All through scripture, we find God manifested Himself in such simple ways. God did not dwell in a temple like the temples of Egypt and Greece and Rome. The tabernacle built by the children of Israel was certainly not one of the seven wonders the world. It was not like the hypostyle hall of columns at Karnak. God did not have a temple like the Parthenon at Athens, one of the most beautiful buildings of the ancient world, indeed one of the seven wonders. God’s temple was a prefabricated house made of 30 or 40 boards that were stuck in holes in the ground and held together by cords. Over these boards was thrown a roll of badgers’ skin dyed red. That was the temple of the living God. There He manifested Himself to Israel. Now if man had said, “Lord please establish a tabernacle or a temple on earth that is worthy of thee.” If God had done so, our little earth would suddenly have had a temple on it so vast, that it would have reached beyond the sun. The earth would not have been able to turn on its axis and the weight of such a temple would have torn the earth out of orbit and send it spinning across the remotest space. So God said, “Well since the earth cannot support a temple that is worthy of me, I shall settle for a prefabricated tabernacle. I shall use little things to make my presence known to men.”
Donald Grey Barnhouse
