And the return of the glory of Jehovah.
In Isaiah 39:5-7, we have a striking announcement to Hezekiah of the seventy years’ captivity among the very people whose ambassadors he had tried to impress with the importance of his kingdom and the riches of his treasures. This announcement forms the threshold of the last great prophecy written at a later period of the prophet’s life.
In vision the prophet already beholds the land desolate, the temple destroyed, the people pining in Chaldean bondage. And how like God to open up in advance a stream of consolation to accompany the faithful remnant all through the weary wilderness march of the shorter, and of the present much longer captivity.
This comfort is found in 35:2, “They shall see the glory of Jehovah, the excellency of our God.” And what is the great theme of the last twenty-seven chapters? It is the same. From this blessed announcement the streams of comfort flow; it is for this glorious culmination that the way is to be prepared, and all twenty-seven chapters unfold the process by which this grand consummation will finally be brought about.
What is meant by the expression, “The glory of Jehovah”? Let me state at the outset that the words khebod Jehovah (the glory of Jehovah) in the Hebrew Scriptures always mean the glory of the personal presence of Jehovah; the glory attendant on the visible manifestations of Jehovah on earth. To elucidate this important subject, let me draw your attention to several scriptures.
No sooner did God bring Israel out of Egypt than, in keeping with His purpose of a theocracy, He Himself took His place at the head of that nation. The visible symbol of this was the pillar of cloud or fire. The first mention of this symbolic cloud is in Exodus 13:21,
Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead the way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; to go by day and night.
In verse 19 of the following chapter we have this pillar of cloud associated with the Angel of Jehovah:
And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.
There is only one Being in the Old Testament who bears the name of the “Angel of Jehovah,” and that is Messiah, the Son of God.
He is called the “Angel of God’s Presence” (or “of His face,” Isa. 63:9), because He is the only personal manifestation of God which man has ever seen or can see. After His incarnation, He could therefore say in answer to the yearning of man, “Show us the Father,” “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
When the “house” of Israel’s true King took the place of the movable tent, we read the same thing in connection with the consecration of the temple as we do of the tabernacle.
…the cloud filled the house of Jehovah so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house… (1 Ki. 8:10-11).
“So it was always.” I would not assert that all through the frequent apostasies the people could always see the symbol of God’s presence with them, but so long as the first temple stood, He did not finally withdraw from those He was pleased to call His inheritance. And Israel’s high priests on entering each year into the holy of holies were conscious that “between the cherubim” God dwelt as in no other nation, though He fills the universe.
Thus it continued until a particular point in the history of Israel, recorded in Ezekiel. The prophecy of Ezekiel forms a very important link in the progress of Old Testament revelation, especially for the light it throws on two great events. One is the departure of governmental power from Judah, announced in in 21:26-27. But secondly, simultaneous with the removal of governmental power, the prophet saw the departure of the glory of Jehovah from Israel. The connection is significant. The true King of Israel was Jehovah, and the removal of crown and miter therefore really meant the withdrawal of God from them. We remember the touching account of the glory’s departure (chs. 9–11).
Have you asked yourself the reason for this slow, deliberate departure of the glory from Israel? Why not depart from them at once? Oh, friends, in symbolic language God the Father thus spoke to His rebellious but beloved people the very words that Jesus spoke to Israel centuries later (Mt. 23:37):
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not!
He did not want to leave them. If they had repented, He would not have taken His presence from them. “For the space of three years and a half, said Rabbi Youchanan, the Shekinah was sitting upon the Mount of Olives thinking peradventure Israel might repent” (quoted by M. Margoliouth in his “Lord’s Prayer,” from the Preface to the Kabbalistic commentary on the Book of Lamentations, Aychah Rabatha. He also points out “that this was just the time that our Saviour labored personally to bring His own to repentance and while on the Mount of Olives wept over the holy city”).
Instead of repenting they only grew bolder in their sins, and, as God Himself pathetically complains to the prophet, they literally drove Him from their midst by their wickedness. “Son of man,” He says, “seest thou what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from My sanctuary?” (Ezek. 8:6). So that the prophet again sees the glory of Jehovah going up from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives (11:23), and after it stood there for some time, it finally departed.
Since that event there is one word written across Jewish history: “Ichabod”—where is the glory? The Lord has withdrawn Himself; the glory of Jehovah has departed from His land and His people.
