And the glory of Jehovah came into the house by the way of the gate whose front was toward the east.
Ezekiel had watched the glory of God leave the temple before Jerusalem fell. Now, in a vision of a future house, he sees it come back by the east gate — the very door it went out through. (Writers below quote an older translation, which says "the house" where the ESV says "the temple.")
The way the glory comes in matters. It retraces the path of its own departure, over a hill east of the city.
The prophet has seen the house and its holy area as a whole. Now he must see the one thing that gives it all 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 way of the east gate. It took its stand on the mountain east of the city — the Mount of Olives (Ezek. 11:22-25). The One who perfectly and eternally embodies all that this vision of glory sets out in symbol 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 down to the day when He will stand on that same mount on the east.
God filling His house is a pattern, not a one-off. But what is this glory?
God has always filled His house with glory. He did so in the tabernacle set up in the wilderness (Ex. 40), the temple in the kingdom (2 Chr. 5:14), the church at Pentecost (Acts 2); and the last house to be raised on earth will be no exception. But what makes up the "glory"? It is the Lord's own presence — the sign of which was the cloud, both in the tabernacle and in Solomon's temple... For the glory of the Lord is the display of what He is, of the sum and excellence of all His attributes — whether seen outwardly or by faith.
Commentators are firm that no past event has matched this.
It is the sign of God's return to Israel, whom He had left ever since the Jews were carried to Babylon. But the return from Babylon in no way satisfies the prophecy; nor even the mission of the Messiah... Some hold that this vision applies to the first coming of Christ in humiliation, when the Jews rejected and crucified Him. No mistake could be greater. The prophecy calls us to believe that the glory will really be restored. It was not restored when the Jews came back by Cyrus' proclamation, nor when the Lord Jesus was here. It will be restored when He returns to reign.
This entrance leaves a permanent mark on the gate itself.
The prophet is again brought back to the gate that looks toward the east. This time it was shut. When he saw it before, the glory of Jehovah came by this very way into the house, and filled it... "This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened, and no one shall go in by it. Jehovah, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, so it shall be shut."
The glory left once. This entrance has no matching exit.
From that time to the present God has never dwelt in His house at Jerusalem. It was His house when rebuilt. The Lord acknowledged it as such, and honoured it with His presence as God's house when He entered the doomed city and temple in triumph. In time to come, as Ezekiel shows, the Lord Jehovah will return to it and never leave it again. It will be the place of His throne, and the place of the soles of His feet, where He will dwell among the children of Israel for ever. (Ezek. 43:7.)
The vision names what comes in twice over, and those names carry Israel's whole future.
Along the path of exit the glory now returns to fill the house. It is "the glory of the God of Israel… and the glory of Jehovah." Then everything those Names mean will be fully accomplished. Israel will be one nation, newborn in fellowship with the Eternal, according to the new covenant, and in the power and blessing of the outpoured Spirit.
- Glory withdrawn. It left the defiled temple by the east gate and stood on the Mount of Olives; God has not dwelt there since.
- Glory returning. It comes back along the exact road of its departure — the east, the Mount of Olives.
- Glory defined. The glory is not the cloud but the Lord's own presence, the display of all that He is.
- Glory timed. Neither the return from Babylon nor Christ's first coming fulfilled this. Commentators look to His coming to reign.
- Glory settled. The east gate is sealed because He entered by it. He stays for ever, with Israel one nation under the new covenant.
And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the house.
Ezekiel has walked through the measurements of a temple he has only seen in vision. Now that house is full of the glory of the Lord. Two questions follow: what is this glory, and when does it come? The prophet had already watched that same brightness leave Jerusalem before the city fell.
Earlier, Ezekiel had watched this same glory leave by the east gate and stop on the mountain east of the city. Now it comes back by the same road.
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 comes back to them, and the judgment, which has lasted so long, is gone forever. The glory left through the east gate, and its last appearance was on the mountain at the east side of the city. The return is from the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate.
The glory did not arrive on its own:
The glory of the Lord filled the house, but it was in the coming of Jehovah Himself that the glory came.
Another writer sets this filling in a line of earlier ones, then asks what the word means:
God has always filled His house with glory. He did so with the tabernacle set up in the wilderness, the temple in the kingdom, and the church at Pentecost. The last house built on earth will be no exception. 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… For the glory of the Lord is the display of what He is, of the sum and excellence of all His attributes, seen either outwardly or by faith.
The prophet does not walk in. The Spirit carries him into the inner court, and a voice then speaks to him.
God comes in this glory. He comes with majesty, with awe-inspiring speech, and with light that reaches the furthest ends of the earth… Brought into the inner court, he sees that the Glory fills the house. Then someone speaking in front of the house addresses him, and he finds a man standing beside him.
Nothing in Israel's later history matches this scene, starting with the temple the returning exiles built:
No such thing happened when the returned Jewish remnant had entered the temple. When the old men, who had seen Solomon's temple and knew of its glory, saw the foundation of the second temple, they wept. When the house was dedicated, no glory returned, no cloud was seen, no Shekinah filled the house. Nor is this a spiritual glory, the glory of the church, as so many seem to believe.
Some read this vision as fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. One writer sets that view aside, along with the return from Babylon:
It is the sign of God's return to Israel, whom He had left ever since the Jews were carried to Babylon. But the return from Babylon in no way satisfies the prophecy. Neither does even the mission of the Messiah… When the glory left, the Jews stopped being the recognized people of Jehovah. When they are taken up again under Messiah and the new covenant, the glory comes back. No mistake is 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 calls us to believe that the glory will really be restored. It was not restored when the Jews returned under Cyrus' order, and it was not restored when the Lord Jesus was here. It will be restored when He returns to reign.
The glory that once left could leave again. The words spoken from inside the house rule that out:
The prophet learns that this restoration of Jehovah's presence will not be temporary. It will last forever: "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; and the house of Israel shall no more defile My holy name."
- Departed glory. The glory that fills this house is the same glory that left Jerusalem by the east gate before judgment fell.
- Returning glory. It comes back by the same road. The long judgment is over, and His gracious presence returns with it.
- Personal glory. What fills the house is the Lord Himself — the display of everything He is.
- Future glory. Commentators say the rebuilt second temple never saw this, and Christ's first coming did not bring it. The filling waits for His return to reign.
- Permanent glory. The Lord calls this house the place of His throne, where He will dwell among Israel forever.