Ezekiel 36:16

In the next message of Jehovah He gives the moral reasons why the land of Israel was left empty and the people themselves scattered among the nations. He tells of the dishonour they did to His name even there. Finally He tells of His restoring grace, with its effects on the heart and ways of Israel, and of His power to renew their land to more than its first prosperity and fruitfulness, with Jehovah honoured as holy by all before the nations.

Verses 16-20 review Israel's past sins and the discipline that fell on them. Then comes that great message of restoration and blessing through grace, in the day when their once rejected King returns and they bow before Him. The characteristic words in verses 23-28 are the words "I will do." It is the word of sovereign grace. Eighteen times Jehovah says what He will do. They are the "I wills" of Israel's hope and coming glory.

This was Israel's way inside the land and outside it. Everywhere they were a shame to the One who chose them as His own: idol worship and murderous violence in Canaan, and dishonour to His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One they had sinned against? He is Jehovah and He does not change; that is why they were not destroyed. No, He had pity for the name they had insulted, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.

The land is Jehovah's land. He has never forfeited it, and He will never give it up to His enemies. Israel are to hold it on the surest ground there is — the ground of God's grace. They are to live there as guests staying with Him, and so to know all the resources of His hand, and the full protection that this relationship brings.

The prophet now turns from the land to the people themselves. The state of the land was only the reflection of their own state… But Israel has refused the lesson of their scattered condition. They have even turned it into a matter of boasting, as if they were bearing the sins of others and making atonement for them! That is how they have read Isaiah 53. God asserts against them here that it is judgment because of their condition.

Israel had defiled the land and profaned the name of Jehovah, and Jehovah scattered them among the nations. Even in this His name would be profaned through their wickedness, because the nations would say, "These are the people of Jehovah, and they have gone out of His land." But Jehovah would step in and sanctify His great name before the nations. He would do it by bringing His people back from among them and cleansing them from all their filth, by taking away the hardness of their hearts, giving them His Spirit, and making them walk in His laws.

When Israel failed to sanctify His name, God declared that He would sanctify His own name. (See Ezekiel 36:16-23.) So also with His servants. If they do not glorify Him in the testimony entrusted to them, He will glorify Himself in them through the discipline of His hand… This is a very important principle. It should teach us that, even when God honours us with a place as servants, He does not need us at all to accomplish His purposes.