Shekinah Glory

One Year Bible: November 22

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12

Shekinah Glory

“Oh, the glory of Your presence. We Your Temple give you reverence.

Come and rise from Your rest and be blessed by our praise. As we glory in Your Embrace. As Your presence, now fills this place.” (Oh the Glory of Your Presence, Ron Kenoly)

Have you ever returned to a room of a loved one where their things remained, but their presence was absent?

We often visited my Mother-in-law’s place during the years after my father-in-law had passed away. We would stay in her guest rooms and the closets would be filled with his shirts, jackets, and other belongings. In her bedroom was a large poster of him in his fireman’s uniform. We would then go out to the garage where his military uniform hung on a rack.

She could not let go of his things, because they reminded her of his presence!

The Jewish people had nothing left to hold onto. Their once bright and shining temple had been decimated and would never be a shadow of the “GLORY” that it once had been…

Or would it?

We think of a Temple as a museum, memorial, or distant memory. But to God’s people, it had been LIFE ITSELF… until God’s presence left the building!

Can you imagine the “Glory Days” when King David danced with all his might and the smell of the meat being offered lofted like the best bar-b-que in the land? It was a feast of offerings to the brightest presence imaginable. This was the place of the Miracle of Miracles!

But, no more. Sadly, no more…

As we think about the millennial temple, we need to understand that in the last days of Solomon, the “Shekinah Glory”, the very palpable presence of God, was ABSENT!

The Jewish rabbis coined this phrase, “Shekinah Glory” from a Hebrew word that means “He caused to dwell.”

This was first present when the Israelites set out to escape from Egypt. The Lord appeared to them in a cloudy pillar by day and a fiery pillar by night. (Ex. 13:20-22) He was ALWAYS present and DWELLING with them. He fed them, guided them, and did the Miracle of Miracles.

His presence was not just felt by the Israelites. The Egyptians got a pretty good peak at it also. In fact, it says that “it threw them into confusion.” His presence alone was enough to defer their enemies and provide them the protection they needed.

What is a Temple without Majesty, Power, and Presence? It is a museum or rubble…

The story was never going to end like this, however1 Why? The Father always goes out to search for his lost son. What is lost will be found. That is the story of the Prodigal son and the Jews certainly fulfilled every inch of that story.

During the millennial reign, the father will welcome his wayward back HOME, with His Presence. He has not been missing, He has been out searching for the lost and providing their freedom and ransom to return to HIM.

He OPENS THE DOOR to them by SHUTTING the GATE!

Listen to HIS arrival… “Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like THE ROAR OF RUSHING WATERS, and the whole landscape shone with his glory… I fell face down on the ground. And the glory of the LORD came into the Temple through the EAST gateway.” (43: 2-4)

When Jesus came to Bethlehem more than nineteen hundred years ago, the GLORY of God was on full display. The angels sang, the shepherds and Wisemen came and the star was fully shining. But the Jews had missed that the long-awaited king would not come as a king as they had thought, but rather a humble child.

On Christ’s return to reign in the millennial Temple the presence of His “Shekinah Glory” will not be missed! God will come back to find his prodigal son.

Why will there be sacrifices at the altar at this time after there has already been the perfect sacrifice of the lamb?

In their own language, through all of their familiar practices, they will see the object of the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. They will look afresh upon the work of Christ on the cross and see the fulfillment of the message of grace.

In Ezekiel 44 we then see that the gate which looks to the EAST is SHUT, and Ezekiel is told that “it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, Therefore it shall be shut.” (44:1-3)

“The Shekinah Glory” has returned and the EAST GATE is SHUT… What prince may open it?

“Oh, the glory of Your presence. We Your Temple give you reverence…

As Your presence, now fills this place.” (Oh the Glory of Your Presence, Ron Kenoly)