⁴⁵“And having received it [the tabernacle] in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David. ⁴⁶David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. ⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: ⁴⁹‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is the footstool of My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My repose? ⁵⁰Was it not My hand which made all these things?’”

Why does Stephen speak so much about the tabernacle? Remember the catalyst that provoked Stephen’s speech and the high priest’s inquisition:

They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.” (Acts 6:13–14)

The charge was that the Christians, inspired by Jesus Christ, were planning a complete overthrow of the Jewish religion as they understood it. How ironic that the early Jews, soon after the Exodus, overthrew what God had deemed central—the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me”—and set up a temple to false gods. Yet now they are accusing the Christians of overthrowing all of Judaism. Stephen was calling Israel back to God, not away from God.

As he said earlier in his speech, he is not speaking of a different god, but of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and now King David. And he is speaking of the same “dwelling place for God.” Of course, the tabernacle was intended only as a “temporary” facility, with David desiring a more permanent structure after Israel was fully settled in the Promised Land. His son, Solomon, was the one who actually built the temple. (Though Stephen doesn’t mention it here, the Jews were very aware that Solomon’s temple was destroyed years later because of Israel’s disobedience and idol worship, and was rebuilt when Israel returned from the resulting captivity).

Stephen poignantly reminds his audience of Solomon’s warning against seeing the temple as God’s dwelling place; the “Most High” simply cannot be constrained by anything manmade. The implication that Stephen is clearly drawing is that God cannot be constrained by the human form of religion into which Judaism had devolved. That was preventing them from accepting the message of God concerning Christ.

Lord, I confess to sometimes limiting You by manmade theological formulas.