God Came Off The Platform!

He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.   John 1:14

Six hundred years after Ezekiel’s visions, the glory of God came down among us.

God came off the platform! The Lord of glory came down from the throne, took human flesh, and was born in a small town outside Jerusalem. The one who sat on a throne held up by angels now lay in a manger as angels looked down on him.

Jesus Christ, who is the glory of God, also came to the Temple. And as he taught the things of God there day after day, he saw that the Temple had become a den of thieves and robbers. The people did not want him there, so he left the Temple, not on a flying platform, but in the custody of armed guards. The glory of God left Jerusalem, bearing a cross to the place outside the city wall where he was crucified.

On the third day, he rose from the dead. It was impossible for death to keep hold of him. And for forty days, he appeared to his disciples, proving “to them in many ways that he was actually alive” (Acts 1:3).

Then Christ went to a mountain east of the city—the Mount of Olives. He stood on the very spot where Ezekiel had seen the glory of God hovering as the platform left the Temple. As the disciples watched, Christ ascended to his throne in the presence of the Father. An angel appeared to them and said, “Why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:11).

The glory of God appeared, and the glory departed from the city as Christ was rejected and crucified outside Jerusalem. The glory has returned to the throne in heaven, and the glory of God will come again. That is where all history is headed. On that day, we will be caught up to meet him in the air (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17), and so we will be forever with the Lord.

For further reading, see Acts 1