They then went to Babylon, and when the seventy years were expired the handful who returned commenced to build a temple. While engaged in that task, the first of that great trio of post-exilic prophets, “Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah” (1:13), was commissioned to make the following announcement:
Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong…and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts…I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts…The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts (Hag. 2:3-9).
It is certainly true that in its fullness this, like every other prophecy in the Old Testament which announces Messiah’s advent, looks on to a time yet future.
There are two important questions which naturally suggest themselves. First, what is the glory promised in Haggai’s prophecy? Second, where was the glory?
The expression “the glory of Jehovah” when used in connection with Beth Jehovah (“the House of Jehovah”), has a technical meaning, and signifies the glory of the manifestation, or personal presence of Jehovah, which filled the temple, His dwelling place.
But then comes the second question: Where was the glory? When the tabernacle was finished we read of its consecration. “A cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.” And when Solomon’s temple was finished, we again read of its consecration. The symbolic cloud and the glory of Jehovah filled the house, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. But when the second temple was built, we never read of any such occurrence in connection with it. As a matter of fact, it never was after this manner formally taken possession of by God, nor was it in this sense ever consecrated. Where was the glory? According to Jewish historians themselves there were five things present in the first temple which were lacking in the second temple:
1. The ark and its contents;
2. The holy fire which descended from heaven to consume the sacrifices in token of God’s acceptance;
3. The Urim and Thummim;
4. The spirit of prophecy (the canon of the Old Testament being closed with Malachi, who prophesied soon after the completion of the second temple, the subsequent silent centuries of its existence may well, from their standpoint, be characterized by the absence of “the spirit of prophecy”);
5. The Shekinah glory.
We know from Jewish as well as from heathen writers that the holy of holies in the second temple, through the nearly five centuries of its existence, was a vacuum—an empty place, waiting for God to take manifest possession of it. Where, we ask again, was the glory? Nearly five centuries elapsed, and in the interval Herod, to gain favor with the Jews, was, at great labor and expense, completing considerable alterations and enlargement of the Temple. But Josephus, who gives us the full account of the alterations carried out by Herod, is careful to emphasize that it was still the same house, and that in the history of the Jews there have been only two temples—the one built by Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians, and the other built by Zerubbabel and afterwards enlarged and beautified by Herod.
This is what Josephus says, speaking of the destruction of the second temple:
Now, although anyone would justly lament the destruction of such a work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the works that we have seen or heard of…yet might such a one comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it so to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures and as to works and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the Babylonians. Now the number of years that passed from its first foundation, which was laid by King Solomon, till this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides seven months and fifteen days; and from the second building of it, which was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine years and forty-five days
(“Wars,” 6:6-8).
One day to “this house” a poor young woman of the House of David brought her first-born child to be presented to the Lord “and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord.” At the very same time an aged man, to whom it was revealed by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ, was led by the Spirit into the temple, and seeing the Child Jesus, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God (Lk. 2:29-32):
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people….
The central promise in Haggai’s prophecy in relation to “this house” had to wait long for its fulfillment but here at last was the greater glory; here was the real Presence. Later, after His entry on the Messianic office, when Christ, with a scourge of cords, drove before Him out of the temple the money-changers and sellers of doves, saying, “Make not My Fathers house a house of merchandise” that was its consecration (Jn. 2:16).
But there were not many, alas, whose eyes were opened to recognize the divine glory of this holy Child. There was an aged Simeon; there was Anna, a prophetess; there were those “that looked for redemption in Jerusalem,” to whom this holy woman probably prophesied the near approach of the Saviour. After His entrance on His public work there was a Nathaniel, a Peter, a John, and the company of other apostles and disciples to whom it was given to behold “His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” but as to the nation, they saw no beauty in Him to desire Him, and what was foretold by Isaiah came to pass: “He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and there was, as it were, the hiding of the face from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not.”
