“The LORD is there” — what did that mean to them?

It takes them back to the garden. Eden was a park, and it did not cover the whole earth; it was the place where God’s presence was uniquely known. God walked there. And it seems to have remained that way after the fall — which is why Adam and Eve were put out, and why it was guarded:

So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:24  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

The fall put man out of the immediate presence of God. Yet Cain and Abel appear to bring their offerings there, at the entrance to the garden, in the presence of the LORD. And the cherubim will echo down the whole story — they turn up again embroidered on a veil, and standing over an ark.

Following the fire

Moses sees a burning bush — the same fire Adam and Eve saw, a symbol of the self-existent God. Then the people are brought out of Egypt out of slavery — not into freedom, but into slavery to a new master. No man is free. We are all slaves to someone; these are to be love-slaves of God.

And as soon as they leave Egypt they are met with fire again — the presence of God, which then simply stays with them: the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They lived in the presence of God.

Man was moving back toward the reason he was made: to live and have his being in the presence of God.

So in the wilderness God has them build Him a tent. They all lived in tents; God lived in one in the middle of them. They were camping with God. That tent was called the Tabernacle — read Exodus 33:7–15.

Thus Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend… And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.”

Exodus 33:11, 14–15  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

The glory of God resided over the ark. Once a year the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, and on the veil in front of the ark were embroidered two cherubim — just like Eden. Try to imagine what it was like to have the actual visible presence of God: in their tent, and then in the temple.

And still they went into idolatry

God called to them continually through His prophets to repent, and they would not hear. So the thing that had been travelling with them since the bush withdrew:

Then the glory of Yahweh departed from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim… and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the house of Yahweh.

Ezekiel 10:18–19  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

The very meaning of their existence is withdrawing, and nobody notices. The sense of the passage is that God was loath to leave — it reads as though He is waiting for someone to say something. No one did.

The promise of a return

Then Ezekiel introduces a new temple, and from it flow rivers of living water (Ezekiel 47). God will come back in His glory — and in a way He had never been with them before.

And the glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east… and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.

Ezekiel 43:4–5  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

Out the east gate in chapter 10; back in through the east gate in chapter 43.

Where this points

The next time we hear of the glory of the LORD is at the birth of Jesus. All the prophets spoke of Him; Isaiah called Him Immanuel — God with us. The presence of the LORD is with us. Yahweh Shammah.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14  ·  Legacy Standard Bible — LSB footnotes dwelt as “tabernacled”

He pitched His tent among us. The word John chooses is the tabernacle word. And the others say the same thing from different angles: “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9); “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3).

On that last one — think of the sun and the sunshine. There is no sunshine if there is no sun. You cannot separate them, and yet they are distinct.

Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

I Corinthians 3:16  ·  Legacy Standard Bible — LSB notes sanctuary is the inner part of the temple

Do you not know that you are the temple?

The finale

It ends where it began — in a garden, with the presence no longer guarded by a sword.

And I saw no sanctuary in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Revelation 21:22–23  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

No need of sun, moon or candle — because He Himself is its light.

When the Church is really the Church, we will know that the LORD is there.