God's glory. His Presence. His Goodness. On the journey to Christmas...we come to Ezekiel. Exodus had shown us the glory of God. However, in Ezekiel, we see the glory of God slowly departing from Israel. In chapter 10, we see God's glory being removed from the Temple. If your Bible lists headings of the texts, you will likely find this heading leading into chapter 10 (The Glory of the Lord Leaves the Temple - ESV). God never wants to remove His glory. Rather, He was put into this position due to the blatant idolatry that existed among the nation of Israel. This is the last time that we see that the marvel, the beauty, and the brightness of God's glory had been seen in any dwelling place in the Old Testament. But thankfully, God is a covenant God because as we continue to read the book of Ezekiel, we take comfort in that God is not finished. What a joy to know that no matter what we have done, God is not finished with us yet. Such a remarkable testament to the faithfulness, grace, and the mercy of God. He isn't finished. Because Ezekiel shares this vision of the return of God's glory:
And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, (Ezekiel 43:3-7)
God's glory will return. The hope of Israel rests in this prophetic promise of God. As we reflect on the brief summation of our journey to understanding the glory of God, we see the silence in the rest of the OT concerning the glory of God, including the 400 years of silence between the OT and the NT. And then one night...the silence was broken.
His Glory Forever I'll Share (Part 6)
God's glory. His Presence. His Goodness. On the journey to Christmas...we come to Ezekiel. Exodus had shown us the glory of God. However, in Ezekiel, we see the glory of God slowly departing from Israel. In chapter 10, we see God's glory being removed from the Temple. If your Bible lists headings of the texts, you will likely find this heading leading into chapter 10 (The Glory of the Lord Leaves the Temple - ESV). God never wants to remove His glory. Rather, He was put into this position due to the blatant idolatry that existed among the nation of Israel. This is the last time that we see that the marvel, the beauty, and the brightness of God's glory had been seen in any dwelling place in the Old Testament. But thankfully, God is a covenant God because as we continue to read the book of Ezekiel, we take comfort in that God is not finished. What a joy to know that no matter what we have done, God is not finished with us yet. Such a remarkable testament to the faithfulness, grace, and the mercy of God. He isn't finished. Because Ezekiel shares this vision of the return of God's glory:
And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, (Ezekiel 43:3-7)
God's glory will return. The hope of Israel rests in this prophetic promise of God. As we reflect on the brief summation of our journey to understanding the glory of God, we see the silence in the rest of the OT concerning the glory of God, including the 400 years of silence between the OT and the NT. And then one night...the silence was broken.