His Holy Name

"It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went...I will vindicate the holiness of My great name...Then the nations will know that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God.

--- Ezekiel 36: 22-23 ---

Over the past several weeks I have been working my way through the book of Ezekiel (as outlined in the Word of Life Quiet Time Diary); and though it has challenged me on many fronts one thing I have particularly noticed is an often repeated phrase: "for My name" (Ezek 20:9, 14, 22, 39; 36:20-23; 43:7-8).  The significance is this: on these words hinge both the Lord's rejection of and the promises of the eventual restoration of His people, Israel. 

Israel's failure to hold to the covenant He made with them at the time of Moses was not just a simple disobedience with simple consequences. As God's specific viceroy they held a great responsibility before all the other nations and their disobedience brought, not shame to them, but to the God they were representing. "My holy name...you have profaned among the nations" (Ezek 36:22). The word "profaned" carries with it the idea of making something commonly ordinary; secular. It is the opposite of setting apart; it is in direct contrast to holiness. His character - holiness - required that He reject, for a time, and judge the profaning nation of Israel with the purpose of vindicating His name. His glory is what is at stake.

But God's character functions in perfect balance and His name is not accurately vindicated ending at judgement alone. The same name that caused him to reject and judge the nation of Israel is also the foundation on which all the promises made to Israel rest. Would not the same nations who questioned the holiness of God because of Israel's failure at representing Him also question His holiness, faithfulness, sovereignty, and goodness should He reject them forever and therefore nullify the promises He had made to them since the time of Abraham? Would not Israel also, as the recipient of yet-unfulfilled promises, be able to question the name of their God? God is well-aware of this and at the same time Israel is undergoing His judgement He renews and makes a new promise to them as a nation. As during the judgement in the wilderness where God resolved to pour out His wrath on them but said, "I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned." (Ezek 20:22) so also, God promises to take His people, Israel, from among the nations and bring them back into their own land. "Then they will know that I am the Lord." (Ezek 36:38) And on that yet-coming day the glory will be to His holy name!

If we are faithless, He remains faithful,

for He cannot deny Himself.

---2 Timothy 2:13---

Though Israel's promises are not all necessarily mine, their same God is! I'm so thankful that He deals with me according to His name. Should the guarantee of the promises of my salvation rest on me it would have long ago been lost. But praise Him "for He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust" (Psa 103: 14). By faith in the work of His Son on the cross He has removed my sin "as far as the east is from the west" (Psa 103:12). And even when "we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim 2:13). Because I am still prone to failure and to misrepresent the One who saved me, He promises to graciously discipline which, though difficult while under it is not His rejection of me but rather evidence that I am His child and produces, in the end, sweet sanctification (Heb 12:5-11). And all this for the glory of His great name!