Rejecting God's Glory

Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.

 

Ezekiel 10:18

 

 

It should be noted that this is a vision that the prophet Ezekiel was having while in captivity in Chaldea. And in this vision, after witnessing the secret abominations of the leaders of the people, and the slaughter that would follow, it culminates with the worst thing of all, the people rejecting God's glory. As a result of the people's, and especially the leaders, gross sin and hardness of heart and refusal to listen to or follow God, left Ezekiel witness seeing God's glory—which represents His Spirit, His blessings, His presence, His power, and all that He is—leave the temple where He dwelled among His people.

 

We see in this vision, what God was telling the people He could no longer tolerate:

 

• Idolatry
• Immorality
• Blatant disrespect of His love and holiness

He was telling them that you can't have your life of selfishness and sin, doing whatever you feel like doing, and still be able to enjoy His blessing, presence, and protection whenever they wanted it. Finally, it came down to the people rejecting God's glory, because they continually were turning their backs on Him and were outright disobedience to everything He was telling them.

When we think about it, God's desire from the beginning of time was to share His love and fellowship with people who would be His and live with Him, in His presence and blessing. Throughout the Old Testament, time and time again, the people who God loved so much and just wanted to be with, rejected Him, abandoned Him, chose every evil instead of Him. And then in this vision as the people continued to reject Him, He was leaving, something that they never thought would ever happen.

Now in light of what we have just read, we need to be asking ourselves these questions:

 

1. How are we treating God who loves us so?
2. Do we realize that God will never leave us, but His anointing, blessings, power, and protection can depart from us?

As Christians, we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in us and our selfish, self-centered, fleshly choices, and sin can so grieve the Holy Spirit, which causes us to break fellowship with God, but it doesn't mean that He has left us. We need to be totally and completely surrender and resting in God, as to allowing His anointed wisdom, blessings, power, and presence to be ever flowing in our lives—only then will we accomplish great things for the Kingdom and for His glory alone.