And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
The closing scene of Ezekiel's vision is a departure: the living creatures raise their wings, the wheels move with them, and the visible glory of Israel's God rises away from the temple and the city. Two questions press on the reader — why would God leave the house He chose, and having left, will He ever come back?
The cherubim and wheels are not decoration. One writer explains what they teach about the way God governs:
It is the exact opposite of circumstances left to blind chance. Whatever the revolutions or changes among men, God guides it all deliberately, in the places where you would least expect it. Below the expanse, the instruments of His providential rule were in full agreement with what was above. Over this was the likeness of a throne. And above all was the likeness of a man carrying out judgment, though with the unfailing pledge of mercy to an evil world.
So when the wings lift here, God's own throne is on the move. The glory stays above it, directing everything that follows.
The glory leaves behind a building without its occupant. The Babylonian army will soon arrive, but the real loss has already happened:
The temple is empty; the glory has departed from it! In vain the golden cherubim stretched out their wings over a forsaken mercy-seat and over a broken law. He who filled that throne of glory a short time ago had left it. Nebuchadnezzar could take the temple the way a man takes possession of a corpse.
The glory does not vanish in a moment. It leaves slowly, and one writer hears sorrow in that slowness:
The glory shows itself graciously reluctant to leave its ancient home... The time had come for it to leave Jerusalem, and it feels the sorrow of such a moment. It moves back and forth between the threshold of the house and the wings of the cherubim. The threshold still connected it with the temple; the wings were waiting to carry it away... The holiness, which had to depart, could not cool the love which would gladly have stayed if it could.
The contrast with how God arrived makes the point sharper still:
The contrast is striking. The glory left slowly, but it entered swiftly on the day Solomon dedicated the house, in 2 Chronicles 7:1. The Lord was quick to enter His home among His people, and slow to leave it. The sins and hopeless stubbornness of His deluded people forced Him away, to speak as men speak.
Later the exiles came home and rebuilt. What did they get back, and what was gone for good?
They return under Gentile rule, to build up their temple and city again. But they cannot bring back what they have lost — that glorious Presence among them which was the distinctive mark of their national greatness. The glory of God never returned; Ezekiel had seen it leave its place among them for good (Ezek. 11:22-23). There was no ark of the covenant, and so no mercy-seat to receive the peace-making blood on the day of atonement. There was no Urim and Thummim, the usual means of consulting God.
From this point the government of the world passes to others. Jerusalem stopped being the place of the Lord's throne, and "universal supremacy was given to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and first great head of the Gentiles." One writer calls this the start of the times of the Gentiles (W. Trotter).
The glory stops on the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem. One writer sees a promise in where it halts:
Then there is a further removal of the divine glory, not from the temple only but from Jerusalem... The curtain drops over the glory when it reaches Olivet, until we hear of its reappearance in the last chapters for the latter day. Compare also Zechariah 14:4 with Acts 1:9-12.
Ezekiel also records the return. The glory comes back into the house by the east gate, and God calls it "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" (James L Harris).
- Throne, not chance. The wings and wheels carry God's government. He leaves nothing to chance — not even judgment on His own city.
- Glory gone. Babylon destroyed an empty shell. The golden cherubim still spread their wings over a mercy-seat God had left.
- Slow exit. He entered swiftly in Solomon's day and left step by step. The pace shows how unwilling He was to leave.
- Lasting loss. Those who came home rebuilt the temple and city. They never got back the Presence, the ark or the Urim and Thummim, and the times of the Gentiles began.
- Olivet. The glory halts on the eastern mountain, the same hill tied to His return. The vision ends in a pause, not a goodbye.
And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.
This is the lowest point in Ezekiel's vision of judgment: God's presence lifts off the city and settles on the hill to the east. Two questions shape the rest of the book: why did God leave so slowly, and would the glory ever return?
The verse is the last step in a movement that began chapters earlier. One writer traces the whole path and notes how unhurried it is:
The prophet sees the glory of God move out from between the cherubim. It stands over the threshold of the temple door (Ezek. 10:4). 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. Reluctantly He leaves the threshold and takes His place outside the temple (Ezek. 10:18-19). Still He lingers, and still there is no response, so He leaves the temple hill and goes over to the Mount of Olives (Ezek. 11:22-23). At last He departs, leaving them alone. His people then are carried into captivity, and the temple lies in ruins.
The slow pace is not indecision. It is sorrow, and it decides where the glory will go next:
The glory shows itself most graciously reluctant to leave its ancient home. We learn this from the early chapters of Ezekiel. There the glory moves in uneasy, restless action, if I may put it that way. The time had come for it to leave Jerusalem, and it feels the sorrow of such a moment... The holiness that had to depart could not cool the love that would gladly have stayed, if it could... The glory will not look for any other place on the earth. It had chosen Zion for its rest; and if its rest there is disturbed, it will leave the earth. It will be faithful to Israel, even though Israel grieves it and sends it away.
The verse does not name the mountain. One writer names it Olivet, and marks how long the glory then stays out of sight:
Then there is a further removal of the divine glory, not from the temple only but from Jerusalem. It went up from the middle of the city and stood on Mount Olivet... The curtain drops over the Shechinah when it reaches Olivet. We do not hear of its reappearance until the last chapters, for the latter day. Compare also Zech. 14:4 with Acts 1:9-12.
"Shechinah" is the older term for the visible cloud of God's presence.
That hill appears again in the New Testament. Acts and Zechariah both tie it to Christ:
It is said in Acts 1 that Jesus "will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven," that is, on the Mount of Olives. Compare Ezekiel 11:23. "On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives," says the Holy Spirit in Zechariah 14:4 — "His feet," the feet of Jehovah. Though He was indeed the man of sorrows, Jesus is Jehovah, and has been so from eternity.
The departure was not only a loss for Jerusalem. It reset how God governs the world:
...saw in vision the glory of the Lord depart, first "from off the threshold of the house" (Ezek. 10:18), and then "from the midst of the city" (Ezek. 11:23). The symbol of the divine presence had never left them since their redemption out of Egypt, except for a short season in Samuel's day. Now it departed entirely, and Jerusalem stopped being the place of Jehovah's throne. God set aside the whole order of things that depended on His dwelling at Jerusalem. He gave universal supremacy to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the first great head of the Gentiles. It was with him that "the times of the Gentiles" began.
Ezekiel does not end with an empty city. The same book that records the exit records the entrance:
In the earlier part of Ezekiel, the prophet sees in a vision the glory of Jehovah leave the house of Jehovah and the city (see Ezek. 10:18-19; Ezek. 11:23). At the close he sees the house built to the divine pattern, and the glory filling the house (Ezek. 43:1-5). Living waters stream from the sanctuary, and even the waters of the Dead Sea are healed... In a scene ordered by the Lord Himself, He can take His place among His people. Their city is His city, and it can be called "The Lord is there" (Ezek. 48:35).
- Reluctance — The glory leaves the cherubim, then the threshold, then the city, and halts on the hill. Every stage is a pause, and every pause is an appeal.
- Refusal — The people give no answer, so holiness must go. But love looks for no other home on earth.
- Removal — The throne leaves Jerusalem. World rule passes to Nebuchadnezzar, and the times of the Gentiles begin.
- Rendezvous — The glory halts on Olivet, the same hill Jesus left from, and the same hill His feet will touch again.
- Return — The same book records the glory coming back to fill the house, and the city given a new name: "The Lord is there."