Rev 21:3 "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."

A "great voice" is used several times to depict the voice of God:

1. Deu 5:22 "These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me."
2. Rev. 1:10 "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,"
3. Rev. 11:12 "And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them."
4. Rev.16:1 "And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth."
5. Rev. 16:17 "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done."

The tabernacle is a dwelling place. In the Old Testament wilderness journeys of the children of Israel, God dwelt with them in the tabernacle of witness and he met with them in the Most Holy Place above the mercy seat. Later God's dwelling place was said to be in Zion: Ps. 76:2 "In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion."

Today the Lord dwells in the temple of God: 1 Cor. 3:16 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" In the New Testament the church is the temple of God. Eph. 2:19 "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Thus God tabernacles or dwells with men in the church.

The following verses illustrate how God dwells with us now:

1. Rom. 8:9 "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
2. 2 Cor. 6:16 "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
3. Eph. 3:17 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,"
4. Col. 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
5. 1 John 4:13 "Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit."
" They shall be his people." There are three groups of people identified as God's people in the scriptures.

Each group is identified based on a covenant of God. The first group identified as the people of God are the children of Israel with whom God made a covenant at Mt. Sinai:

1. Ex. 18:1 "When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;"
2. Ex. 32:14 "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
3. Deu. 32:9 "For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance."
4. Deu. 32:36 "For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left."
5. Deu. 32:43 "Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people."
6. Judg. 11:23 "So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?"
7. Ruth 1:6 "Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread."
8. 1 Sam. 12:22 "For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people."
9. 1 Sam. 13:14 "But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee."
10. 1 Sam. 15:1 "Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD."

In connection with the covenant of redemption as set forth in Rom. 8:29, 30, the entire elect family of God are referred to as God's people:

1. Matt. 1:21 "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."
2. Lk. 1:76 "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,"
3. Heb. 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
4. Heb. 13:12 "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."

The third group of people called the "people of God" are those people who compose the New Testament church and worship Him under the new covenant of worship:

1. Rom. 9:25 "As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God."
2. 2 Cor. 6:16 "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
3. Rev. 18:4 "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
4. Acts 15:14 "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name."
5. Heb. 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
6. 1 Pet. 2:10 "Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

"God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Certainly, God is the God of the universe. He is the only true God. That he will be the God of "His people" teaches us that he will manifest himself to them as their God. The following verses show forth the relationship between God and His people:

1. 2 Cor. 6:16 "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
2. Heb. 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." Christ, True Church Mt. Zion The New Jerusalem