon stones. We must remember that when oil is poured upon stones, this produces the temple of God, the house of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the one hundred twenty people, the Triune God came into their midst and was dwelling within them. At the same time they also were dwelling in God. They really could testify, “We know that God dwells in us, and we dwell in God; God and we are a mutual abode. We are stones, and God is the oil. The oil has been poured upon the stones to produce a temple which is the house of God.”
We see therefore that the first time the Scriptures mention the house of God, they refer allegorically to the union and mingling of God and man. This proves that without the mingling of God and man, there cannot be the universal building, the house of God. Only when there is the mingling of God and man can there be a dwelling place as the house of God.
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