Glory’s return

Beale notes the connection between Revelation 18:1, which describes the glory of the angel lighting the earth, and Ezekiel 43:2: “the earth shone with his glory.” The LXX overlap is not strong, but the two passages are clearly connected in meaning.

What’s striking is the difference in context. Ezekiel 43 is describing the glory’s return to Jerusalem. Historically, that return was connected with the fall of Babylon, and that helps to explain the sequel in revelation 18, where the illuminated angel announces the fall of Babylon and urges the people of God to flee the city. But the glory of the angel is displayed at the moment that the harlot city has fallen, not when the city is being rebuilt. The glory that illuminates the earth has opposite meanings in the two passages.

At a deeper level, though, the two are connected. The appearance of the glory in Ezekiel 43 signals the end of Yahweh’s exile, and hence the end of Israel’s exile. And that’s just what the angel is announcing: The people of God have been exiles in Babylon-Jerusalem, but they are now fleeing the city for another city, a city that comes from heaven, whose Builder and Maker is God.