When Glory Bails

Date: Monday, May 18, 2026

Ezekiel 10 is a tragic but important moment in the history of “God with us”. It paints a cinematic scene where the Shekinah glory of God, which is the literal, tangible presence of the Almighty, lifts up from the temple in Jerusalem and departs. For Israel, this was the ultimate existential crisis. The temple was their security blanket, even if the constant reminder of God’s visible presence had become mundane. But God refuses to be managed or ignored, and when His people chose empty religious performance over genuine relationship, the glory bailed.

If we stop reading there, it’s pure tragedy. But looking through the lens of the grand narrative of Scripture, this tragic exit prepares the way for an even wilder entrance. Centuries later, John’s Gospel drops the ultimate plot twist: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14). The path that Jesus follows on Palm Sunday, riding into Jerusalem, and then directly into the temple, is the exact (reverse) path that the Shekinah departed centuries earlier. God’s glory didn’t abandon humanity forever; it got skin on. Jesus is the true Temple, and because of His finished work, that same wild, untameable glory doesn’t live in buildings made of brick and mortar anymore. It lives in you.

Psalm 114 reminds us of the raw power of this presence. It talks about the Red Sea fleeing and mountains skipping like rams when God showed up for Israel’s deliverance. The very presence that made creation tremble is the presence that lives inside us through the Holy Spirit. If you feel like you are sitting in a season of desertion or dry routine, take heart. God isn’t trapped in your past or confined to your religious structures. His grace is alive, fluid, and inviting you to step out of the dead monuments of yesterday and chase His living presence today.

Devotional Prompts:

How does knowing that you are now the temple of God’s glory change the way you view your daily life and ordinary spaces?
In what ways have you seen God use a painful season of disruption to clear the way for something entirely new?

Prayer: Lord of the cosmos, shake us out of our comfortable, domesticated religion. Forgive us for trying to box Your glory into our neat human agendas. Let us walk today in the jaw-dropping reality that Your living Spirit dwells within us, transforming our ordinary moments into sacred ground. Amen.