(Ezekiel 20.)
While Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem in the closing years of Zedekiah, the last of the kings of Judah, Ezekiel was the prophet of Jehovah among the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon along with king Jehoiakin. Jehovah’s message through both prophets was very solemn, declaring that the time had come for the execution of His judgment on His people because of their sins. The evil of Ahaz and Manasseh had called aloud for divine retribution, but their God had waited patiently and in mercy, seeking to recall His wayward people to Himself. But Israel had despised the long-suffering of Jehovah, for priests, kings, prophets and people were united in idolatrous worship, while still professing to honour His Name and using His house.
The captives of Babylon were no more pious than the remnant in the land, and when “certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the Lord” through the prophet Ezekiel, the word of Jehovah came to him saying, “Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you” (Ezek. 20:1–3). Had there been repentance for their sins, and brokenness of spirit, the Lord would gladly have given them His ear, but He knew their low moral condition and the hypocrisy of their approach to Him.
Jehovah then recalls His ways with Israel, going back to the time of their captivity in Egypt, and looks forward to the time when, in spite of all they have been, He will bring them into the fulness of the blessing He had promised. The secret of God’s goodness and long-suffering is found in the words, four times spoken, “But I wrought for My Name’s sake.”
Israel In Egypt
God goes right back to the time when He made Himself known to Israel in Egypt, in view of bring them into “the glory of all lands,” and He called upon them to forsake “the idols of Egypt,” with which they had defiled themselves. Instead of obeying the word of the Lord, who had come to redeem them, they rebelled against Him, continuing with their idolatry. God was righteously angry with His people, and threatened to pour out His fury upon them” (verse 8). Then we learn the great secret of God’s long-suffering and mercy, “But I wrought for My Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I had made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt” (verse 9).
In wondrous grace, God had committed Himself to deliver His people out of the land in which they were held captive, and the honour of His great Name was bound up with what He had said He would do. And God vindicated His Name when He poured out His judgments, not upon Israel who deserved it as much as the Egyptians, but upon those who had taught His people to serve their idols, and who would not let them go to worship the living and the true God.
Israel in the Wilderness
Having delivered His people out of Egypt, and having brought them to Himself in the wilderness, the Lord said, “I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths” (verses 11, 12). While in Egypt, and until Israel undertook to keep the law, God had dealt with His people in grace; but at the foot of Sinai they had bound themselves in a covenant of blood to keep all the commandments of the law, not realising their impotence and sinful state. Had they kept the law, they would have lived, but in breaking the law they brought themselves under the curse that was attached to it. Their ignorance of themselves, and their self-will, were fully exposed by the law they could not keep.
The worship of the golden calf at the foot of Sinai, and their refusal of the tidings of the goodly land, brought by Joshua and Caleb (Num. 14), caused Israel’s God to say, “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments” (verse 13). Because of their sins, God said, “I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.”
Why then did God not carry out this threatened judgment? He gives us the answer, “But I wrought for my Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out” (verse 14). Moses knew the heart of Jehovah, when he interceded for Israel saying, “Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people…Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people” (Ex. 32:11-12).
How delightful must the intercession of Moses have been to the Lord, for His faithful servant spoke just what was in His own heart. His own thoughts, and His own compassions, were reflected in the thoughts and words of Moses, and God listens to His servant, and his pleadings turn God from the fierceness of His wrath. Yet, not all the intercessions could have turned away God’s wrath had He not been concerned with the honour of His great Name.
In Numbers 14 we have the same story. Israel rebels, saying, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt” (verse 4). Then the Lord said, “I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee (Moses) a greater nation and mightier than they. How richly the character of Moses is seen in his reply to God, “Then the Egyptians shall hear it…and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that Thou Lord art among this people…then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He sware unto them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness” (verses 13–16). Then Moses pleads for Jehovah’s pardon, according to the greatness of His mercy; and the Lord said, “I have pardoned according to thy word.”
Moses, utterly unselfish, thinks not of anything for himself, but rather of the Name of Jehovah and the good of His people. He pleads the honour of the Lord’s Name in fulfilling what He had set Himself to do regarding His people, thinking of how His great Name would be dishonoured if the Lord did not carry out what He had said He would do for Israel, and also how His Name was known for His long-suffering, great mercy, and forgiving iniquity and transgression. The “meekest man in all the earth” knew well that God’s word would still be fulfilled if He made of him a great nation, but to Moses this would not vindicate His great Name among the nations who knew well all that God had done, and were watching His ways with Israel.
So God forgave Israel, and wrought for His Name’s sake. But there was the righteous government of God of which He speaks to Ezekiel, “Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land…because they despised my judgments…Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness” (verses 15–17). God’s Name as a merciful God was vindicated in His government of the rebellious, for that generation perished gradually in the wilderness.
