The East Gate Swings Open: The Return of the Glory Text: Ezekiel 43:1-5
Introduction: The Vacated Throne
The book of Ezekiel is a massive covenant lawsuit. God, through his prophet, is laying out the charges against a faithless and adulterous people. And the central tragedy of this book, the event that makes all the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem inevitable, is found back in chapter 10. There, Ezekiel sees the glory of Yahweh, the visible, manifest presence of God, get up from His throne between the cherubim, move to the threshold of the temple, and then depart. He leaves. He goes out by the east gate, over the Mount of Olives, and abandons His own house to judgment. When God leaves the building, the building is doomed.
This is the great horror of sin. It is not primarily that we break abstract rules. The horror of sin is that it drives away the presence of God. Israel had so polluted the temple with their idols and their rank hypocrisy that the Holy One of Israel could no longer dwell there. They had turned His house into a den of thieves, and so He evicted Himself. The glory departed, and the Babylonians came. Ichabod was written over the doorposts: the glory has departed.
For thirty-three long chapters, Ezekiel prophesies judgment, desolation, and woe. He speaks to a valley of dry bones. But God is not content to leave His people as skeletons in a graveyard. He promises resurrection. He promises a new heart, a new spirit. And the climax of that promised restoration is found here, in our text. After a meticulous, detailed vision of a new and glorious temple, the central question remains: will God come back? Is restoration possible? Will the throne be occupied again? The answer is a resounding, earth-shaking yes. What went out through the east gate is now coming back through the east gate. And we must understand that this is not simply about the rebuilding of a physical structure in old Jerusalem. As with all things in Ezekiel, this is a profound prophecy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the building of His church.
The Text
Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to bring the city to ruin. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. And the glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.
(Ezekiel 43:1-5 LSB)
The Path of His Return (v. 1-2)
The prophet is brought to the precise point of departure to witness the grand return.
"Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east..." (Ezekiel 43:1-2a)
The east gate is the royal gate. It is the gate through which the king enters. It is the gate through which the sun rises, bringing light to the world. And it was the gate through which the glory of God departed in judgment (Ezekiel 10:19, 11:23). God is a God of order and covenantal symmetry. The path of His departure in judgment is the very path of His return in grace. He is reversing the curse. He is undoing the desolation. This is not arbitrary; it is a deliberate, magnificent statement. The way is now open.
And what does Ezekiel see? "Behold, the glory of the God of Israel." This is not an abstract force or a vague aura. This is the manifest, personal presence of the living God. This glory is loud and it is bright. "And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory." This is the voice of absolute sovereignty. The "sound of many waters" is the sound of a tidal wave, a thunderous waterfall, a force that cannot be argued with, resisted, or ignored. It is the voice of the risen and glorified Christ in the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:15). When this God speaks, reality rearranges itself. The earth doesn't just reflect the glory; it "shone with His glory." The very ground becomes a lamp, lit by the presence of its Creator. This is a total invasion of light and sound, a complete reclamation of His holy ground.
The Unchanging Character of God (v. 3)
Ezekiel makes it clear that this is the same God he has encountered before.
"And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to bring the city to ruin. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face." (Ezekiel 43:3)
This is a crucial anchor point. The God who returns in glory is the same God who left in judgment. He is the same God who commissioned Ezekiel by the river Chebar in chapter 1. Our God does not have mood swings. His character is constant. The God of grace is the God of wrath. The God who saves is the God who judges. The holiness that drove him from a defiled temple is the same holiness that now returns to a consecrated one. We must not make the mistake of modern evangelicals who want a God of fluffy grace without the sharp edges of holiness and judgment. They want the glory without the terror. But they are one and the same.
Ezekiel's reaction is the only sane one. "I fell on my face." This is not the casual, buddy-buddy approach to God that our therapeutic age cultivates. This is the proper creaturely response to the uncreated Creator. When Isaiah saw the glory, he said, "Woe is me!" (Isaiah 6:5). When John saw the glorified Christ, he "fell at His feet as though dead" (Rev. 1:17). A true vision of the glory of God will always produce humility, awe, and a profound sense of our own smallness. If your worship experience does not bring you to this place, you have not encountered the God of the Bible; you have encountered a projection of your own religious sentiments.
The Divine Occupant (v. 4-5)
The movement is completed, and the house has its rightful owner once more.
"And the glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house." (Ezekiel 43:4-5)
The glory enters and takes up residence. The word "filled" is the language of total possession. It is the same language used when the tabernacle was first completed (Exodus 40:34) and when Solomon's temple was dedicated (1 Kings 8:10-11). There is no room for anything else. When the glory of God fills a place, all rivals are expelled. All idols are smashed. All competitors are banished.
And notice the role of the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court." Ezekiel does not enter this glory on his own power or by his own merit. He is carried. He is brought. This is the work of the Spirit in salvation. We do not wander into the presence of God; the Spirit lifts us up and brings us in through the finished work of Christ. He gives us access to the place we could never reach on our own.
From this new vantage point, Ezekiel sees the result: "behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house." The restoration is complete. The throne is no longer vacant. God is with His people.
The Temple We Are
So what is this temple? Dispensationalists, with their woodenly literal hermeneutic, are still waiting for a brick-and-mortar temple to be built in Jerusalem so that bloody sacrifices can be reinstated. This is a profound insult to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament is abundantly clear: the temple Ezekiel saw is the Christian church.
Jesus Christ Himself is the true temple. He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19), speaking of His body. He is the place where God's glory dwells perfectly. He is the one who came from the east, the dayspring from on high. When He rode into Jerusalem, He came from the Mount of Olives and entered through the east gate. He was the glory of God returning to His people.
But it doesn't stop there. By faith, we are united to Him. We become part of His body. And therefore, the church, collectively, is the temple of the living God. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). We are, as Peter says, "living stones... being built up as a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5).
The glory Ezekiel saw returning is the glory of the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost. The Spirit came with a sound like a mighty rushing wind and filled the house where they were sitting (Acts 2:2). The glory of God took up residence not in a building made with hands, but in the hearts of His people. The voice like many waters is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has gone out from the church and is filling the earth, and the earth is shining with the glory of God as the nations are discipled.
This means that the central promise of this text is for us. God has, in Christ, returned to dwell with man. The gate is open. The Spirit has brought us into the inner court. And the mandate is clear. The glory of God has filled this house, the church. Therefore, there can be no room for idols. There can be no room for hypocrisy, for worldliness, for sin. The house has been claimed. The King is in residence. And from this temple, this church, a river of living water is now flowing out to heal the nations (Ezekiel 47). The glory has not just returned; it is now on the march, and it will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.