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."
And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity; and the vision that I had seen went up from me.
In vision, Ezekiel has watched Jerusalem's sin exposed and the glory of God leave the city for the mountain to its east. Now the same Spirit carries him home to the exiles in Babylon, which raises three questions: did he really travel, why among captives, and what happens when the vision lifts?
The journey was real, but Ezekiel's feet never moved. One writer sets it beside John's words in Revelation, where the Spirit carries John from place to place.
The prophet began to see these "visions of God" when among the captives by the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans (Ezek. 1:1-3). He says that in these visions God "brought me to the land of Israel" — that is, he was there in spirit only. The apostle John speaks the same way in Revelation. He writes, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." He writes again, "he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness," and, "he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain" (Rev. 1:10; Rev. 17:3; Rev. 21:10). So we may say that it was the power of the Spirit of God that brought Ezekiel from the land of the Chaldeans to the land of Israel (Ezek. 40:2).
All through the vision, Ezekiel's body stayed where it was. He sat in his own house, with the elders in front of him, waiting to hear what he had seen.
The Spirit brought the prophet back, though all the while he was in his own home, with the elders in front of him in body. He describes the terrible scenes he was given to see. What comfort for the captives!
The Spirit does not leave the prophet in Jerusalem. He sets him down among the exiles, and that says something about where God Himself now stands.
God is with those in captivity, not with the house, and so He has withdrawn to His sovereign place on the Throne. He treats them as rebellious there, and He visits Jerusalem now in judgment. He acts on it from outside.
The vision lifts from Ezekiel just as the glory settles on the hill east of Jerusalem. One writer sees in that moment Jerusalem set aside, and a promise held out with the judgment.
Jerusalem is indeed set aside. The Lord sends out a remnant, taking up His Galilean place again in resurrection — the beautiful pledge of His return despite His present rejection. The curtain drops over the glory when it reaches Olivet, until we hear of its reappearance in the last chapters, in the coming day. Compare also Zech. 14:4 with Acts 1:9-12.
That hill is the Mount of Olives. Another writer traces what later happened there.
It reminds us of how the Lord Himself left the same city from the same place! Refused by the world, and risen from the dead, He went up at last to heaven from the Mount of Olives, in the sight of His disciples. The angels foretell His return, as Zechariah had foretold it long before. Meanwhile God's earthly city waits too, alone like a widow — but what a different waiting it is!
When the vision lifts, Ezekiel speaks. The elders had waited in silence while their prophet saw what they could not see, and now their waiting ends.
The city's captivity has gone on unbroken ever since, and it is to the men in captivity that the prophet now returns. In principle, the story has now been fully told, though many important details are still to follow. What a word for the elders, who had waited all this time to hear the result of this prophetic vision: "I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me."
- Carried. The Spirit moved Ezekiel, not his feet. He was there in spirit only, as John was later carried away in Revelation.
- Stationed. His body never left his house. The elders sat in front of him the whole time, waiting to hear what he had seen.
- Placed. The Spirit sets him down among the exiles in Chaldea, because God Himself "is with those in captivity, not with the house." He deals with Jerusalem now from outside.
- Closed. The vision goes up from him just as the glory settles on Olivet. The curtain drops there, and does not rise again until the book's closing chapters.
- Spoken. The vision ends in testimony. Ezekiel told the exiles everything the Lord had shown him, so what God gave one man became comfort for a whole scattered people.
And I spoke unto them of the captivity all the things that Jehovah had shewn me.
In a vision, the Spirit carried Ezekiel from his house among the exiles to Jerusalem, where he saw God judge the city's leaders and watched the glory of God leave. Verse 25 closes that vision with a simple act: the prophet comes back and tells the exiles everything he saw.
The vision ends where it started — among the deported Jews by the river Chebar. One writer traces the movement and notices who is left waiting at the other end of it:
It is to the people of the captivity that the prophet now returns. "And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me." The main story has now been told, though many important details may still follow. What a word for the elders, who had been waiting all this time to hear the result of this vision!
Nothing physical moved. The whole journey to Jerusalem happened in the Spirit while Ezekiel sat in his own house with the elders of Judah in front of him — and it is precisely that report which becomes their comfort:
The prophet is brought back in Spirit, though the whole time his body is in his own home, with the elders in front of him. He now describes the terrible scenes God gave him to see. What comfort for the captives!
Why those elders were sitting there is never explained. Who they were still matters:
The presence of the elders of Judah keeps what follows from being a private, personal message. Nothing is said about why they were there, so that makes no difference at all. The elders are clearly the rulers of Judah. They were the men who should have upheld justice according to God. Instead, God now made them witnesses of the judgment coming from Him, in place of the justice they had failed to carry out.
What he told them covered both halves of the chapter — judgment and promise:
In Ezekiel 11 God judges the wicked leaders, who comforted themselves with the thought that the city could never be taken. They would be brought out of it and judged at the border of Israel. In reply, God makes a difference between those in Jerusalem and the captives. As for the captives, God had been a sanctuary to them wherever they were. He would restore them, and give them back the land. He would purify them, and give them a new heart. They would be His people, and He would be their God.
The exiles looked like the losers, and the men left in Jerusalem looked secure. One writer draws the lasting lesson:
Those who boast in age and order and succession and rule, as if these belonged to their family line and to no one else, are only ripening for God's judgment. Meanwhile the most run-down and despised people are the ones who hold the truth and the blessing, in humbling and weak circumstances. So Jehovah promised here to be a little sanctuary to the scattered Jews in the countries where they had come.
Before the Spirit brought him back, Ezekiel watched the glory of God leave the city and stop on the hill to its east:
The glory of Jehovah then leaves the city and stands on the Mount of Olives — the hill Jesus went up to heaven from, and the hill He will come down to again for Israel's glory. This part of the prophecy ends here.
Another writer sees the vision paused there, not finished:
It reminds us of Matthew 28, where the risen Jesus is seen on a mountain in Galilee, sending His disciples out to all the nations, without a word about His going up to heaven. Jerusalem is left aside indeed. A remnant is sent out by the Lord, who takes His Galilean place again in resurrection — a beautiful pledge of His return despite His present rejection. The curtain drops over the glory when it reaches the Mount of Olives, until we hear of it appearing again in the last chapters, for the final days.
- Carried — the Spirit took Ezekiel to Jerusalem and brought him back again. His body never left his house, where the elders of Judah sat in front of him.
- Witnessed — those elders should have upheld God's justice and did not. So God made them hear the judgment that came instead.
- Told — Ezekiel held nothing back: judgment for the confident leaders in the city, promise for the scattered.
- Comforted — God promised the despised exiles that He Himself was their sanctuary wherever they went. A new heart and the land would follow.
- Suspended — the glory stopped on the Mount of Olives. The curtain falls there until the last chapters bring it back.