For the Sake of His Name Text: Ezekiel 36:16-21
Introduction: The Centrality of God's Reputation
We live in an age that is utterly man-centered. Everything, from our politics to our pulpits, revolves around the great idol of Self. We want a god who exists to validate our feelings, to meet our needs, and to make us happy. We have domesticated the lion of Judah and turned him into a housecat who purrs when we scratch him behind the ears. Our evangelism is man-centered, our worship is man-centered, and our theology is man-centered. We have made the great story of redemption all about us.
And then a passage like this one from Ezekiel crashes into our therapeutic, self-esteem-soaked world like a meteor. It tells us a story that is profoundly offensive to modern sensibilities. It is a story about God's wrath, God's judgment, and God's holiness. But most importantly, it is a story about God's ultimate concern, which is not our comfort, but His own reputation. The ultimate reason for everything God does, from creation to judgment to salvation, is the glory of His own name. He is not a means to our ends. We are a means to His.
This is not some minor theme. This is the bedrock of all reality. As John Piper has famously hammered home, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. But the reverse is also true. God's name is most profaned by His people when they demonstrate to the world that He is not, in fact, satisfying. When those who wear His jersey, His covenant sign, live in such a way that the watching world concludes that their God is either impotent or irrelevant, the name of God is dragged through the mud. This is what was happening with Israel in the exile, and it is what is happening with much of the Western church today. This passage is a divine diagnosis of the problem and a declaration of God's ultimate solution, a solution that He undertakes not for our sake, but for His.
The Text
Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, "Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. Also I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. Then they came to the nations to which they came. And they profaned My holy name because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of Yahweh; yet they have come out of His land.’ But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.
(Ezekiel 36:16-21 LSB)
Covenant Land, Covenant Filth (v. 16-17)
God begins His diagnosis by reminding Ezekiel of the root of the problem: Israel's sin in the land He had given them.
"Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity." (Ezekiel 36:17)
Notice the setting: "in their own land." This was the land of covenant promise, the land flowing with milk and honey. It was a gift. But instead of consecrating it to God through their obedience, they "defiled it." The word defiled means to pollute, to make unclean. Sin is not just a legal infraction; it is a pollutant. It is spiritual filth that contaminates everything it touches. Their "ways" (their moral direction) and their "deeds" (their specific actions) were a stench in God's nostrils.
And God uses a shocking, visceral simile to drive the point home. Their way was "like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity." Under the Mosaic law, a woman during her menstrual cycle was ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 15). Anything she touched became unclean. This was not because menstruation is sinful, but because it was a powerful, recurring object lesson about life and death. It was a sign of a life that was not brought to fruition, a reminder of the curse of death that hangs over our fallen world. God is saying that Israel's entire way of life, their constant idolatry and injustice, was a state of perpetual ceremonial defilement. They were walking contagion, spreading their spiritual filth all over His holy land.
Righteous Wrath and Just Judgment (v. 18-19)
Because God is holy, He cannot abide uncleanness. His reaction to Israel's defilement was not arbitrary; it was the necessary response of a righteous character.
"Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. Also I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them." (Ezekiel 36:18-19)
The "therefore" is crucial. God's wrath is not a moody outburst. It is the settled, judicial, and holy opposition of His nature to all that is evil. He poured it out like a flood. Why? For two primary reasons that summarize their covenant unfaithfulness: bloodshed and idolatry. They shed innocent blood, violating the horizontal commands of the covenant (love your neighbor). And they worshipped idols, violating the vertical commands (love God). These two always go together. When you abandon the true God, you will inevitably begin to abuse the men and women made in His image.
The result of this judgment was exile. "I scattered them among the nations." This was not Plan B. This was exactly what God had promised would happen in the covenant curses laid out in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. If they obeyed, they would be blessed in the land. If they disobeyed, they would be vomited out of the land. God is a covenant-keeping God, and He keeps His promises of cursing just as faithfully as He keeps His promises of blessing. The judgment was perfectly just: "According to their ways and their deeds I judged them." The punishment fit the crime. They polluted the land, so they were removed from the land.
