God's Box

Memorize: I Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

God had a box. He lived in a box. He didn’t live only there. God was still on His throne in heaven, and He was still everywhere. But he put His special presence with people in a box. It was a nice box. Really nice. It was so nice that it’s not called a box. It’s called an ark, or the Ark. A great artist named Bezalel made it. He made it out of a special kind of wood and covered it inside and outside with gold. It was about four feet long, two feet wide, and two feet tall. Bezalel made solid gold angels for the top of the box. It was a nice box. A box like that needed a special home. For 500 years the Ark was kept in a tent, but it was a really great tent called the Tabernacle. After that, God’s box went to stay in the fanciest building you could think of.

But the amazing thing about it was that God came down and filled the box with His presence, and His presence went out from the box. People close to it could feel it and the box did powerful things. God did the powerful things, but He did them from the box. At first God sent a pillar of cloud from the sky into the box. And at night the pillar looked like fire.

God’s box did a lot. It was leading the charge at Jericho when the walls came down. God’s box made a statue god bow down, twice. And the second time the fake god’s head and hands were broken off. The Bible tells about more adventures for the Ark. It made some people sick and killed some people who didn’t treat it right. One guy kept it at his house and everything at his house was blessed. King David wanted to take great care of God’s box, and his son King Solomon built a huge, golden temple for the Ark.

But then. But then it got lost or stolen or broken to bits. No one really knows. For hundreds, even thousands of years, God’s box has been missing, and for hundreds even thousands of years people have been trying to find it. A lot of people who study the Ark say that it was destroyed and they argue about when it was smashed to bits and who did it. But there is a chance that an enemy took it instead of crushing it, and then it might still be somewhere on the earth. Some guess that the good guys buried it to keep it safe, but they died without telling where they buried it. That would mean it is still safely buried to this day. But where? Where is it buried? No one knows, so they just keep digging holes. There are many more guesses. One more is that God’s people from Africa took the Ark home to keep it safe. It could be buried there. Do you want to dig some holes in Africa?

The digging, the studying, the searching can go on for another thousand years, but I don’t need to play that hide-and-seek game. I already know where God’s box is, and not because I am so smart. The answer is in the Bible. There are a few places that tell this story, but my favorite is when Stephen told it.

Stephen was a great servant of Jesus after Jesus flew up to heaven. Stephen was a great preacher and did miracles, but the priests didn’t like it. They put Stephen on trial. They lied about him in court and said that Stephen, “never stops speaking against this holy place.” The holy place was the closest thing they had to God’s Ark. They wanted God to live in that building. They wanted a box that God would stay in. Stephen told a long story about God reaching out to people and people pushing God away. At the end of his speech, Stephen talked about the Ark, and the Tabernacle (a tent for the Ark), and the Temple (a building for the Ark.) Stephen said, “the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?' You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:48-51 NIV)

Why did Stephen talk for so long? Why did he tell the truth when they would kill him for it? He knew that God didn’t need, didn’t want a box to live it. God didn’t want to use a box to show His power.

When Bezalel built the box he was careful with it. He did everything right. He worked hard to prepare the best place he could for God to come into. Stephen did the same thing, but he didn’t build a fancy golden box. Stephen knew that God didn’t want to live in a box (even a gold box with angels on top) and God didn’t want to live in a room (even a gold room.) God wanted to live in a person. How did Stephen build a good house for God? He told his killers how he did it with an opposite clue. They built a house that God would never come to. Stephen called them stiff-necked, stubborn. He said their hearts and ears were pushing back God. He said they were resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are God’s box. And you are not buried far beneath the city of Jerusalem. You are right out in the open where a lot of people can see you. God is looking for a home, a place where He can rest. It has to be a place where He can stay ALL of the time. It doesn’t work for you to call out to God on Sunday and tell Him to come fill you if you don’t want Him to still be there on Monday.

God lived in a box. He did things that were so powerful while he was in that box. But now you are the box. A box is supposed to hold something, keep it safe, never let it go.