Fellowship With God

21:3-4 And I heard a great voice from heaven. "Behold," it said, "the dwelling-place of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them; and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, nor will there be any grief or crying, nor will there be any more pain, for the first things have gone."

Here is the promise of fellowship with God and all its precious consequences. The voice is that of one of the Angels of the Presence.

God is to make his dwelling-place with men. The word used for dwelling-place is skene ( Greek #4633 ), literally a tent; but in religious use it had long since lost any idea of an impermanent residence. There are two main ideas here.

(i) Skene ( Greek #4633 ) is the word used for the Tabernacle. Originally in the wilderness the Tabernacle was a tent, the skene ( Greek #4633 ) par excellence. This, then, means that God is to make his tabernacle with men for ever, to give his presence to men for ever. Here in this world and amidst the things of time our realisation of the presence of God is spasmodic; but in heaven we will be permanently aware of that presence.

(ii) There are two words totally different in meaning but similar in sound which in early Christian thought became closely connected. Skene ( Greek #4633 ) is one; and the Hebrew shechinah, the glory of God, is the other. SKENE ( Greek #4633 )--SHECHINAH (compare the Hebrew verb, shakan, to dwell, Hebrew #7931 )--the connection in sound brought it about that men could not hear the one without thinking of the other. As a result, to say that the skene ( Greek #4633 ) of God is to be with men immediately brought the thought that the shechinah (compare Hebrew #7931 ) of God is to be with men. In the ancient times the shechinah (compare Hebrew #7931 ) took the form of a luminous cloud which came and went. We read, for instance, of the cloud which filled the house at the dedication of Solomon's Temple ( 1 Kings 8:10-11 ). In the new age the glory of God is not to be a transitory thing, but something which abides permanently with the people of God.