Ezekiel 36:16-38
Dear RTB’ers,
…My holy name… This phrase occurs three times in today’s reading, plus one other occurrence where “great” replaces “holy”. It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. (v. 22b) That is, the Lord’s punishment of Israel for their sinfulness – their military defeats, their exiles, their wanderings – leads their neighboring nations to feel that Israel’s God is weak, that He cannot protect His people. It makes Him (His holy name) look bad. So when He returns His people to His land, it is for the sake of His name, not because of any goodness within Israel: Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. (vv. 31-32) God is offering restoration, but also seeking repentance.
The Lord’s concern for His name hearkens back to His concern with idolatry, back to the first commandment, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:1-2) I heard a speaker once suggest that the other nine commandments are all subsets of the first commandment. Everything else that is sin is a direct result of us placing something else in higher regard than God. In every wrong thing that we do, we are placing ourselves or our goals or our wants above Him. But yes, He has provided a “way out” for us: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules. (vv. 26-27)
I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. … Then they will know that I am the LORD. (vv. 36b, 38b)
Blessings.
See also: August 12 (2023) / Ezekiel 34-37 (again).
Very much on target, Fred!
So, questions for us: