Abraham’s grandson Jacob was the first person in the Bible to identify a place on earth where God was believed to be located. It says in Genesis 28:10-11 that “Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set.” Jacob had a dream that night in which he saw a ladder that reached to heaven. “And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!” In his dream, the LORD told Jacob that he would keep him wherever he went and would bring him back to the land that he had promised to give Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 15:1-16). It says in Genesis 28:16-22:

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

The Hebrew word Bethel means “house of God” (H1008). Jacob later returned to Bethel and built an altar, “and called the place El-bethel because there God had revealed himself to him (Genesis 35:7). It says in Genesis 35:9 that God appeared to Jacob and, “Then God went up from him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel” (Genesis 35:13-15).

David took it upon himself to build a house for the LORD after he was established as the king of Israel, but his decision was overridden by God. It says in 2 Samuel 7:4-7, “But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan ‘Go and tell my servant David, “Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commended to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’” The LORD went on to tell David that he would make a house for him and that after David was gone, God would “raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-13). This promise referred “initially to Solomon but was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the ‘Son of David’ (Luke 1:31-33; Acts 2:25-35) who reigns at God’s right hand (Psalm 2:7; Acts 13:33).

Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem on “Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chronicles 3:1). After all the work that Solomon did for the house of the LORD was finished, “the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14). It says in 2 Samuel 6:1, “Then Solomon said, ‘The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. But I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.” Solomon believed that God’s promise to David had been fulfilled because he had completed construction of the temple that his father had designed, but in his prayer of dedication, Solomon acknowledged the conditional aspect of God’s promise to establish his kingdom on earth. Solomon asked:

“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. (2 Chronicles 6:18-21)

Solomon’s understanding of God’s metaphysical nature was that he couldn’t be contained within space or matter, but God could be present in a particular geographic location in the same way that humans are. Solomon asked that God listen from heaven, his dwelling place (2 Chronicles 6:21), suggesting that God had dual residency and could dwell both in heaven and on earth at the same time. It’s unclear whether or not Solomon actually believed God could occupy the temple he had built for him. Throughout his prayer, Solomon asked God to hear from heaven (2 Chronicles 6:23, 25, 27, 30, 33, 35, 39). It’s possible that Solomon knew God would only occupy the temple he had built for him temporarily, and then, would be dealing with Israel from afar. Solomon concluded his prayer with the benediction, “And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in your goodness. O LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one! Remember your steadfast love for David your servant” (2 Chronicles 6:41-42).

Jesus tried to reassure his disciples before he left them that his Father’s house was an actual place where they would all be living one day. Jesus told them:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. (John 14:1-10, NLT)

Jesus said his Father lived in him and did his work through him. The Greek word that is translated lives in, meno (menˊ-o) is spoken “of the relation in which one person or thing stands with another, chiefly in John’s writings; thus to remain in or with someone, i.e. to be and remain united with him, one with him in heart, mind, and will (John 6:56; 14:10; 15:4-7; 1 John 2:6; 3:24; 4:15, 16)” (G3306).

Jesus considered relational oneness with his Father to be essentially the same thing as them living under the same roof. Jesus prayed that his disciples would “all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Jesus considered relational oneness among his followers to be the ultimate testimony to him being the Savior of the World. Just as a Solomon built a house for God to dwell in forever, the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians that believers are being joined together to form a temple for God to live in. Paul said, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). Paul referred to believers as members of the household of God and said that we are being built together into a dwelling place for God. The Greek word that is translated dwelling place in this instance is katoiketerion (kat-oy-kay-tayˊ-ree-on), a derivative of the word katoikeo (kat-oy-kehˊ-o), which means “to house permanently” (G2730).

The book of Revelation gives us a sneak preview of the permanent house that is being built for God through the process of believers being joined together in Christ. John tells us, “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed…And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-14). John lets us know that the future new Jerusalem is a part of the new heavens and a new earth that Isaiah predicted hundreds of years before Jesus was born (Isaiah 65:17-19). Echoing Isaiah words, John tells us, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).

It seems that when Jesus told Thomas that he was the way, and the truth, and the life in response to his question, “How can we know the way?” [to my Father’s house] (John 14:5-6), that Jesus realized having a relationship with a spiritual being that we can’t even comprehend, much less be able to relate to as a Father, is not possible without his help. Jesus wanted Thomas, as well as the rest of his disciples and us, to understand that having a relationship with God is possible because we can see and get to know God through the lens of Jesus’ human life. Jesus asked Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus wanted to change Philip’s perspective about who he was talking to. Philip was standing face-to-face and conversing with the creator of the universe, and didn’t even realize it. In order to see God in him, Philip needed to know Jesus in a different way. Jesus used the word ginosko (ghin-oceˊ-ko) to describe the kind of knowing that enables us to understand and/or fully comprehend who God the Father is in order to have a relationship with him. Paul talked about knowing in part in his discussion of the body of Christ and the way of love as a means of knowing God more intimately. Paul said, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:9-13).