IV
THE SHEKINAH GLORY
AND THE COVENANTS
"The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar
of fire by night departed not from before
the people"
"Nevertheless, I will remember My cove-
nant with thee in the days of thy youth, and
I will establish unto thee an everlasting
covenant "
third of the "gifts" enumerated in our Scrip- ture as constituting part of Israel's high calling of God, is expressed in the words, "and the glory." This, of course, refers to the glory of the personal Presence of Jehovah in their midst, which
52
THE SHEKINAH GLORY 53
distinguished and separated Israel
from all other peoples (Ex. xxxiii. 1 6) that wonderful Shekinah, the visible symbol of which was the cloud of glory and pillar of fire, which went before them in all their wilderness experiences, and which never utterly left them, in spite of all their frowardness and sins ; the glory which in the Tabernacle and in the first Tem- ple dwelt between the cherubim, as the visible demonstration of His covenant relations with that people.
Well may their great lawgiver
exclaim, in view of this special
relationship of Jehovah to His
people, "Happy" (or, "oh, how
happy," or "blessed") "art thou, O Israel : who is like unto thee,
54 THE SHEKINAH GLORY
O people saved by Jehovah, the
Shield of thy help, and who is
the Sword of thy excellence "-
"for ask now of the days that
are past which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other where hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it ? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard, and live ? or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation by tempta- tions, by signs and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Jehovah your God
AND THE COVENANTS 55
did for you ?" (Deut. xxxiii. 29 ; iv. 32-34).
At present, and ever since the
commencement of " the Times of
the Gentiles "with the Babylonish
captivity, the glory has departed
from Israel, and since then the
word " Ichabod" is written over
their whole history. " Where is
the glory ? " their land is laid
waste, their Temple destroyed, themselves scattered and tossed about among the nations. But this " Ichabod " period will not last for ever.
The same prophet, Ezekiel, who in the earlier chapters of his prophecy describes the slow, reluctant departure of the glory of Jehovah from the midst of His people, sees also its return from
56 THE SHEKINAH GLORY
the same direction from which he
saw it depart a vision, this, of
the appearing of the glory of the
great God and our Saviour, Jesus
Christ, when His blessed " feet " shall " in that day " stand again " upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east."
But when the glory of the
personal Presence of Jehovah-
Jesus shall thus be revealed so
that all flesh may see it together, even as the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken Israel and Jeru- salem will again be the centre of it, and the word will yet go forth : " Cry out and shout, thou in- habitress of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of tkee" (Isa. xii. 6). Not till
AND THE COVENANTS 57
then, not till "out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, God doth
shine," will the ancient promise
be fulfilled, that the glory of
Jehovah shall cover this earth
even as the waters cover the sea : " For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but Jehovah shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and (then) nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. Ix. 1-3). Truly great and wonderful is the "gift," or privilege, expressed in the words, " theirs is the glory."
" And the Covenants"- This is
the fourth item in the summary
of the "gifts and calling" which
God irrevocably bestowed upon
5 8 THE SHEKINAH GLORY
the chosen nation ; and at the
remembrance of it the Psalmist
may well sing :
" Glory ye in His Holy Name ;
Let the heart of them rejoice that seek
Jehovah, . . .
He remembers His covenant for ever,
The word which He commanded to a
thousand generations
Which (covenant) He made with Abra-
ham.