And he brought me unto the gate, the gate which looked toward the east.
Ezekiel had already watched God's glory leave the temple. Now his guide brings him to one gate — the gate facing east. What happens there answers the sorrow of everything before it.
The direction matters. One writer lines up the road out with the road back:
The glory left through the east gate. Its last appearance was on the mountain on the east side of the city. The return comes from the way of the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate.
Another writer names the road the glory took when it left this world:
If the glory left this world by way of Bethany and the Mount of Olives, then it will return by the same way. It will come in through the East Gate of the court of the Temple, and through the door of the Temple. Once more the cloud of glory will be at the centre of Israel. God will be upon the throne and Christ is the One Who will bring it all about.
The glory that comes back is the same glory that went away. One writer sets out what its leaving meant, and what its return means:
The same glory that left is the glory that returns. It is the same Lord, and He takes up His relationship with His earthly people again. When the visible glory of the Lord withdrew, His gracious presence left His people, and judgment followed. When the visible glory returns, His gracious presence returns among them, and the judgment that has lasted so long is gone for ever.
Ezekiel does not wander to this gate. His guide has been measuring the whole house, and that measuring carries its own message:
It suggests God's care and interest; everything that touches His purposes and promises matters. It may well also mean that God has risen up to take possession — He is asserting His title. Every false claim is set aside, everything wrongly seized is taken away, and all will be established by the measure of truth and righteousness.
At this gate the vision changes:
A far greater and more majestic sight now opens for the prophet. The Shechinah of Jehovah shows itself, returning to dwell among His people.
("Shechinah" is the visible glory of God's presence.)
One writer rules out two obvious candidates — the return from Babylon and the first coming of Christ:
It is the sign of God's return to Israel, whom He had left ever since the Jews were carried off to Babylon. But the return from Babylon in no way satisfies the prophecy. Neither does the mission of the Messiah… When the glory left, the Jews stopped being the recognised people of Jehovah. When God takes them up again under Messiah and the new covenant, the glory comes back. No mistake can be greater than the idea that this vision applies to the first coming of Christ in humiliation, when the Jews rejected and crucified Him.
Afterwards that gate stays shut:
So the shutting of the East Gate marks out the majesty and distinctive glory of Jehovah. That is the gate He entered His House by, and no one may go in or out by it.
And the promise that follows sets no end date:
The prophet also learns that this restored presence of Jehovah will not be temporary. It will last for ever: "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 for ever; and the house of Israel shall no more defile My holy name" (v. 7).
- The gate remembers. The glory went out by the east and comes back by the east — God returns by the road He left on.
- The gate restores. Its departure meant judgment. Its return brings back His gracious presence, and the long judgment is over for good.
- The gate is measured. The man with the measuring reed leads him there — God taking possession and asserting His title.
- The gate waits. The return from Babylon did not fulfil this, and neither did Christ's first coming. It belongs to His return to reign.
- The gate is shut. Once He has entered, no one else uses it — the sign of a presence that will dwell among His people for ever.
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like the voice of many waters; and the earth was lit up with his glory.
The east gate had been the exit door. Ezekiel had already watched God's glory leave the temple and the city. Now he sees it come back by the same road, with a voice like rushing water and light spilling over the earth.
The direction matters. Ezekiel stands at the east gate — the gate the glory left by.
The prophet has now seen the house and its holy areas in full. He is called to see the one thing that gives the whole its character — the entrance of the divine glory. He is brought to the east gate. In his earlier visions he had seen the glory of God leave the defiled temple by the east gate. It then took its stand on the mountain east of the city — the Mount of Olives (Ezek. 11:22-25). He who is the perfect and eternal embodiment of everything this vision of glory pictures also left the house of His day desolate. As He sat on the Mount of Olives, looking over the rejected city, He unfolded the course of future events. They run up to the day when He shall stand on that same mount on the east, bringing the glorious dawn of that day.
The verse names Him "the God of Israel." One writer says what that name will mean when the glory comes back.
Along the path it left by, the glory now returns to fill the house. It is "the glory of the God of Israel… and the glory of the LORD." Then all that those Names mean will be fully accomplished — Israel one nation, newly born in fellowship with the Eternal, under the new covenant, and in the power and blessing of the outpoured Spirit.
Commentators have read this chapter in several ways. One writer rules out two easy answers — the Jews' return from exile in Babylon, and Jesus' first coming.
It is the sign of God's return to Israel, whom He had left ever since the Jews were carried off to Babylon. But the return from Babylon in no way satisfies the prophecy. Neither does the mission of the Messiah… No mistake can be greater than the idea that this vision applies to the first coming of Christ in humiliation, when the Jews rejected and crucified Him. The prophecy needs us to believe that the glory will really be restored. It was not restored when the Jews returned by Cyrus' proclamation, any more than when the Lord Jesus was here. It will be, when He returns to reign.
The word can sound vague. One writer defines it, and names the other houses God has filled.
But what makes up the "glory"? It is the Lord's own presence. The cloud was the sign of it, both in the tabernacle and in Solomon's temple. But in the temple of the returned captives, faith alone grasps this presence, this glory. The same is true in the assembly of the saints gathered to the name of Christ. For the glory of the Lord is the display of what He is — the sum and excellence of all His attributes — whether seen with the eye or by faith. And so He fills His house with the showing of all the perfections of His own spiritual being.
