GONE IS THE GLORY

“The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stood on the mountain east of the city.” (Ezekiel 11:23 HCSB)

The glory of God is the outshining of His majesty. It is the visible expression of God’s presence among His people in brilliant light. God’s glory was manifested over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

But, in Ezekiel chapters nine through twelve, we see that the nation gets what they wanted and that the consequences of what they wanted is what they deserved—the glory of God departs.

They did not want God. They had abandoned Him for other lovers—their idols. So, God gives them what they want; He walks away. That will result in unspeakable horror. When the enemy comes, their lifeless idols will have no power to protect them. That day was coming—fast.

The glory is gradually withdrawn. We see God’s glorious Presence moving from the Holy of Holies to the temple door, “Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherub where it had been, to the threshold of the temple.” (Ezekiel 9:3a) Then, the glory cloud travels to the Eastern Gate, “Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stood above the cherubim. The cherubim lifted their wings and ascended from the earth right before my eyes; the wheels were beside them as they went. The glory of the God of Israel was above them, and it stood at the entrance to the eastern gate of the Lord's house.” (10:18-19) Finally, the glory removes to the Mount of Olives, “The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stood on the mountain east of the city.” (11:23)

Gone is the glory!

One cannot help but think of Jesus in His last week in Jerusalem—He who was the incarnation of the glory of God (John 1:14). He goes into a Temple that has become a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer. Driving the moneychangers out, He departs, not to enter it again. He is not welcome. He eventually withdraws to a room with His disciples, and after instituting the Lord’s Supper, goes outside the walls of Jerusalem, to Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. The nation has again rejected God’s glory—this time not manifested in a cloud, but in the Christ. From that mountain, the glorified Christ would ascend.

In grace and mercy, the long-suffering God revealed His glory once more—in the body of Christ, the church. He sent another witness at Pentecost. God manifested Himself to and through His people—we became a glorious temple where He resides—our heart a Holy of Holies! As the light of God’s glory shone from Sinai and inhabited the tabernacle and temple, as Christ, the Light of the World, blazed into the darkness of this world in the days of His flesh, then and today we who are His followers are the light of the world disclosing the glory of God to the nations!

The Father came in glory—and He was rejected and withdrew. He sent His Son, and Christ was rejected and departed. He sent His Spirit and He is being rejected and He could be withdrawn very, very soon!

Now, I understand that God is omnipresent and eternal. There has never been a time when He was not and never will be a time when He will not be. He is everywhere. But, as to the exhibition of His glorious presence and the experience of it—the state of blessedness that comes from His abiding—that can be removed!

What is hell, but the absence of God? Can an omnipresent God have a place where He is not? Yes—and no. Omnipresence is just that, but the blessings that come from that presence can be withdrawn—as God hides Himself, as it were. No grace, no mercy, no love, no light, no joy, no relief—that is hell. It isn’t God absent from a location so much as it is the absence of a relationship with Him.

Hell broke loose in Jerusalem when the glory of God departed. Just read the horror unleashed as described in these chapters. Centuries later, Jesus warned with tears those who dwelt in that same city, of such awful agony coming to them, if they rejected Him. They nailed Him to a tree. In AD 70, Titus and the Roman legions ravaged Jerusalem as Jesus had warned. Now, the Holy Spirit is being rejected and the consequences will be even more severe—and global.

When the church is raptured, the special relationship of the Holy Spirit and His witness through His Body the church will be gone. The glory will once more be departed. All you have to do is read in Revelation 6-19 the dreadful doom that will descend. During the Tribulation Period—those seven years of terrible trial—will God be absent, will the name of Jesus no longer save, and will the Holy Spirit no more convert? Of course, God is present and active and thus a great blood-washed multitude will come to faith. Yet, the special blessedness of God’s witness through the church will no more be there—our light and salt will be taken away.

When the glory is gone, it is the most dreadful thing! Man chooses to live without God, and God says, “Fine. If that is what you want, you may have it.” The world degenerates into bedlam and madness, violence, brutality and perversion. Even nature itself is in upheaval as if to vomit the nauseating population of the godless from the surface of planet earth.

Yet, in the midst of all this darkness, a ray of light shines—the promise of the glory restored!

"Therefore say: This is what the Lord God says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.

Therefore say: This is what the Lord God says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

When they arrive there, they will remove all its detestable things and practices from it. And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for detestable things and practices, I will bring their actions down on their own heads." [This is] the declaration of the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 11:16-21)

This had a limited fulfillment in the exiles who would return to the land from Babylon. But, those historic events by no means exhaust this promise. Instead, its ultimate realization awaits the end times, when God will restore the glory to Israel. The nation will be reborn out of that time of fiery trial and Christ will return in power and glory!

So, we pray:

“Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matt.6:10, 13b)

Bring back the glory!