Although God is invisible, he is not without substance. When the ark was brought into the temple, it says in 1 Kings 8:10-11, “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.”

The word translated cloud, “‘anan is used especially of the ‘cloud mass’ that evidenced the special presence of God” (6051). Solomon intended the temple he built to be an actual home for God because he said, “I have surely built thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever” (1 Kings 8:13).