The Great Profanation (v. 20)
But here, the problem takes a turn. The judgment, though perfectly just, created a public relations nightmare for God among the nations.
"Then they came to the nations to which they came. And they profaned My holy name because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of Yahweh; yet they have come out of His land.’" (Ezekiel 36:20)
This is the heart of the issue. When the Israelites were exiled, they became a walking billboard for, apparently, a weak and defeated God. The pagan nations looked at these refugees and drew a perfectly logical, albeit blasphemous, conclusion. They said, "These are the people of Yahweh." They had Yahweh's name attached to them. They were His representatives. "Yet they have come out of His land." The reasoning of the nations was simple: a god's power is tied to his land and his people. If that people is conquered and that land is taken, it means their god was weaker than the conquering god, in this case, Marduk of Babylon.
So, Israel's sin created a situation where God's just judgment resulted in the profanation of His own name. To profane means to treat something holy as common. The nations were looking at the evidence and concluding that Yahweh was just another tribal deity, and not a very powerful one at that. Israel, by their sin and subsequent exile, had made God's name a laughingstock. They were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, showing the world the goodness and power of Yahweh. Instead, they became an object lesson in divine failure.
God's Ultimate Concern (v. 21)
This brings us to the ultimate motivation for the glorious restoration that God is about to announce in the rest of the chapter. It is not pity for Israel. It is zeal for His own reputation.
"But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went." (Ezekiel 36:21)
The "but" here is a thunderclap. God sees the situation. His name, His reputation, His glory is being treated as common. And He is moved to act. He has "concern for My holy name." The Hebrew word for concern here can be translated as "pity" or "compassion." God has compassion on His own name. He will not stand by and allow His reputation to be tarnished indefinitely.
This is the engine that drives redemptive history. Why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? "He saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power" (Psalm 106:8). Why does God forgive our sins? "For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great" (Psalm 25:11). Why is God going to restore Israel and, ultimately, save us? "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name" (Ezekiel 36:22).
This is profoundly good news. If our salvation depended on our loveliness, our performance, or our worthiness, we would be in a hopeless position. We are, as this passage makes clear, defiling and profane. But our salvation rests on something infinitely more stable: God's unshakeable commitment to His own glory. He saves us to vindicate His name. He redeems us to display His character. Our good is wrapped up in His glory. He will not let His name be profaned forever, which means He will not abandon His people, because His name is upon them.
The Gospel on Display
This entire dynamic finds its ultimate expression at the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, the same problem presented itself in its most acute form. God's justice demanded that sin be punished. "The wages of sin is death." God's righteousness required that the defilement of our sin be met with the fury of His wrath.
But if God simply poured out His wrath on us, His name would be profaned in another way. His name is also merciful, gracious, and loving. How could God be both just (punishing sin) and the justifier (saving sinners) at the same time? How could He maintain the honor of His name in all its facets?
The answer is the cross. At the cross, God poured out the full measure of His wrath for the defilement of our sin, not upon us, but upon His own Son. Jesus became the exile, cast out from the presence of the Father, crying "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He bore the curse. In doing so, God demonstrated His perfect justice. Sin was punished more severely than it ever could be in our own damnation.
And at the same time, by punishing His Son in our place, He demonstrated the infinite depths of His love and grace. He vindicated His name. He showed Himself to be utterly holy and righteous in His hatred of sin, and utterly loving and merciful in His provision of a substitute. The cross is the ultimate display of God's concern for His own name.
Therefore, when we come to Him in faith, we are no longer profaning His name. We are trophies of His grace. Our very existence as forgiven sinners becomes a testimony to the nations of the wisdom, justice, and mercy of our God. We are saved, not for our sake, but for His. And in that glorious, God-centered reality, we find our everlasting security and joy.