And the glory of Jehovah departed from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
Fire has been scattered over Jerusalem, and now the glory of God lifts off the threshold of the temple and settles on the cherubim, ready to move. Why did God leave His own house, how did He go, and will He ever come back?
Verse 18 is the turn. The glory is on the move, and it is moving out.
In verse 18 we see a move of the gravest significance… There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
The glory stood in the doorway before it left the house. The cherubim are His throne, and that throne can move. The glory that once filled the house with blessing was now there for the opposite reason.
The Lord's glory had filled that house at first, for deepest blessing (see 2 Chron. 5:13-14). Now it filled the house for judgment… He leaves His throne, stands upon the threshold, and, so to say, superintends the judgment He has commanded. There is something intensely solemn in this. The cherubim and the crushing wheels of that throne could have carried it out easily. But no — the dishonoured Lord of that sadly defiled house stands on its very threshold. He Himself directs the judgment that would wipe out the house.
The glory does not vanish. It moves in slow stages: from the throne to the threshold, then back over the cherubim, then out to the mountain east of the city. The way He left matters as much as the fact that He left.
With slow and measured pace, the glory of the God of Israel took its departure from the house at Jerusalem. The Lord lingered near the spot, reluctant to depart. He had come with loving eagerness, with His whole heart and with His whole soul. He came to dwell among His people, to find a home in the very heart of His assembly. But their sins and wrongdoing forced Him away. He would gladly have stayed; but it was impossible; and yet He proved, by the very way He left, how unwilling He was to go.
Each pause left room for something that never came.
It shows how reluctantly the holy and gracious God was leaving the place where He lived. It is as though He were pleading with the people, asking if they would not yet give His holiness a place among them. Sadly, there is no response; and reluctantly He leaves the threshold and takes His place outside the temple. Still He lingers, and still there is no response, so He leaves the temple hill and goes over to the Mount of Olives. At last He departs, leaving them alone.
The building still stood. But one word now hung over it: "Ichabod," which means "the glory has departed."
When the glory of the Lord left the threshold of the house, "Ichabod" was written on that house where the God of Israel had recorded His name. How sad that the heart of man should forsake the fountain of living waters!
The loss was bigger than one building. God's throne on earth had stood in Jerusalem.
This present period is the period of the Gentiles. At its start, the throne of the Lord was taken away from Jerusalem… it departs from the house, and from the city. It is a remarkable fact that the glory of the Lord has left its earthly throne. But more: at the same time this earthly power passed from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, and government was entrusted to men. So we read in Daniel 2:36-38.
The glory leaves, but not forever.
The Lord of the temple was rejected; the house of Israel was given up; the glory was returning to heaven. When the judgments on Israel have turned them back to the Lord, the glory returns the same way it had departed. Compare Ezek. 43:1-4 and Zech. 14:1-9.
- Glory grieved. The sins of His people pushed God out of the house He had come to live in. He would gladly have stayed.
- Glory lingering. He left in stages, pausing at each one. He waited for a repentance that never came.
- Glory directing. He stood in the doorway and oversaw the judgment on the city Himself. He did not leave it to the cherubim and wheels.
- Glory gone. "Ichabod" now stood over the house. God's throne left the earth, and world government passed to the Gentiles.
- Glory returning. The road out becomes the road home. When judgment turns Israel back to the Lord, the glory returns the same way it left.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight, when they went out; and the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of Jehovah's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
God's presence had been seen inside the temple, above the ark, between the cherubim; here it stands outside the house, at the east gate. Why would God leave the one place on earth He had chosen, and does He mean to come back?
The cherubim here are not fixed in place. They carry a throne, and that throne is on the move.
Here we have in divine detail "the chariot of the cherubim," the chariot on which almighty Jehovah rides out in His government and judgment. Here the throne is in motion, passing with unstoppable majesty from place to place across His wide creation. Tied closely to this is the transfer of the throne from His temple to the chariot, and its removal from Jerusalem and the chosen people. The men trusted with the honour of that temple had defiled it.
This move is not God losing interest in the place. It answers what His people had done inside it. One writer adds that His choice of that place still stands, and that He will come back.
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. Jehovah is leaving the seat which He was pleased to choose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile He is morally driven away by the sins and the falling away of His own people. Ezekiel's prophecy says plainly that He will return and dwell there, never to leave His home again as long as the earth lasts.
God moves out in slow stages: from between the cherubim, to the threshold, and now out to the gate. One writer hears an appeal in that slowness.
It shows how unwillingly the holy and gracious God was leaving the place where He had made His home. It is as though He were pleading with the people, asking whether they would even now give His holiness a place among them. Sadly, there is no answer. He leaves the threshold and takes His place outside the temple. Still He lingers, and still there is no response, so that He leaves the temple hill and goes over to the Mount of Olives.
The pause at the gate is real, but it settles nothing. Kelly marks verse 18 as the turning point of the whole chapter and reads the halt for exactly what it is:
There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
The wheels never move on their own. Here they rise with the cherubim, and one writer reads that detail as a message about Israel.
It is God who is leaving His earthly home. Yet even as He leaves, everything takes on a greater clearness and a fuller glory. Notice once more how closely the wheels depend on the living creatures. As the cherubim rise, the wheels rise with them: they leave the earth. So as far as Israel is concerned, the sentence may be put off for a while, and we read that delay in this lingering over the east gate. Even so, we are shown that they are soon, as it were, to turn no more.
What follows this vision is not only Jerusalem's ruin but a rearrangement of world power. With the throne gone from the city, rule over the nations passes to Babylon.
At the beginning, or rather before the beginning of these four monarchies, the throne of God was on the earth at Jerusalem. In His temple, above the ark where the law was deposited, Jehovah showed His presence in a way that could be seen. But at the start of this present period, which is that of the Gentiles, the throne of Jehovah was taken away from Jerusalem. In chapter 1 the prophet had seen the glory of Jehovah near the river Chebar. In chapter 11 he sees it leave Jerusalem: it departs from the house, and from the city. It is a remarkable fact that the glory of Jehovah has left its earthly throne.
The east gate is not the last word. The same glory comes back, and by the same road.
When the visible glory of the Lord withdrew, His gracious presence left His people, and judgment followed. The return of the visible glory means His gracious presence comes back to them. It also means the judgment, which has lasted so long, is gone for ever. The glory left by the east gate, and it was last seen on the mountain on the east side of the city. The return is from the way of the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate.
- Cause. God did not lose interest in the place. He was "morally driven away" by what His people did inside His house.
- Reluctance. Innermost room, threshold, east gate, mountain — God leaves in slow stages, pleading for an answer that never comes.
- Consequence. The wheels rise with the cherubim and leave the ground. For Israel, the turning is about to stop.
- Handover. With God's throne gone from Jerusalem, the age of the Gentile nations begins, and His glory has left its earthly throne.
- Return. He leaves the seat He chose, but He has chosen it for ever. The glory that went out by the east gate comes back in by the east gate.