Shekinah

Isaiah 57:15 (The Message)

A Message from the high and towering God,
      who lives in Eternity,
      whose name is Holy:
"I live in the high and holy places,
      but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
      get them up and on their feet again.

The Shekinah was the visible confirmation of the presence of God at the center of the lives of the Hebrews. It was not God himself, but rather a visible sign that God dwelled among them. In Exodus 40:34-38, the Shekinah appeared as a cloudy pillar in the day and a fiery pillar at night filling the newly built tabernacle. The words we translate as "tabernacle" and "dwell" are much more intimately connected in Hebrew than they are in English. In Exodus 25:9, Yahweh calls the tabernacle a "mishkan" -- the place of Yahweh’s dwelling [sheken]. Both words are derived from the root "shakan", meaning to dwell or "to tabernacle". Shekinah derives from the same root.

Later, when Solomon is building a house for the Lord (1 Kings 6:13), God promises to dwell [shakan] among the children of Israel. And in 1 Kings 8:10 "a cloud filled the House of the Lord." In this way, the Shekinah of the Lord was transferred from the tabernacle to the temple.

And then we come to Jesus.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

In this well-worn verse, John uses the verb form of the Greek word "skene" meaning "tent" -- a deliberate reference to the tabernacle -- which we translate as "lived" or "dwelled". After making these connections, I now see Jesus clearly as the temple of the Lord to a depth I have never seen before. I see him as the Shekinah -- the proof -- of God in the flesh. In this and many other ways, the tabernacle-temple-tent is a projection of the Lord’s redemptive plan for His people.

And then I remember how Paul referred to our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. I am to be the visible confirmation of the presence of God in the midst of the people I live near and rub elbows with every day. While allowing Jesus to tabernacle (dwell) within me, I am also called to allow Him to show through me -- through my actions, my thoughts, my eyes, and my heart. This shines a new light on the path before me. I am a tabernacle [mishkan] of God's design and construction. Jesus "tabernacles" [shakan] within me. Those parts are easy...the hard part is the Shekinah -- confirming His presence. Do my workmates even know that Jesus dwells within me?

But what if we beam with the Shekinah of the Lord and our neighborhood responds with hatred? What happens when we shine His light into dark places and the people in the dark scream back telling us to turn out that @%$#! light?

Over there in that beautiful home near the top of a hill is a beloved friend of God. She is a beacon of His love, the Shekinah of His presence within her. The glory of the Lord shines through her, through her children, and out into the neighborhood. But the neighborhood is dark. It is so very, very dark. It is filled with cliques, impenetrable evil, gossip, and idolatry. Heavy, thick lines have been drawn excluding her children from their children, excluding her life from theirs. She reaches out to them and they slam the door. Even though she shows God's love each day through her heart and her eyes, they stab her family with gossip and lies. Every day she cries. Every day she wants to leave, but can't.

I pray for her. I pray for all who have the courage to be God's pillar of light, God's Shekinhah, at the front lines of darkness -- those beacons behind whom the rest of us follow, or hide, or just admire from a distance. I pray that God comfort them when their spirits are crushed -- strengthen them when they feel faint. And I pray (do I dare?) that God move me a little closer to the front lines of where He needs me to be -- a little closer to where they already are.

I have one last thought. In this week's verse, God is the one who inhabits eternity and also indwells those who are contrite and humble. "He who lives" [Hebrew shkn or "shokeyn] refers to God Himself. If you add the feminine ending changing it from a masculine to a feminine participle "shokeyn" [shkn], becomes "Shekinah" [shknh]. And SHE is the proof. Amen to that!