Israelites had the tabernacle made with hands: God lives in the tabernacle of our body through Jesus Christ.

Acts 7:44-50

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“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.” Acts 7:44-46

The Jewish rulers, whom Stephen was talking to, were still living by the thought that the house of God was the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In that temple was the place called the Holy of Holies, where only the Jewish priests could enter [no one else could come into the presence of God]. Stephen reminded the Jewish rulers that the Jewish forefathers did indeed have tabernacles in the wilderness, according to how Moses designed it. The tabernacle of the tent, that Moses designed, was actually quite in depth, as described in Exodus 35:4-40:38. Those tabernacles were brought into the earthly promised land with Joshua.

The tabernacle of our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, exists among the unbelievers of this world. The unbelievers are driven out of the eternal promised land of the New Jerusalem, the same as not having a place within them for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us is the guarantee of our eternal inheritance, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance…” Ephesians 1:13-14

While the tabernacles were movable tents, David, a man after God’s own heart, desired to build a permanent house for God. The Lord replied to David, “For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ ”2 Samuel 7:6-7 The Christ, Jesus, does not desire a manmade church to be built as His living quarters, that’s because He lives within our heart, mind, and soul by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

“But Solomon built Him a house. “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?’” Acts 7:47-50

Solomon built the Lord a permanent house, but the Lord does not live in temples made with hands. Stephen made this clear to the Jewish rulers he was speaking to by quoting from Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” Isaiah 66:1 In other words, Stephen was telling the Jewish leaders that their manmade churches/temple were useless as a place to contain the presence of God. The question to answer is, “…what is the place of My rest?” The answer to that question is one that the Jewish leaders could not accept, that we are the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ [our Priest]. The Jewish rulers rejected Jesus as their Priest and were infuriated at the notion that their manmade temple of God was useless as a place of worship. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11