Glory Gone Series

Several years ago, Business Insider ran an article titled “7 Brutally Honest Job Rejection Letters.” Here are just two of them.

Sub Pop, an independent record label in Seattle, sent the following rejection letter: Dear Loser, Thank you for sending your demo materials to Sun Pop for consideration. Presently, your demo package is one of a massive quantity of material we receive everyday at Sub Pop World Headquarters. [Your material] is on its way through the great lower intestines that is the talent acquisitions process. We appreciate your interest and wish the best in your pursuit. Kind regards. P.S. This letter is known as a "rejection letter."

New Delta Review, a literary magazine in Baton Rouge, sent the following rejection letter: Thank you for submitting. Unfortunately, the work you sent is quite terrible. Please forgive the form rejection, but it would take too much of my time to tell you exactly how terrible it was. So again, sorry for the form letter (Vivian Giang, “7 Brutally Honest Job Rejection Letters,” Business Insider, 6-24-13; www.PreachingToday.com).

Ouch! With friends like these, who needs enemies.

Today, instead of sending a rejection letter, people just ghost you. They abruptly end all contact with you, especially electronic contact, like texts, emails, and chats.

Sad to say, people do that with God. If they don’t out and out reject Him, they simply ghost him, ending all contact with Him. So, what does God do when He’s ghosted? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 10, Ezekiel 10, where the nation of Israel ghosted Him.

Ezekiel 10:1-5 Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks (ESV).

When Solomon built the temple 500 years previously, the Bible says, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple” (2 Chronicles 7:1). Here, Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord leaving the temple.

God’s sapphire-like throne above the cherubim had moved from inside the temple to its south side, as He was getting ready to leave Jerusalem altogether. When Israel’s worship center was at Shiloh, it was destroyed shortly after God’s glory had departed from it (1 Samuel 4; Jeremiah 7:12-14). Now, the same fate awaits the temple in Jerusalem.

That’s because His own people had rejected Him. In that very temple complex, they were worshipping idols (Ezekiel 8-9). Amir Tsarfati says, “Imagine a woman bringing her boyfriend into the family room, snuggling up to her beau on the couch, flipping on the television, then starting a make-out session. All the while, her husband is watching the disrespectful display from his easy chair” (Amar Tsarfati, Exploring Ezekiel, Harvest House Publishers, 2025, p.57).

No wonder God was leaving His house. His bride, Israel, had brought other lovers into the house, and He could no longer stand it. They had literally turned their backs on God to worship the sun and other false gods (Ezekiel 8:16). However, before He leaves, God commanded the “man clothed in linen” to scatter burning coals over the city of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 10:6-8 And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings (ESV).

God was going to judge Jerusalem with fire, which is exactly what happened when the Babylonians overran the city. 2 Kings 25 says, “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down” (2 Kings 25:8-9). When God left the city, His protection left with Him and its citizens were doomed.