Ezekiel's vision of the Spirit leaving the Temple

Preaching while in exile, Ezekiel had a dramatic vision of the Spirit of God leaving the Temple. Solomon first built the temple, but the building deteriorated both in its physical structure and its spiritual impact. The Babylonians destroyed the building in 586 BC, but Ezekiel's message is even more frightening. God Himself had deserted what once had been the holiest place on earth. This video using animation from Bible-Scenes.com and pulls back from today's Temple Mount over the Mount of Olives. While the image is frightening and appears to be a fatal blow to Judean's chance of being in a right relationship with God again, some Jewish scholars point out that God's people had been exiled to the east, in Babylon and Persia. In Ezekiel's vision, the Spirit of God was last seen pausing over the Mount of Olives ... heading toward the east. Perhaps Ezekiel's vision was a message of hope to his fellow exiles in Babylon.