To know God’s Eternal Plan is to understand why we exist, why the world is broken, and where we are all headed. It’s all about knowing the heart of God and what it means to have a personal relationship with Him.

First Adam

There was the sound of God walking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day, Genesis 3:8. God did not dwell with Adam and Eve. Yet, did God know Adam would fail? However, from a careful study of the scriptures, you discover God’s plan that was made in eternity past. Where the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world, Revelation 13:8. A plan that stretches into the future eternity.

When Adam sinned, He lost the privilege of face-to-face contact with God. After his disastrous failure that affected all mankind, the way back into the Garden was barred by the cherubim and the flaming sword, Genesis 3:24. This was a merciful act by God. The guilty pair could never be permitted to have access to the tree of life, eat of its fruit and never know God’s redeeming power.

How many times in his remaining 930 years, did Adam look at the garden from a distance and grieve with an insatiable hunger in his heart? Yet, God yearns for the fellowship of His own people and would that none should perish, 2 Peter 3:9.

The Second Adam

There is a conversation not recorded that many of us would have longed to listen to. We have to seek it out for ourselves for It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. But the glory of kings is to search out a matter, Proverbs 25:2.

 A couple, with broken hearts, were returning from having witnessed the crucifixion. Jesus appeared to them, though they were unaware who He was. He gently upbraided them for not believing all that the prophets had written.

He asked them Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory, Luke 24:25,26. Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures, Luke 24:27. What a sermon that would have been and a revelation of how to know God’s Eternal Plan.

Where to Start

God created all things as recorded in the beginning of Genesis. Finally, the great I Am that I Am, Exodus 3:14, created man in His own image, Genesis 1:27, then He rested. His creation act was complete.

The perfect man was to fellowship God, something that only those created in God’s image can do. However, before God created Adam, He knew exactly what Adam would do, for God knows the end from the beginning, Isaiah 46:10. God saw far beyond Adam’s failure, to the overcomers of Revelation and beyond that again.

Why then did Jesus not begin with Abraham the father of faith, or Isaac or Jacob? These men had visitations of the Spirit of God, but they did not have ‘habitation’. There lies the first important clue to knowing the Eternal Plan of God.

Why Moses

To Moses was given the Law, Genesis 20, then Moses, Aaron and 70 elders went up the mountain and saw God and they ate and drank, Exodus 24:10. Later Moses went alone with only Joshua, to receive the tablets of stone written by the hand of God, Exodus 24:12. Moses received the full pattern of the Tabernacle, a shadow of the heavenly things, Hebrews 8:5.

God’s instructions to Moses: Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. There is the Father’s heart – to dwell in the midst of His people, in relationship with them.

The Tabernacle was a movable place of worship with set regulations for worship and a formal method of sacrifice. The glory of the Lord covered the Most Holy Place in the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, Exodus 13:21,22. It was there for all to see. The Tabernacle was God’s Eternal Plan, dwelling among His people who reflect His glory. Something that will only be complete in eternity.

Dwelling Place

The term tabernacle is a feminine noun meaning dwelling, or habitation. Moses’ Tabernacle was God revealing His Shekinah glory and His divine presence to His people. There I will meet with you and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you, Exodus 25:22.

The Shekinah glory is a phrase the Jewish rabbis instigated. In Hebrew it means ‘He caused to dwell’. It is what man was created for and why we are the only part of creation created in the image of God, Genesis 1:27.

Glory Departed

The Shekinah glory led the people through the wilderness. God’s glory was also seen in Solomon’s temple after his fervent and humble prayer, 2 Chronicles 6,7. We are not told when God’s presence left Solomon’s temple, but around 400 years later the prophet Ezekiel saw it in a vision. This fulfilled what had been promised in Deuteronomy 31:17-18, where God would hide His face from them, for Israel would forsake Him and break His covenant.   

The prophet Ezekiel saw the Shekinah glory depart the second temple, Ezekiel  9,10,11, step by step. It moved from the Holy of Holies to the threshold of the temple, 9:3, 10:4.

The entire house and courtyard were filled with the brightness of the Presence. The man clothed in linen left the threshold of the temple with coals of fire in his hands. Do these coals represent the fire of Calvary? Only after Calvary and Pentecost, would the fulness of the presence of God be manifest again among men, Acts 2.

The East Gate

In Ezekiel the presence of God departed Jerusalem through the East Gate, Gate of the Lord, Psalm 118:19.20, and Golden or Beautiful Gate. In Hebrew it is known as the Gate of Mercy and the oldest gate of the Old City. The same gate Jesus most likely entered on Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-11.

It is the same gate Christ would have exited on the night of the Last Supper to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:39, on the Mount of Olives. However, He would have exited through the Sheep Gate on His way to His execution.

Ezekiel saw the glory proceed to the mountain on the east side of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, Ezekiel 11:23. The East Gate was sealed shut in 1530 AD by Suleiman the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It is believed he gave the order to stop the Jewish Messiah from gaining entrance to Jerusalem, when the glory of the Lord returns, as Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 43:1-4.

This is a prophecy of the second coming of Christ. Ezekiel’s vision ends with the words I will dwell among them (my people) forever, Ezekiel 43:9.

How to know God’s Eternal Plan

David wrote, The Lord is my Shepherd……And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, Psalm 23:6. God’s eternal plan, as revealed from Genesis to Revelation, is all about God dwelling with His own people.

To Know God’s Eternal Plan is such an important subject we will take Part 11 to discuss more about what it meant in New Testament times and to us now.

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Dr. Wendy Stenberg-Tendys is a servant of the Lord who enjoys researching Biblical topics and sharing words of encouragement from the Word of God. She asks the hard questions.

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