TheThirdandReformedAdam
Puritan Board Freshman
So I am currently teaching some covenant theology, and I started upon the Davidic covenant. After reading a few different sources, I have found Sealed with an Oath by Paul R. Williamson to be very helpful. He states that in 2 Samuel 7, God refuses to allow David to construct a temple because God's promised rest for his people had not yet come to pass. Only when the people of Israel had entered the promised rest would God accept a permanent dwelling place. This got me thinking: is it fair to say that the way in which God dwells with His people in the Old covenant is typological (or maybe I should simply say, 'parallel') of the way He dwells with His people in the New covenant?
To explain, at the beginning of the Old covenant, God is dwelling with His people, but He does so in the mobile structure of a tent. Later in the Old covenant under Davidic administration, God dwells with His people in the permanency of the temple in Jerusalem. Can this rightly be paralleled with the New covenant, where, currently, God dwells within the son of Abraham (which seems to parallel the mobility of the tabernacle), and later, He dwells in the permanency of New Jerusalem (paralleling the temple in Jerusalem)? Both the Old covenant and New Covenant seem to express a pattern where, initially, God's dwelling is mobile and temporary, whereas it eventually becomes fixed.
To explain, at the beginning of the Old covenant, God is dwelling with His people, but He does so in the mobile structure of a tent. Later in the Old covenant under Davidic administration, God dwells with His people in the permanency of the temple in Jerusalem. Can this rightly be paralleled with the New covenant, where, currently, God dwells within the son of Abraham (which seems to parallel the mobility of the tabernacle), and later, He dwells in the permanency of New Jerusalem (paralleling the temple in Jerusalem)? Both the Old covenant and New Covenant seem to express a pattern where, initially, God's dwelling is mobile and temporary, whereas it eventually becomes fixed.