The sound is not just volume. One writer says what that voice signals.
"His voice as the voice of many waters" (compare Ezek. 43:2). The grandeur, the majesty of His voice is beyond the endless roar of many waterfalls… That voice is the declared sign of His supreme sovereignty and majesty — over all the waves of human passion, and over the circumstances of a wrecked world and a ruined Church.
The earth lit up is more than scenery. One writer measures the change by setting this day beside Eden.
Long ago the cherubim stood at the closed Garden of Eden, and looked out on a cursed earth and a fallen race. But in the day of Ezekiel's vision they will carry the divine glory into its resting place on earth (v. 7). Then they will look out on an earth where the joyful song of deliverance rises from every part, every note blending and uniting in one universal Hallelujah.
The vision does not stop at a visit. It ends with a permanent address.
After watching the glory's various movements, Ezekiel saw its return to the earthly capital for blessing. "The earth shone with His glory" (43:2). And the glory of the Lord filled the house of God at Jerusalem. The name of the city from that day is JEHOVAH SHAMMAH — THE LORD IS THERE (48:35).
- Same door. The glory returns by the east gate it left by. God comes back the way He went out.
- Same delay. One writer rules out both the return from Babylon and Christ's first coming. The glory waits for His return to reign.
- Same presence. The glory is the Lord Himself on display — all His perfections filling His house. Once it was seen in cloud; now faith grasps it.
- Same voice. Like many waters: sovereign majesty above all the noise of human passion and a wrecked world.
- Same earth. Cherubim once looked out from a closed Garden on a cursed earth. Now they carry the glory to a world that sings one Hallelujah — in a city named The Lord is there.
And the appearance of the vision that I saw was according to the vision that I had seen when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar and I fell upon my face.
Ezekiel had seen this glory twice before: once by the river Chebar, and once as it left the temple before the city fell. Now he says the sight is the same one again — and he drops to the ground.
The verse points back to two earlier sights: the first chapter of the book, and the slow departure of God's glory that followed.
We must notice here especially that the vision the prophet saw was "according to the appearance of the vision" he saw before the destruction of the city. "The visions were like the visions" which he saw "by the river Chebar." This points back to the first chapter, when the heavens were first opened to Ezekiel the priest by the river Chebar, and he saw visions of God… Then he had witnessed the gradual and solemn departure of the glory of the LORD (10:18-19; 11:23).
The One who left is the One who comes back — and by the same gate.
The same glory that departed is the glory that returns. The same Lord takes up relationship again with His earthly people. When the visible glory of the Lord withdrew, His gracious presence left His people, and judgment followed. When the visible glory returns, His gracious presence returns with it, and the judgment that has lasted so long is gone forever. The glory left through the east gate, and was last seen on the mountain at the east side of the city. It returns from the way of the east, and enters through the east gate.
Older translations read the middle clause as "when I came to destroy the city." The ESV has "when he came." Either way, the glory now entering is the glory that once came to destroy. That tells us whose future this chapter describes.
Both times these living creatures appeared before, God was acting in judgment. Both times He appeared at the temple in Jerusalem… Ezekiel saw the glory leave the temple and city before Gentile rule began. Later, in the prophecy of the Messiah's reign and the restoration of Jerusalem, that same glory returns and takes its home in the rebuilt temple — "even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city" (Ezek. 43:3). So this vision reveals God's ways for Israel and the coming age — not for the Church or the present time.
Why does Ezekiel fall? One writer sets his collapse beside Isaiah's cry, as what God's glory does to a man who has no ground of his own.
The glory of God carried terror, conviction and self-judgment into the heart of a real prophet of God (Isaiah 6:5). It is as if Isaiah said: prophet and people are both exposed before Him, and I have no ground to stand on… The same happens with Ezekiel, as he tells us in chapter 1 of his prophecy. There is no sense of a title at all. He falls down on his face; he cannot stand; there is no place for him to stand on. His falling on his face expresses his moral condition.
Has this already happened? The two obvious candidates are the return from exile and the first coming of Christ.
It is the sign of God's return to Israel. He had left them ever since Babylon carried the Jews away. But the return from Babylon in no way satisfies the prophecy; nor even the mission of the Messiah… The prophecy requires us to believe that the glory will really be restored. It was not restored when the Jews returned by Cyrus' proclamation, or when the Lord Jesus was here. It will be when He returns to reign.
Once the glory fills the house, God speaks. His first word is about staying.
He speaks first of rest, and that forever, among His redeemed earthly people. What He had said to Solomon after the dedication of the first house came true in Israel's long history of shameful departure, scattering and judgment. Yet what He declared then was also true: His eyes and His heart were always on that house, the place of the soles of His feet. The returning Glory proves that He stays faithful.
- Same glory. Ezekiel sees no new vision. It is the old one — Chebar, and the departure — coming back through the gate it left by.
- Same God, new errand. The glory that once came to destroy the city now comes to fill a house. Its going meant judgment; its return means judgment is over.
- Same posture. Face to the ground is what glory does to a man; the prophet has no footing of his own, and says so with his body.
- Not yet. The return from Babylon did not restore this glory. Neither did Christ's first coming. It waits for His return to reign.
- Faithfulness proved. Israel's story was departure and scattering. Yet the returning glory proves God's heart never left that place.