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

During the time of Samuel, even the priesthood had become degraded. God couldn't even speak to Eli the high priest, He only spoke to Samuel who was just a child at the time. Things were so upside down, the Israelites even took the ark of God with them into a battle with the Philistines. What were they thinking?!

     And we know from 1 Samuel 4 that God let it be captured because of how far the Israelites had fallen away from God. When Eli heard that the ark was captured, he fell off a rock wall and died (1 Sam 4:18). Also, when his daughter-in-law heard the news of her husband's death and the ark's capture, she went into labor.

   And as she was dying, she named her child Ichabod which means no glory (1 Sam 4:19-22). From that time until the ark's return, God's glory left Israel. This means that God had no expression on earth.  And that was a big deal.

     Listening to the dialog between King David and Nathan in 2 Samuel 7 is quite touching. David's heart mirrored God's own heart's desire to have a dwelling place on earth for His glory to dwell. We know from the Bible that after Solomon built and dedicated the temple, God's glory filled it:

And the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God. 2 Chronicles 5:14

Not long after this dedication God speaks a sobering word to Solomon that's recorded in 1 Kings 9:6-7. He warns them that if they worship others gods, he would cut them off from the land of Canaan. As the Bible sadly recounts, the idolatry of the surrounding nations gradually ensnared many of the Israelites. Again, what were they thinking?!

Finally things got so bad, God gave up on His people. God allowed the northern kingdom to be taken captive by the Assyrians, and later the Babylonians took the southern kingdom. After Nebuchadnezzar laid a siege on Jerusalem, he destroyed the temple and burnt the city's walls. I learned from the Life-Study of Jeremiah that the prophet Jeremiah wept when he saw this happen, and surely he was saddened when he realized that God had again lost the place for His glory. What a tragedy!

This now bring us up to where I'm reading in chapter 24 of the Life-Study of Ezekiel. In the opening of this chapter, Witness Lee goes over verses recorded earlier in Ezekiel that show the gradual departure of God's glory from His people. The first step is recorded in

Ezekiel 9:3 "And the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the house...." Then in 11:23 Ezekiel sees God's glory gradually leave Jerusalem before returning to heaven--"And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is east of the city."

Then later in Ezekiel's life when he was 50 years old and seeing the vision of the man measuring the temple, he saw the glory returning through the east gate!! This is recorded in Ezekiel 43:2, 4 "And the glory of the God of Israel was there, coming from the way of the east, ....And the glory of the Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east," I enjoyed reading this chapter a lot, and here's some excerpts from pages 275-276 in chapter 24 of the Life-Study of Ezekiel that explain why the glory returned:

"We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the glory of God returned only after the building of the temple was completed....God wants to have the church built up on earth because He desires to have a dwelling place on earth. He, the God of the heavens, wants to live on the earth. The place where He lives, His dwelling place is the church....Our main burden in this study of Ezekiel is to see the dwelling place which God desires to have on earth. If we have the grace to be built up in the church, the God of glory will live among us" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Ezekiel. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry. 1998, Print).

By doing this word study on glory relating to the tabernacle and temple, I saw in a whole new way that God needs a place for His glory to dwell so He can reign on the earth not only in the heavens!!! And this verse in this chapter means a lot more to me now:

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 children of Israel forever....Ezekiel 43:7a

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: