THE GLORY OF THE LORD

In Ezekiel 43:5, it tells us that “the Glory of the Lord filled the temple.” In the OT this is referring to an actual building constructed exactly according to the measurements God gave. Once it was complete, His Glory filled it. Since the OT points to Christ and the NT, we know that after Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to fill all believers and serve as a comforter and guide. From this, we now have a picture of God who dwells inside the believer, or the temple, which is our bodies.

            If we want God to fill our temple, we need to make it presentable and not defile it by how we live. The Holy Spirit is the Glory of the Lord, who now fills us. John 15:4 says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

            To make room for Him we must rid ourselves and our hearts of the sins that block Him and His presence. When we are allowing other things to rule in our hearts, it takes away from God’s glory and His presence in us. In other words, we are not bearing fruit. We are to take care of our temple and keep it holy as God is holy. We can do this by praying for God to reveal to us any areas of our life that are blocking His Holy Spirit from entering. We can use the prayer David used in Ps. 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

            We are not complete in Christ until we remove the sin in our lives and strive every day to be more like Jesus. A tall order that we will never achieve this side of heaven, but one that we can work towards as we walk in His light, abide in Him, and seek the Kingdom of God more than anything else. It is only then that Christ will fill our hearts and temple with the full measure of His glory.

The ESV Study Bible notes that the measurements and regulations for the temple in Ezekiel are not merely interesting details, but they communicate something of the character of God. Likewise, our temple must be in alignment with His regulations (our character) and the precisely measured room in our hearts (without sin or the things we put before Him) will allow His glory to abide in us. This is just another way of saying that anything less takes away from His glory and presence within us, the temple.