OUR LORD WHOSE GLORY WILL FILL THE TEMPLE AGAIN

Ezekiel ( x chapter 9 verse 13 - 14 ) chapter 10 verses 2 - 3 says this;

The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.

Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. 

This passage is an excerpt of the vision that the prophet Ezekiel saw while he was in his house and the elders of Judah were sitting before him.

Ezekiel was taken up into the vision where he saw many astonishing things which he recorded in the book of Ezekiel from chapter 8 through to chapter 11.

Ezekiel was first shown the dreadful things like the worshiping of demonic gods and the violence and bloodshed that was going on in the kingdom of Judah and that were driving God out of His sanctuary which was the temple in Jerusalem. Ezekiel chapter 8 verse 6 says it like this;

And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.”

Ezekiel then witnessed when six men were summoned. XFive of them carried a deadly weapon but the sixth man, dressed in linen, was carrying a writing impliment at his side.  Each of them carried a deadly weapon but there was a man with them, dressed in linen, who was carrying a writing implement at his side.

He was given the task of marking the forehead of every person in the city who grieved over the detestable things that were going on in their society. 

The rest of the men were to follow him and kill everyone in the city who did not have the mark placed upon them.

After the marking of the people to be preserved was complete, the man in linen was then commanded to collect some burning coals from the cherubim and scatter them over the city of Jerusalem and he went into the temple.

At this time, the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim in the inner court of the temple and moved to the threshold of the temple.

The man dressed in linen then went to the cherubim and stood beside a wheel. One of the cherubim reached into the fire that was burning among them and took some coals and gave them to the man in linen who took the coals in his hands and went out of the temple. 

(Although not stated in the scripture, because the man in linen is shown to follow the commands of the Lord, I infer that he then scattered the coals on the city as he was instructed.)

This event marked the time in Israel's history when the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and rose above the cherubim who spread their wings and moved to the east gate at the edge of the temple complex. The cherubim, with the glory of God above them, then left Jerusalem altogether and moved over a mountain east of the city.

This heartbreaking departure of the glory of God from the temple in Jerusalem is prophecied by the Apostle John to be  reversed when the Lord wonderously returns in power. 

The new Jerusalem will descend from heaven  filled with the glory of God as described in the book of  Revelation chapter 21 verses 10 - 11 which reads this way;

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

Amen.

Corrected version with revised interpretation of the 6 men with weapons and the one who was with them with a writing implement.