If you've studied the Bible, then you know God's resting place is a state of mind and being as much as it is an actual place. Hebrews 4:1–13 describes rest as a place free from your own works. While the answer in Hebrews 4 is very important to understanding rest, let's focus on another part of that idea that answers the question of God's resting place.
Acts 7:44–50 (ESV) "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, 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 what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?"
Question:
What is God's resting place?
Answer:
Rest is in God's dwelling place. Rest is not only what God does but who He is. Therefore, when God dwells in a place, that place becomes His rest. What is interesting here is that a building cannot contain God. He can only dwell in a place of the Spirit. He chose you and me because He can make us a spiritual house, not made with hands, where He is free to rest without limitations. In simplicity, we become His resting place.
Explanation:
Look closely at God's question in Acts 7 (Above). " What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? " Instead of agreeing that Solomon's temple was His dwelling place and His place of rest, God knew from the beginning that the temple He instructed man to build was always a type of the true temple that God has always desired. God's desire is for your body to be His temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Is God asking, " Will you let me make you my house to rest in? Will you become my resting place? "
When you add Jesus to God's question, it becomes clear that God not only wanted us to be His new temple and resting place, but He also provided a perfect body through the resurrection of Jesus to make it possible. That means when we are born of God through Jesus Christ by the Spirit, we become the new resting place for God to abide.
It was no wonder that Stephen referenced this prophecy in Acts 7. The rebellious house of Israel rejected the idea that the body is the new temple. That's why he spoke the prophecy of Isaiah that asked, will you, with your own hands build me a house? Stephen answers with a definitive no. Instead of letting God build them a spiritual house, they put their trust in the works of their flesh and refused to abandon their belief that the temple of God is built by human hands.
So, who is God looking for to be His house? The answer is found in the original prophecy in Isaiah 66, quoted by Stephen in Acts 7.
Isaiah 66:1-2 Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
God is looking for those who are humble and tremble at His word. These are the ones who become God's resting place.
What to do:
Humble yourself before the Lord your God and receive the testimony of Jesus Christ, which makes you new. Be transformed by renewing your mind, for you are God's building.
Scriptural References:
1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6; Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 7:44–50; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Hebrews 4:1–13