The Second Generation
God had carefully noted the ways of His people, and said to Moses, “All those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice” (Num. 14:22). And having pronounced His sentence, “Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness,” He added, “But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised” (verses 29–31). These “little ones” are those of whom Jehovah speaks in Ezekiel 20:18, “But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.”
This second generation is called upon by Jehovah to renounce the ways of their fathers, and walk in the ways of Jehovah. Alas, they were just like their fathers, for the Lord is compelled to say of them, “Nevertheless the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them” (Ezek. 20:21). The rebellion of Korah, and the murmuring that followed, with the consequent divine judgments, recorded in Numbers 16, was probably the responsibility of the first generation, but the judgments of the fiery serpents in Numbers 21, and of Baal-peor in Numbers 25, undoubtedly involved the second generation.
How greatly the Lord was provoked by the rebellion and murmurings of His people for whom He had shown such love and mercy, providing for them in every way during their wilderness sojourn, protecting them from the hands of their watchful foes, and not allowing Balaam to curse them when Balak brought him from Syria to do so. It is little wonder that we read, “Then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.” Yet, how wonderful, and how blessed to hear Jehovah say, “Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my Name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth” (verse 22).
The honour of Jehovah’s Name was indissolubly bound up with the blessing of His people, in His counsels of grace, and not even the wickedness of Israel could turn Him from what He had purposed and set His hand to accomplish. His hand, lifted in judgment, He in mercy withdraws, for He considers how the destruction of His people would be viewed by their enemies. But He is not only merciful, He is also righteous, and because of their rebellion He said, “I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries” (verse 23).
If the hand with the sword is withdrawn, the hand that swears is raised, and Jehovah’s voice pronounces His governmental judgment on their sins. The sentence pronounced in the wilderness was not at once executed. In His long-suffering, God waited patiently for more than 800 years before scattering His rebellious people among the heathen, and dispersing them through the countries. During this long time there was almost continual provocation for the Lord, and how often His intervention in mercy for their preservation.
Israel Restored
When Israel were settled in the land, the Lord allowed them in His government to reap the bitter fruits of their rebellion, idolatry and blasphemy, and those who came to enquire of Jehovah from the prophet Ezekiel were no better, therefore He refused to listen to them (verses 27–32). The judgments about to be poured forth on Israel at that time, and perhaps those that will fall upon the nation under antichrist, are found in verse 33, where the Lord says, “With a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.”
Then the recovery of Israel is foretold by the Lord. He looks down the centuries when He says, “I will bring you out from the people, and I will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out” (verse 34). God’s arm is outstretched for the recovery of Israel, His fury poured out against the enemies of His people.
When Israel are called back from among the Gentiles, they will be brought into the wilderness before entering the land, and passing “under the rod” they will be brought again into covenant relationship with their God, but it will be a new covenant, that of which the Lord speaks in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and which is founded on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 26:28).
As they pass under the rod, the rebels will be purged out, not being allowed to enter the land of Israel, for all who enter there will serve the Lord, and He will accept them and the offerings they present to Him. Israel will be a sanctified nation to Jehovah their God before the face of all the nations in that day.
Brought back to the land, Israel will indeed know the Lord their God, and realise that He has fulfilled to them the promises made to the fathers concerning possession of “the glory of all lands.” They will remember all their evil ways, and “lothe” themselves on account of them (verse 42, 43). At this time will be the great mourning of which Zechariah speaks (Zech. 12:10-14), those who have been preserved in the land, through the judgments, and those who are brought back from among the nations, realising that they owe all their blessing to the One who was crucified, but who has returned to bless them on the ground of the new covenant in His blood.
Then shall be fulfilled the words of the Lord, “Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My Name’s Sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, says the Lord God” (verse 44). Israel will then be restored to the land because of God’s sovereign goodness. Had He dealt with them after their sins, they must have perished. Over and over again, in their long history, they have deserved the unsparing judgment of God, but their blessing, on account of His promises to Abraham, based on His own counsels of love, were bound up with the honour of His Name; so time and again, when He might have consumed them, He spared them, to vindicate the honour of His great and holy Name.
And what shall we say regarding His dealings with those He has called out from among the Gentiles to be a people for His Name? In sovereign goodness He has blessed us, not because of anything in ourselves, or because of anything that we have done, for we were but sinners, alienated from God, and enemies by wicked works. We know that He has forgiven our sins, and as it is written in 1 John 2:12, it is “for His Name’s sake.” Every blessing that we already enjoy, and all that awaits us in the coming day, we owe to the sovereign love of God, and to His having chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, according to His eternal counsels.
What praises shall be brought to God from the hearts of His redeemed earthly people in the coming day, and from the hearts of the many redeemed families in heaven, as we contemplate the great and sovereign love that has brought rich and eternal blessings to those He has chosen, and brought to Himself through the blood of Jesus, and for “His Name’s sake.”
R. 5.11.66.