Ezekiel 43:1-2

Ezekiel’s guide next led him to the east gate in the outer wall. This was the wall of the millennial temple that he had been seeing and continued to see, not the wall of the Solomonic temple. There the prophet saw the glory of God approaching the temple from the east (cf. Deuteronomy 33:2; Isaiah 60:1-3). Ezekiel had seen God’s glory departing from Solomon’s temple to the east when the Babylonians destroyed it (ch. 8; Ezekiel 10:4; Ezekiel 10:18-19; Ezekiel 11:22-25). It did not return when Zerubbabel rebuilt it or when Herod the Great remodeled it (cf. Haggai 2:7). But now the Lord was about to take up residence in His millennial temple. God’s voice was as the sound of a mighty waterfall (powerful and majestic; cf. Ezekiel 1:24; Revelation 1:15; Revelation 14:2), and His glory illuminated the land as it passed over it (cf. Exodus 34:29-30; Exodus 34:35; Mark 9:3; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 18:1).

An interesting foreview of the departure and return of God’s glory occurred when God’s glory departed with the ark of the covenant into the Philistine camp (1 Samuel 4:19-22) and then returned when David brought the ark into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:17-19). Another parallel is Jesus’ departure from Jerusalem in His ascension and His return to it at His second advent, both events happening on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem.