Ezekiel 10 - Vision of God's Glory Departing: Part I

LINK: Ezekiel 10

BACKGROUND

My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;

For how can My name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

(Isaiah 48:11)

Ezekiel saw the throne chariot of Chapter 1 with more details: the bodies of the cherubim were completely full of eyes (Revelation 4:8). Many commentators believe this means divine omniscience. There is one discrepancy between the two descriptions. The face of an ox in Ezekiel 1 is the face of a cherub in Ezekiel 10. In Akkadian literature, the kuribu (cognate of "cherub") appear to have nonhuman faces. Perhaps the face of a cherub looked like an ox. We do not know!

The radiance of the glory of the LORD in the form of a cloud filled the threshold of the sanctuary (Exodus 33:9-10; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Isaiah 6:1-4). The angelic scribe was to scatter the burning coals between the wheels and cherubim (1:13; Isaiah 6:6) over the city starting in the temple and moving outward.

Because God would not share His glory with the gods His people were worshiping, Ezekiel saw God's glory begin to depart from His polluted temple as the wheeled cherubim throne rose upward, but they paused, and God's glory hovered. Before God's glory totally departed, Ezekiel received a message of judgment and restoration.

To be continued . . .

APPLICATION - TOOL TIME - WORD STUDY

Why not do a word study of the "glory"?

Here are some resources:

Basics of Inductive Study (p. 4)

Hebrew Word Studies - Precept Austin

This website has extensive word studies on keywords. Scroll down to the word glory (or should we scroll up to glory?)

Example from the Exodus 36-38 Blog Post.

Meditate and let it lead you into the worship of our glorious God!

PRAYER

Glory to the King! Amen!

The line "Who Is This King of Glory?" is playing in my mind.  It is part of a song in Handel's Messiah. Let this lead you into praise and worship!