When Heaven’s Throne Room Opens: The Glory Departing

What’s Ezekiel 10 about?

This is the moment when God’s glory literally packs up and leaves the temple – but not before giving us the most detailed description of heavenly beings in all of Scripture. It’s like watching the Divine moving truck pull away from Jerusalem, and understanding exactly what Israel lost.

The Full Context

Picture this: It’s around 593 BCE, and Ezekiel – a priest turned prophet – is sitting by the Kebar River in Babylon with thousands of other Jewish exiles. They’re all wondering the same thing: “Has God abandoned us? Is the temple in Jerusalem still sacred?” Then God gives Ezekiel this incredible vision that answers their deepest fears and questions.

Ezekiel had already seen these mysterious creatures called cherubim in chapter 1, but he didn’t know what they were called then. Now, in chapter 10, he’s getting a repeat performance – but this time it’s happening at the temple itself, and the stakes are much higher. This isn’t just a vision of God’s power; it’s a vision of God’s presence departing from the very place where His people thought He lived forever. The literary structure builds perfectly from the throne vision in chapter 1 to this temple vision, showing us that God’s glory isn’t confined to buildings – it’s mobile, and right now, it’s moving out.

What the Ancient Words Tell Us

The Hebrew word for “glory” here is kavod, and it’s not just about brightness or splendor. Kavod literally means “weight” or “heaviness” – it’s the substantial, weighty presence of God that makes everything else seem light by comparison. When Ezekiel sees the kavod departing, he’s watching the very substance of God’s presence lift off like some kind of divine spacecraft.

But here’s what’s fascinating: the cherubim aren’t just pretty angel decorations. The Hebrew word comes from a root meaning “to grasp” or “to cover.” These are God’s throne guardians, the ones who literally carry His presence wherever it goes. Ancient Near Eastern cultures knew about these winged creatures – they guarded thrones and temples throughout Mesopotamia. But Israel’s cherubim were different because they served the one true God whose presence couldn’t be contained by any building.

Grammar Geeks

The verb used for the glory “departing” is rum – the same word used for “lifting up” or “exalting.” Even in leaving, God’s glory is being lifted up, elevated. It’s not slinking away in defeat; it’s making a majestic, deliberate exit.

The wheels (galgal in Hebrew) that move with the cherubim aren’t just transportation – they represent the omnipresence of God. These aren’t ordinary wheels; they’re “wheels within wheels” covered with eyes, showing that God sees everything, everywhere, all at once. When the cherubim move, the wheels move with them, because God’s vision and God’s presence are perfectly coordinated.

What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?

For exiles sitting in Babylon, this vision was both terrifying and comforting. Terrifying because it confirmed their worst fears: God’s glory had indeed left the temple. The building they thought was indestructible, the place where God promised to dwell forever, had been abandoned by the very presence that made it sacred.

But here’s the comfort hidden in the terror: God’s glory didn’t leave because He was defeated or powerless. It left on His own terms, carried by His own throne guardians, moving with divine purpose and precision. The Babylonians didn’t capture God when they destroyed the temple – they just destroyed an empty building. God had already moved out.

Did You Know?

Ancient temples were thought to be the literal houses of gods, and if your temple was destroyed, your god was considered defeated. But Ezekiel’s vision shows that Israel’s God is different – He chooses where to dwell, and He can leave whenever He wants. The building doesn’t contain God; God chooses to inhabit the building.

Think about what this meant for people who had built their entire religious worldview around the temple. It would be like discovering that your church building wasn’t just a meeting place – it was the only place God could be found, and now He’d moved out without leaving a forwarding address. Except Ezekiel’s vision shows them that God is more mobile, more sovereign, and more present everywhere than they ever imagined.

But Wait… Why Did They Leave?

Here’s what’s genuinely puzzling: why does Ezekiel need to see this vision twice? He already encountered these creatures in chapter 1 by the Kebar River. Why the replay?