After He had for three-and-a-half years with outstretched arms continued to call Israel to Himself, He had little response. That which was symbolized by the departure of the Glory from the Mount of Olives received a second, personal, and more striking fulfillment when Jesus, also slowly and reluctantly, after shedding tears of sorrow for Jerusalem, and from the same spot whence the prophet saw the Glory depart, finally ascended out of sight. He led His disciples out as far as Bethany (on the Mount of Olives) and lifted up His hands and blessed them, “And it came to pass while He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” And since that event—since the departure of Jesus from Israel and the world—the word I have already quoted is written more legibly and in letters of fire across the twenty centuries of Jewish history: “Ichabod.” Where is the glory? The temple destroyed; the land a continual desolation; the people given over to be tossed to and fro among the nations.
But will the present state of things continue forever? Will man on earth no more behold the visible display of God’s glory? For answer we take up the words of Isaiah 40:5 with which we started: “And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.”
Ezekiel, who saw the departure of the glory of Jehovah, in his visions of the future also beheld its return; and from the same direction from which it departed.
Afterward He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory…And the glory of Jehovah came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold the glory of Jehovah filled the house.
And what is this but the same announcement in symbolic language made to the “men of Galilee” just as the Lord was departing from them, that “this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven”? As Man in a glorified body He ascended, and “this same Jesus,” as the “Son of Man,” bodily, He shall return. Visibly, with a cloud He was received out of their sight, and “in like manner,” visibly, “with the clouds of heaven,” He will descend again. It was from the Mount of Olives they saw Him finally depart; and on the same spot, “upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east” His blessed feet “shall stand in that day” (Zech. 14:4).
Then will Isaiah’s prophecy be fulfilled. “And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.”
But let us for a moment touch on the difference between the past and the future.
1. In the past Israel saw the glory of the personal presence of Jehovah only in symbol, and then the glory was always associated with the cloud, which while revealing also concealed; for man was not yet able to bear the full unveiling of His majesty, and even Israel’s prophets, who heard His voice, and were borne along by His power, had wonderingly to cry: “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour!”
Even when in the fullness of time He came, in whom all the attributes of Jehovah were embodied, who was “the effulgence of His glory and an exact representation of His very being,” we still observe the same principle at work of concealing while revealing Himself; for there was the “emptying” of Himself; there was the veiling of His glory; there was “the hiding of His power.” How else could man have approached Him and lived? How else could He have patiently endured the contradiction of sinners, and the dullness and frowardness of His own disciples, during those years of suffering as the Lamb of God? But by and by, “the glory of Jehovah shall be unveiled,” and will be no longer in symbol, but in bodily presence. There will be no longer a cloud to hide His glory from our eyes; no longer shall we see as in a glass darkly, but face to face, for He shall be manifested and “we shall see Him as He is.”
2. In the past it was only men of Israel who beheld even the symbolic or veiled glory of God, but by and by “all flesh shall see it together,” for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. “Behold He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him; and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen.”
We shall behold the unveiled glory of that face once so marred for us, and beholding it we shall be finally and conformed to that same image to be forever “like Him” (1 Jn. 3:2). The escaped of Israel “shall look upon Him whom they pierced,” now manifested in His true glory and power, and shall “mourn” and be saved (Zech. 12). And then a Christ-rejecting world will behold Him too, and say to the mountains,
Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb…at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of His power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus…when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be marvelled at in all them that believe…in that day (Rev. 6:16; 2 Thess. 1:6-10, rv).
This is the hope of Israel and of this sin-burdened earth. Not till then will the world be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea; not till then will the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness, or the dream of universal peace be realized. And it is the hope of the Church. “For the grace of God, bringing salvation,” says the apostle (Titus 2:11-15), “hath appeared to all men.” This is a terse summary of all that is implied in the first Advent. It was a marvellous display of the grace of God to man; a glorious Epiphany (as the word is in the original) on the hopelessness of the world.
But what is our attitude in relation to the future? Here it is: “Looking for” (or “awaiting with expectation”) “the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Here is the same blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of the personal presence of the great God and our Saviour brought over from the Old Testament into the pages of the New. All those who have become subjects of grace are pointed to it as the consummation of their blessedness, and are told eagerly to look for it.
Two Epiphanies are spoken of in this comprehensive scripture. One is already past—the Epiphany of grace—which shone forth at the incarnation and culminated on Calvary; but the other, to which both apostles and prophets bear witness, is yet future, the Epiphany of the glory, when Christ shall come to claim His own and when our eyes shall behold the King in His beauty.
—from The Ancient Scriptures and the Modern Jew, pp. 43-61