The Sanctuary of the Soul

THE SANCTUARY OF THE SOUL

The Kingdom of God

The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.

Mark 1:15

In Jesus’ earthly ministry, the fundamental theme of his preaching is captured in the little phrase, “The Kingdom of God”: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news” (Mark 1:14-15).
When Jesus spoke in this way, he was not introducing a new idea, but he was taking up an old idea, one that had already had a long currency in the history of Israel. If we would hear what he is trying to say to us, we must try to see it in the context he himself put it in. If we would understand the New Testament, we must first understand the Old Testament.
In the book of Genesis, God is portrayed as the great king over creation, and man is presented as living in rebellion against him. The whole of the biblical narrative that follows can be viewed as a story about the deity’s restoration of his kingdom. This he achieves through his covenant, a solemn contract in which he binds himself and his people to the terms of his sovereign rule. At the very center of this covenant is the sanctuary, the deity’s palace and the place from which his decrees, laws, and judgments go forth into all the earth. Now Jesus is the incarnation of that sanctuary, he fulfills the terms of the covenant, and he re-establishes the governance of the kingdom within his own self. Through him, we too are called to belong to this kingdom, to enter into this covenant, and to become sanctuaries indwelt by the presence of the living God.

The Creational Kingdom of God

God’s kingship achieves its first expression in his rule over the primeval sea. According to the scriptures, creation did not begin with order, life, and fertility, but with a chaotic, dead, and barren mass of earth submerged in dark waters: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was barren and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the breath of God was moving over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:1-2).
In the Bible, God brings forth of a kingdom of living creatures from this raw material, and the biblical poets dramatize this event as a battle between YHWH and Leviathan: a monster personifying the primeval sea. In this battle, God subdues the sea monster by the breath of his mouth, and this in turn becomes the means whereby he brings forth life upon the earth (Ps. 33:6-7). He brings forth the metaphysical conditions of life by fashioning creatures from the dust of the earth and breathing into their nostrils the breath of life: How many are the things you have made, O Lord: the earth is full of your creatures… When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send back your breath, they are created (Ps. 104:24 and 29-30). And he brings forth the physical conditions of life by channeling all of the sea’s destructive torrents into fertile streams that render the earth productive of food, and the earth’s creatures productive of offspring: O God, my king from old, who brings deliverance upon the earth: it was you who drove back the sea by your power, who broke the heads of the monster in the waters; it was you who crushed the heads of the Leviathan, who gave him as food to the creatures of the desert (Ps. 74:12-14).
In this way, the Kingdom of God assumes its most basic form in creation. God subdues the primeval waters of chaos, breathes into his creatures the breath of life, makes the earth productive of food (Gen. 1:29), and makes the womb productive of offspring (Gen. 1:28). Moreover, as a kingdom of living things, this divine order is not expressed in the eternal unfolding of an abstract principle or in a temporal chain of causes and effects, but in the free call of the Creator and the free response of his creatures. The Creator’s call consists in the manifestation of his glory to his creatures: The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 19:1-4). And the creature’s response consists in the giving of glory to his Creator: All your works will praise you, O Lord; all your saints will bless you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom, and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and your dominion endures for all generations (Ps. 145:10-13).

The Creation as a Sanctuary of God
Now if the Kingdom of God consists in the deity’s sovereign rule, and if this is expressed in the giving and receiving of glory, then the function of the created order can be none other than to serve this purpose. In ancient times, this would have been understood to be the same function as that of a sanctuary, which served as a dwelling place for a deity, and therefore as a place for the giving and receiving of glory: I will see you in the sanctuary, and behold your might and glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you (Ps. 63:2-3).
A careful reading of the creation account will reveal that the world has been specifically designed to serve as a sanctuary for the presence of God. Above all, this is exhibited in the parallelism between the creation of the world and the construction of the Tabernacle, both of which are structured around seven divine commands, culminating in the Sabbath (cf. the seven days of creation with Ex. 25:1, 30:11, 30:17, 30:22, 30:34, 31:1, and 31:12): God saw all that he had made, and behold: it was very good… So God blessed the seventh day (Gen. 1:31 and 2:3); Moses saw all their work, and behold: they did it just as YHWH had commanded. So Moses blessed them (Ex. 39:43).
Again, the most basic function of a sanctuary was to provide a resting place for the spirit of a deity. And so the function of creation is to provide a resting place for the spirit of YHWH. Accordingly, the seventh day is not only a day on which the divinity rests from his work, but also a day on which the divinity rests within his work. On the day of rest, the created order is brought to completion not only because it has been created, but also because it has been indwelt by YHWH: For YHWH has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: “This is my resting place forever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it” (Ps. 132:13-14). Therefore, in Isaiah, God declares: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? (Is. 66:1).