The answer reveals something profound about how revelation works. In chapter 1, Ezekiel saw the cherubim but didn’t recognize them – he just called them “living creatures.” It’s only in chapter 10, when he sees them at the temple, that he realizes: “These are the same beings I saw by the river! These are cherubim!” Sometimes we need to see God’s work in different contexts before we understand what we’re actually looking at.

Wait, That’s Strange…

Ezekiel mentions that these cherubim have the same faces as the creatures he saw earlier, but there’s a small difference: instead of an ox face, one of them now has a cherub face. Why the change? Some scholars think Ezekiel is now seeing more clearly, recognizing the true identity of what he saw before. Others suggest it shows how the same divine reality can appear differently in different contexts.

But there’s another puzzle: why does God’s glory depart gradually? It doesn’t just vanish – it moves from the inner sanctuary to the threshold, then to the east gate, then finally away from the city entirely. It’s like God is giving Jerusalem every possible chance to repent, lingering as long as possible before finally leaving.

Wrestling with the Text

The hardest part of this passage isn’t understanding what happens – it’s grappling with why it happens. How do you explain to people that God’s presence has left the very place where they believed He promised to stay forever?

Ezekiel’s vision forces us to wrestle with the nature of God’s presence. Is God’s presence tied to buildings, rituals, and religious systems? Or is God’s presence something that goes wherever God chooses to go? The departing glory in Ezekiel 10 suggests that God’s presence is always a gift, never a guarantee, always grace, never entitlement.

This creates what theologians call “the scandal of divine freedom.” God doesn’t owe us His presence just because we’ve built Him a house or performed the right rituals. The temple wasn’t God’s prison; it was His chosen dwelling place, and He could choose to leave whenever He wanted.

“God’s glory doesn’t depart in defeat – it leaves in sovereignty, carried by His own throne guardians on His own terms.”

But here’s the hope hidden in the departure: if God’s glory can leave the temple, it can also return. If God’s presence isn’t confined to buildings, then it can be found anywhere God chooses to reveal Himself. The mobility of God’s glory that seems so threatening to the temple-centered worldview is actually the key to hope for exiles scattered around the world.

How This Changes Everything

Understanding Ezekiel 10 transforms how we think about God’s presence. Instead of seeing God as confined to sacred spaces, we see God as sovereignly present wherever He chooses to be. Instead of assuming God’s presence is automatic, we recognize it as a gracious gift that should never be taken for granted.

For the original audience, this vision prepared them for a new way of relating to God – not through temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, but through hearts turned toward Him wherever they found themselves. God’s glory leaving the temple wasn’t the end of God’s relationship with His people; it was the beginning of a more personal, more universal, more heart-centered way of knowing Him.

For modern readers, Ezekiel 10 reminds us that God’s presence isn’t controlled by our religious buildings or systems. Churches can become empty of God’s presence while still maintaining all the external forms of worship. But the flip side is equally true: God’s presence can be powerfully real in the most unlikely places, carried by the same divine sovereignty that once filled Solomon’s temple.

The cherubim and their wheels, covered with eyes and moving in perfect coordination, show us that God’s presence is both transcendent (beyond our control or comprehension) and immanent (actively involved in the details of history). When God’s glory moves, it moves with purpose, vision, and perfect timing.

Key Takeaway

God’s presence is always a gift, never a guarantee. But the God whose glory can depart from temples is the same God whose presence can be found anywhere He chooses to reveal Himself – including in the hearts of exiles sitting by foreign rivers, wondering if they’ve been abandoned.

Further Reading

Internal Links:

• Ezekiel 1:4 – The first vision of the cherubim
• Ezekiel 10:18 – The moment of departure
• 1 Kings 8:10-11 – When God’s glory first filled the temple

External Scholarly Resources:

• The Message of Ezekiel by Christopher J.H. Wright
• Ezekiel 1-24 by Daniel I. Block (NICOT)
• The Book of Ezekiel by Iain M. Duguid (NIVAC)

Tags

Ezekiel 10:18, Ezekiel 1:4, 1 Kings 8:10-11, Divine Glory, God’s Presence, Cherubim, Temple, Exile, Babylon, Jerusalem, Sovereignty, Transcendence, Judgment, Hope