Dear friend on Thursday evening,
To feel the weight of tonight’s verse, you have to know what came before it. Chapters earlier, Ezekiel watched the unthinkable: the glory of God leaving the temple, rising up and departing to the east, abandoning a people who had abandoned him. It was the darkest sight in the book. And then, tonight, he sees it come back.
“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. And his voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.” (Ezekiel 43:2)
🌟 Hebrew Focus
The word is kol, קוֹל, “voice” or “sound.” And Ezekiel does something bold with it: he says God’s kol was “like the kol of mayim rabbim“, the sound of many waters. Now, we often picture God’s voice as the “still small voice”, the gentle whisper Elijah heard. That is real. But it is not the only register God has. Here his kol is the opposite: the overwhelming, ground-shaking roar of a great cataract, a flooding river, the ocean in a storm. It is a sound you cannot talk over, cannot argue with, cannot ignore. When God speaks like mayim rabbim, every other voice, your fears, your accusers, the noise of the world, is simply drowned out.
But do not miss why the sound is so overwhelming here: it is the sound of the glory (kavod, a word we have opened) coming back. This is the return no one thought would happen. The kavod had left, out the east gate, and now “the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east“ (kadim), from the very direction it had departed. God does not leave forever. What looked like abandonment was not the end of the story. The glory that went out to the east comes home from the east, roaring, and “the earth shone with his glory.” Return, not ruin.
And for us, this thunderous returning voice has a name. In Revelation, John sees the risen Christ and describes him with Ezekiel’s exact phrase: “his voice was like the sound of many waters“ (Revelation 1:15). The glory Ezekiel watched come back to a temple has returned for good in Jesus, and one day the whole redeemed multitude will roar back, “like the sound of many waters... Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:6). The voice that drowns out every other is the voice of the One who came back for you.
🔍 Beginner Hebrew
קוֹל · kol · voice, sound
מַיִם רַבִּים · mayim rabbim · many waters (an overwhelming roar)
כָּבוֹד · kavod · glory (we’ve opened this)
קָדִים · kadim · the east (the way the glory returned)
📖 The Pattern
God has more than a whisper. We can shrink God’s voice down to a gentle nudge we might be imagining. Ezekiel corrects the picture. Sometimes the kol of God is the roar of many waters, unmistakable, overwhelming, a sound that ends the argument. If you have been straining to hear a whisper, remember: he is also the God whose voice fills the whole earth and drowns out every rival. His silence is never his only mode.
The glory comes back. This is the heart of it. Ezekiel had watched the kavod depart, and it broke him. But the vision he was given, and asked to write down, was the return. If you have felt God’s presence lift from some place, a church, a season, your own heart, do not read the departure as the whole story. The pattern of Scripture is that the glory comes back, from the east, roaring, and the earth shines again.
The returning voice has a face. John reached for this very verse to describe the risen Jesus, “his voice like the sound of many waters.” So the overwhelming, glory-returning kol is not an impersonal force. It is the voice of Christ, who came back from the grave and is coming back again. When that voice speaks over you, whatever has been shouting you down, condemnation, fear, despair, is drowned in the roar of the One who returned.
🛤️ Practice
Let a louder voice drown the others. Name the voice that has been shouting you down, fear, an accuser, a lie. Then picture the kol of many waters, and let God’s voice be the louder one.
Don’t read departure as the end. Where has God’s presence seemed to lift? Hold Ezekiel’s whole vision: the glory that left is the glory that returns.
Listen for the roar, not just the whisper. Tonight, do not only strain for a faint nudge. Worship the God whose voice is like the ocean, and let his bigness quiet you.
Step 2 of tonight’s worksheet walks you from the presence that seemed to leave to the glory that comes back.
🎯 Reflection & Prayer
LORD, tonight I have been listening to smaller voices, fear, accusation, the noise that shouts me down. So let me hear your kol, your voice like the sound of many waters, the roar that drowns out every rival. And thank you for what Ezekiel saw: the glory that departed did not stay gone. It came back, from the east, and the earth shone. Where your presence has seemed to lift from me, remind me that return, not ruin, is the pattern. And thank you that this returning voice is the voice of Jesus, who came back for me, and is coming again. Speak, and quiet everything else. Amen.
🗣️ Transliteration & Pronunciation
The word is kol (kole), קוֹל, “voice, sound.” Ezekiel says God’s kol was like the kol of mayim rabbim (MAH-yim rah-BEEM), “many waters”, an overwhelming roar. The glory (kavod) returns from the east (kadim), the way it had left, and the earth shines. Echoed of the risen Christ in Revelation 1:15. Ezekiel 43:2.
🛠️ Tonight’s Kit, for paid subscribers
The Kol Kit:
📄 Kol Print Pack · the word, the verse, and the practice as a clean 5×7 PDF for your Binder
✍️ The Voice That Came Back · a worksheet from the presence that seemed to leave to the glory that returns
📖 Kol Deep-Dive · A Voice Like Many Waters · kol, the roar of mayim rabbim, the glory returning from the east, and the risen Christ
🎙️ Kol Meditation · a short audio to let God’s voice drown out the smaller ones
🔊 Kol Pronunciation Guide · the key words in Hebrew, slow, say-it-after-me
Another page in the Binder you’re building, one word at a time.
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💛 Thank you, Georgia, for tonight’s verse. And thank you for reading. These notes stay free because readers pass them on, so if someone you love feels like God’s presence has left them, send them this: Ezekiel watched the glory come back.
