What’s More Glorious Than That?

Ezekiel 11:22-25

Would you agree with me that we humans like, even love, glory? I mean, I think that’s true. Just think how we felt a few years ago, and it was Bucks in six. Then we took home the NBA championship. We love that, right? I don’t think any of us felt particularly great about. Well, I suppose there’s maybe a bare fan or two in here. I don’t think anybody felt particularly good about last night’s football game. We like glory. We just do. The glory of the Lord shows up a number of times in the Old Testament. The first time that it shows up is actually with Abraham and the burning fire pot that goes between the cut-up animals, where God is making a covenant with Abraham. The next time that we see the glory of the Lord is the burning bush as God reveals himself to Moses and calls him to become the leader of the Israelite nation. The Israelites at the time of Moses are the group of people who saw the glory of the Lord more often than anybody else. They got the chance to see the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night as it led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. They saw the glory of the Lord reveal itself in the desert as the Israelites are complaining because they don’t have any food. The glory of the Lord reveals itself. In our reading from the Torah, we found out that the glory of the Lord was kind of there all the time. And that it was either resting on the tabernacles that they would stay put, or it lifted up, telling them to travel. And the implication is that the glory of the Lord went in front of them and guided them to the places where they needed to go. Wow! Pretty amazing, huh? And yet you know what happened to that generation. That that generation of people ended up rebelling against God, ended up dying in the wilderness, and didn’t get to go into the promised land. The next time that the glory of the Lord appears is the reading we had from the Ketuvim, when Solomon dedicates the temple. And man, it is incredible. The glory of the Lord comes down, and it’s such a powerful thing that the priests can’t even go inside the temple. That the glory of the Lord kind of drove them out. And then we don’t see the glory of the Lord again until the sermon text in Ezekiel. To give some context, Ezekiel was a priest, but he was exiled in the second exile in 597. And God turned him from a priest into a prophet. And God had him be a spokesman to the people in Babylon. So Ezekiel is not in the land of Israel; he’s in Babylon. Unfortunately, what are the Israelites back in the land of Judah, back in Jerusalem, what are they doing? They’re continuing to rebel against God. In the chapters just before our text, God took Ezekiel somehow. It doesn’t say real clearly how, if God lifted him up physically and took him over to Jerusalem, or if God did a, “Hey, I’m going to zoom you over there so that you can see this, like a pay-per-view thing.” I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get to heaven because the text just doesn’t make clear. But he’s showing picture, are he showing Ezekiel’s sights of the religious leaders who are bowing down and worshiping Egyptian deities and Babylonian deities, creepy, crawly things that God had said were unclean, and they’re doing it in the vision inside the temple of God. Yes, the very temple that God had filled with his glory, they’re bowing down and worshiping false gods in there. Now, was that literally happening? Were the religious leaders literally, and the political leaders literally, inside the temple? Or did God show it to Ezekiel that way? Because no matter where they did it, it was an affront to Go,d and it was right in his face. Again, put it on your bucket list. We’ll find out when we get to heaven. And what does Ezekiel see? He sees the glory of the Lord lifting up. The glory of the Lord pauses outside the city, then goes to the east, oops, wrong way, goes to the east over the Mount of Olives. And then it’s just gone. It’s just gone. Can you imagine Ezekiel then is tasked with telling the exiles what has happened? And if you are a believer in exile, and the impression God gives is that the exiles had more believers among them than the people who are still in Jerusalem, if you’re a believer in exile, and Ezekiel reports this to you, how you feeling? The glory of God has left you. The one hope they had was that they would get to go back to Jerusalem, back to Judea, and now the glory of God has left. It had to be absolutely crushing. Imagine how you and I would feel if Jesus said to you, surely I will not be with you always, to the end of the age. What if Jesus said to me, said to you, and me, surely I will not make all things work together for your good? Oh my. That would be crushing, wouldn’t it? And the reality is, brothers and sisters, we deserve that. Oh, maybe you and I haven’t physically bowed down to Egyptian and Babylonian deities, but we’ve certainly let other things distract us, haven’t we? Who of us can possibly say that we have loved God with all our heart and loved our neighbor as ourselves perfectly? Not a one. We fail to appreciate the greatness of our God. We stumble into sin, failing to see that we are offending our glorious God. Or sometimes we don’t even stumble into sin; we walk into it purposely. What an insult to the glorious God who deserves our hearts. And here’s the thing. The glory of the Lord that left the land of Israel would never again appear in that way. Never. Oh, how they had blown it. Oh. But the glory of the Lord would appear. And in a way that is actually far more glorious. The glory of the Lord would appear as a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Glory, what? Where’s the power, where’s the fire, where’s the lightning, where’s the thunder, where’s the trumpet blasts? Oh, the glory of Bethlehem is far greater. And the reason the glory of Bethlehem is far greater is because that’s your God coming to save you. That is your God setting aside the fire, the full use of his power, setting aside the full use of his glory. Why? Because he wanted you to be able to be glorious someday. He wanted you and me to one day get to go to the glories of heaven. And the only way that could take place was if Jesus set aside the full use of his power and glory and majesty. And instead became a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And can you imagine my brothers and sisters, Jesus did that for you. We humans, love glory. Would we have enjoyed seeing the glory of the Lord as it was above the tabernacle and traveling and stuff? I don’t know. I kind of think I might have. But I also don’t know. Because I know what happened to that group of people. But I’m also thankful that this week we will once again celebrate the glory of God. In the most glorious fashion. As we once again travel to Bethlehem and hear the angels sing, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. And my brothers and sisters, could there be anything more glorious than that? Amen? – Amen. – And amen.