Ezekiel 36:16 - Meaning and Application

When God promised the poor captives a glorious return to their own land, they could easily have felt crushed by shame. They knew they were not worthy of such mercy. So God makes it plain that he will act for his own name’s sake, so that he may be honored in them and through them. He wants to show the greatness of his mercy and goodness, which is one of his chief glories. Since Israel’s return from exile pointed forward to our redemption through Christ, this also teaches that the highest purpose of our salvation is God’s glory.

Christ set this before us in his prayer, “Father, glorify your name.” God answered from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:28). We should notice how God’s name had suffered both from Israel’s sins and from their misery. That mattered more than their own pain, because faithful people care more about God’s honor than their personal comfort.

God’s glory had been damaged by Israel’s sins while they lived in their own land (Ezekiel 36:17). It was a good land, a holy land, and a land under God’s care. But they polluted it with their own ways, their chosen evil path. We must bear the shame of our own sin. The sin of a people defiles their land, makes it hateful to God, and makes life uneasy for themselves. When the mind and conscience are stained with guilt, nothing feels pure or comforting. Their way before God was like the uncleanness of a woman in her time of separation, which kept her from the sanctuary and made what she touched ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 15:19).

They shed blood and worshiped idols (Ezekiel 36:18), and by those sins they polluted the land. So God poured out his wrath on them and scattered them among the nations. Their own land had become sick of them, and they were sent away to other lands. God was right to do this, and no one could say he had wronged them. He gave them what their actions deserved, according to their ways and deeds (Ezekiel 36:19). Even so, people did not understand this rightly, so God was not honored by it. Instead, the nations said, as Moses feared the Egyptians might say, that God had brought them out only to destroy them. Their neighbors thought of them more as a holy people than as a sinful one, so when trouble came, they used it to mock God instead of honoring him. Their oppressors kept blaspheming God’s name every day (Isaiah 52:5).

When Israel went among the nations, God did not gain honor from them there. In fact, his holy name was profaned (Ezekiel 36:20). First, it was profaned by Israel’s sins. They brought shame on the faith they claimed to follow wherever they went. Because of them, God’s name and holy religion were spoken against (Romans 2:24). When people who claimed to belong to God were found corrupt in their morals, ruled by their desires, dishonest in business, and false to their word, they gave enemies plenty of reason to blaspheme. It was even worse when they complained against God for correcting them.

Second, God’s name was profaned by Israel’s sufferings. Their enemies used their troubles to mock God, as if he could not protect those who worshiped him or keep his promises to them. The nations said, in effect, “These are the Lord’s people, these wicked people. He could not keep them obedient, and he could not keep them enjoying his favor. These are the people who came out of the Lord’s land, and yet they look like the scum of the nations. Are these the people with such righteous laws, whose lives are so unrighteous? Is this the nation praised as wise and understanding, the nation said to be close to God? Do they belong to that great and holy nation, when they appear so low and disgraceful?” In this way, God’s people were sold into shame, and he did not gain anything by the price (Psalm 44:12). Their disgrace reflected on him.

Now we see how God would recover his honor, protect it, and raise it up again. He would do it by bringing about a deep change in them and then giving them great salvation. He would have left them scattered among the nations, if he had not feared the enemy’s arrogance (Deuteronomy 32:26-27). They were not worthy of his kindness, but he had pity for his own holy name. It was a pity to see that name trampled and abused. He looked with compassion on his own honor, which was bleeding among the nations, like a precious thing dragged through the dirt. The house of Israel had profaned it even in the land of their captivity (Ezekiel 36:21).

For the sake of that honor, God would bring them out from among the nations, because their sins had been more shameful there than in their own land. “I will gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). He says it is not for their sake, as though they deserved it, for they were deeply undeserving. It is for his holy name’s sake (Ezekiel 36:22), so that he may make his great name holy again (Ezekiel 36:23). God’s holy name is his great name. His holiness is his greatness, as he counts greatness himself. Nothing makes a person truly great except being truly good and sharing in God’s holiness.

God will make his name great as a holy name, because he will make it holy again: “I will sanctify my name, which you have profaned.” To sanctify means to set apart as holy and to show it as holy. When God carries out what he has sworn in his holiness, he sanctifies his name. The result will be glad and lasting. The nations will know that he is the Lord when he is shown holy in his people before their eyes, and in their own eyes. When God proves his holy name and his people praise it, he is honored in them, and that spreads the knowledge of him.

Notice two things. First, God’s reasons for mercy come from within himself. He will bring his people out of Babylon, not because they deserve it, but for his own name’s sake, because he will be glorified.

God’s goodness shines all the more brightly because of human sin. For that reason, he will honor his own name by forgiving sin, since people have already dishonored it by committing sin.