Have you ever seen something so beautiful that you thought Heaven must have come down to Earth? Would you be interested to know that Heaven and Earth have intersected before?

After God created the universe, there is a short time at the beginning of Genesis, before mankind sinned, that Earth and Heaven intersected. In the Garden of Eden, God walked with man in the cool of the evening. (Gen. 3:8) Jesus, the Tree of Life, was there. (Gen. 2:9) Heaven and Earth met. God walked with man. The intersection was the Garden. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long. Enter the serpent who tempts Eve and Adam to eat from the wrong tree. (More on that here.) Sin enters the picture and the intersection of Heaven and Earth is broken. God no longer walks with man in the Garden. Man is evicted from the Garden and has to toil to get his food.

But God wants to be with man and wants to have Heaven and Earth connected again. Let’s zoom in on Moses and Israel as they leave Egypt. God goes before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They follow the pillar wherever it leads. When it stops, they set up camp. Outside the camp a special tent is set up called the tent of meeting. The Cloud/Fire pillar enters the tent and resides there while they are camped. Moses goes to this tent to hear from the Lord. Heaven and Earth are once again connected. After this, God comes down onto a mountain and gives Moses the Ten Commandments. He also gives him a pattern for the tabernacle, his place on Earth. God dwelt in the tabernacle in the Most Holy Place. Heaven and Earth intersected here. God was on Earth with man.

Fast forward with me again. The Ark of the Covenant, God’s Mercy Seat, which represents God, is taken out of the tabernacle at Shiloh by some evil priests to go before Israel in battle.¹ They lose the battle and the Ark goes to enemy hands. After some calamities in the enemy cities, the Ark makes its way back to Israel and doesn’t go back to the tabernacle at Shiloh. It stays for 20 years at Aminadab’s house. Finally, David, the king, decides he wants to move the Ark to Jerusalem where he is preparing for his son to build a temple for God. He has the Ark put on a cart to take it to Jerusalem. On the way, Uzzah touches the Ark so it won’t tip off the cart and dies. The Ark is taken to Obed-Edom’s house where it stays for awhile. David does some resaarch and finds out the correct way to transport the Ark. So, David has a huge parade and brings the Ark to Jerusalem to a small tent he has set up for it. God’s presence hovers over the mercy seat of the Ark. The sacrifices and all of the ceremony are still happening in Shiloh, but God’s not there. (More on that in another article at a later time. I’ll link it here when it’s ready.) Many of the Psalms of David are written while the Ark is in the humble tent David built for it in Jerusalem. Once again, Heaven and Earth are connected. The Ark is moved into the Temple of God during Solomon’s reign and stays there until God’s Spirit left the Temple. In Ezekiel it says that the Spirit of God departed the temple. God has left the building. Heaven and Earth are not intersected now.

The next time Heaven and Earth intersect happens in the humble city of Bethlehem when Jesus, God made flesh, is born. Wherever Jesus went, Heaven was there. This is why Jesus could say, “The Kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Lk. 17:21) You know the story of Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection. Heaven and Earth are connect while He is here, but there is a separation when he ascends to be with the Father again.

Just a few days later, the disciples are gathered together in Jerusalem on Pentecost. All of a sudden the Spirit that Jesus promised arrives. God no longer lives on the Earth in a garden, or in a tent. He inhabits His people. These people are his tabernacle. Wherever the believers are, Heaven and Earth intersect. This intersection is not just in one location as it was in the garden, in the tabernacle, in the temple, or as Jesus, the God-man on Earth. Now, the intersection between Heaven and Earth are wherever His people are assembled. This is just a foretaste of eternity where the New Heaven and New Jerusalem come down to the New Earth.

When you look up at the night sky on a clear night and can see all of the stars against the blanket of black, you can think of each of those shiny lights like an intersection of Heaven and Earth. In the spiritual realm, the more of His people that gather together make a brighter light in that location. We are standing against the darkness. Come, Lord Jesus! Let Your Glory fill the Earth.

¹This story can be found in 1 Samuel 4-6

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