We have seen His glory

Moses constructed the Tabernacle according to the pattern shown to him on the mount. When the Tabernacle was completed God made His presence known by means of the p illar of fire and the pillar of cloud. The movement of the pillar was God’s signal for Israel to pack

up and move until the pillar stopped (Exo. 13:17-22).

One of the items housed in the Tabernacle was the Ark (Exodus 25:1-22). The Lord said to Moses,

There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel (25:22).

Later in Israel’s history Solomon built the Temple. The day Solomon dedicated the Temple we are told:

the priests came out of the Holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord (1 Kings 8:10,11).

Again, the Lord makes His presence known in the place built for Him.

But when Israel reached the point at which there was “no remedy” (2 Chro. 36:16). God removed His presence from Jerusalem. Ezekiel describes what he saw while in Babylonian captivity: “…the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house…” (Ezek. 10:18). This marks one of the major turning points in Israel’s history.

This is when Judah was taken captive to Babylon. But all hope is not gone. Moses, centuries earlier, told the children of Israel that this would happen. He also told them that when they returned to the Lord, He would return them to the Promised Land.

Five hundred years after captivity Jesus enters the Story. John writes,

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

It is here that I see another connection in the big Story. When the Tabernacle was completed in the wilderness, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. When the Temple was completed, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. When the word became flesh and dwelt among men John and others saw “glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Psalms and Prophets foretold of a day when the Lord would return to rule His people and that the glory of the Lord would return. God returned to rule by means of the Son. John writes, that when this happened they saw His glory. Is this signaling to the reader that the glory of the Lord that departed Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s day has returned through the presence of the Son? I think this, at least in part, is the case. I am also persuaded through the writings of Paul that the presence of the Spirit in the church is somehow connected.

I am confident that many readers are aware of the fact that when John writes of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, that the word for “dwelt” could also be translated “tabernacled” or “pitched his tent.” This is undoubtedly an echo from the Old Testament tabernacle and Temple.