Scripture

Then the glory of the Lord moved out from the door of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim. And as I watched, the cherubim flew with their wheels to the East Gate of the Lord’s Temple and the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.

Observation

Ezekiel has a vision of the throne of God. He sees the throne and the cherubim in the same vision as earlier in Babylon.

The Lord speaks to the man in linen clothing and tells him to take a handful of burning coals from between the wheels under the cherubim. He is to take these coals and scatter them over the city.The man does this and leaves the temple.

The cherubim move to the end to the East Gate of the Temple and the glory cloud of the Lord now hovers over them. The cherubim and the Lord’s presence leave the temple and the city.

Application

What a terrible state the temple and the city of Jerusalem have come to. The Lord’s presence has left them.This meant that there was no hope for the city because the Lord had removed his protection from it. It also meant that the temple was a God forsaken shadow of what it should have been. The entrenched sin in the nation and the corruption of the priesthood had caused the Lord to flee.

The worship continued, but it was empty ritual. A few years later the Babylonians would destroy the temple,

The picture is very similar to that of the time following Jesus’s death.The curtain of the temple was torn in two. The Lord abandoned the temple because there was a new temple, the followers of Jesus. But temple worship continued for almost 40 years until it was all destroyed by the Romans.

Listen

Lord, this passage makes me think about true worship and false worship, between Spirit led worship and empty ritual,

Keith, my temple is now in the corporate heart of my people. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.

Even when an apostate worship seems empty and devoid of my Spirit, as long as there is at least one person there who loves me and is devoted to following me, then I am there with them.

I will never abandon my true followers. Even those who worship in an apostate gathering will know my presence and my blessing.

“Even the Catholics, one of your colleagues used to say. Yes, and even the Uniting Church and the Anglicans and so on.

I do not judge by the outward appearance or by the forms of worship. I look at the hearts of the worshipers