Gluten Free & God Seeking: Looking at the Spiritual Meanings in Ezekiel's Visions - The Vision of the Return of God's Glory to His House in Ezekiel 43

Monday, November 11, 2019

Looking at the Spiritual Meanings in Ezekiel's Visions - The Vision of the Return of God's Glory to His House in Ezekiel 43 - Part 1 of 2

What is God's glory? That might sound a bit nebulous like air that you can't see, so hard to define. But when you read a verse on God's glory like this one in Matthew 6 you get that it's pretty important: The last half of verse 13 says, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." But still what is God's glory all about?

     In my reading through the Life-Study of Ezekiel, I came upon chapter 24 which is entitled The Return of God's Glory to the House, and it opened up by sharing different verses about how Ezekiel had seen God's glory gradually leave. But then years later when he was about 50, he saw God's glory return.

    In order to write about this, I decided it would help to give some background on God's glory, and so this is going to be a more scholarly post. I enjoy research as it reminds me of my English literature classes, and so I enjoyed looking up verses and footnotes in my Recovery Version of the Bible as well as reading out of the Life-Study.

     We're going to start way back in Genesis which showcases the lives of eight great men of God--Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. I learned in chapter 24 of the 1932-1949 volume of The Collected Works of Witness Lee that each of them was an outlet for God's glory to reach the earth. That was eye-opening to me!!

     Then he says that by the time you come to the opening pages of Exodus, Jacob's children are now about two million people (based on the records in Numbers and adding for women and children) and in captivity in Egypt. At that time no other people on earth except the Israelites worshipped the One true God who created the heavens and the earth. They were His collective outlet on earth so that God could establish His kingdom. Isn't that an amazing view of Israel's history?!

Once all these delivered Israelites were at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19, God was able to share His heart's desire for them to be His people and later give instructions for building a dwelling place so God could have a place to reign on the earth and express His glory!! That's a lot more impressive than just having Abraham as His testimony on earth in Genesis 18.

And about a year later (Exo. 40:17) when the tabernacle was finished, the Israelites watched in awe as the glory of God settled down upon it and filled it. On page 330 of the CWWL 1932-1949 he says that this is the first mention of glory in the Bible.

Exodus 40:34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.

My footnote on this verse says:

"Glory is God's expression, God Himself expressed. The cloud covering the Tent of Meeting was the outer part, the outer covering of God's glory. Those who gathered around the Tent of Meeting could see the cloud, whereas the high priest who eventually entered into the Holy of Holies (Lev. 16:15; Heb. 9:7) in the tabernacle could see the inward glory of the tabernacle..." (Holy Bible, Recovery Version. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2003, Print).

Surely having God's glory in their camp was a huge blessing to the children of Israel. The footnote on verse 36 says that during all their 40-year journey in the wilderness, God's presence was like a wall of protection to them and guided them safely to the land of Canaan. I realized from reading all of this that God's glory with His people made them unlike any of the other nations. In the next post you'll see some of the glitches along the way in Israel's roller coaster history.

Other posts on the Major Prophets

Life-Study of Isaiah:

You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Isaiah on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. You can also read the online Life-Studies of Isaiah and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

How Can the Son in Isaiah 7:14 & 9:6 Be the Mighty God?
Seeing Christ as the Great Light in Isaiah 9:2
Why is Christ Called the Cornerstone in Isaiah 28:26?
Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Crucifixion Foretold - Part 1

Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Resurrection &Ascension Foretold - Part 2 of 2

Life-Study of Jeremiah & Lamentations: