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Context No. 2718 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 10:1-5: in context

1Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 2He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, “Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I watched. 3Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. 4The LORD’s glory mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’s glory. 5The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

Ezekiel is shown a vision that should make the reader go still. Above the cherubim he sees the likeness of a throne, and a man clothed in linen is told to take coals of fire from between the whirling wheels and scatter them over Jerusalem. As the man goes in, the glory of the LORD lifts from the cherub and moves to the threshold of the house, the cloud filling the court, the sound of the wings like the voice of God.

This is the beginning of the glory leaving the temple. The presence that had dwelt over the ark is on the move, step by step toward the door and then out. The sobering heart of the vision is not the coals of fire but the leaving: God withdrawing, slowly and deliberately, from a house that had made itself a place he could no longer inhabit.

Is there anything in my life that is slowly making it a place God's presence is quietly withdrawing from?

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