“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, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
God speaks here to people already in exile, scattered for their sin. Their ruin had shamed His name among the nations, and that name — not their record — is the reason He gives for restoring them.
The record behind the verse
The chapter first says why Israel lost the land and went into exile. One writer traces the charge from their conduct at home to their disgrace abroad:
William KellySuch was Israel's way in the land and out of it. Everywhere they were a shame to Him who chose them as His own. In Canaan there was idolatrous corruption and murderous violence; among the nations they profaned His name. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change: therefore they were not consumed. Instead, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.
How a scattered people profane God's name
The exiles did not need to speak against God to dishonour Him. Their state among the nations did it for them. One writer presses the same charge against the Jew who boasted in the law:
William KellyBy his own account, his boasted knowledge of the law brought him no saving power. It only supplied fuel for his proud misuse of it and his contempt of others. Who, then, dishonoured God more openly? Was it not written even more strongly in their own prophets? What did Isaiah say (Isa. 52:5)? And what did Ezekiel say (Ezek. 36:20-23)? No doubt their foreign masters made them cry out under it. But was it not true that Israel profaned Jehovah's holy name among the nations wherever they went?
Not for your sakes
The phrase rules out every claim Israel might have made. Had God treated them by their record, there would have been no nation left:
An Outline of Sound WordsIsrael will then be restored to the land because of God's sovereign goodness. Had He dealt with them according to 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 rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own counsels of love. It was 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.
Verse 32 repeats the point and adds a command to feel it. One writer sets that alongside the promised inward change:
J. N. DarbyBut though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can, for His own sake, do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen… "I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake" (v. 22). "Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord God, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel" (v. 32).
His glory and their blessing in one act
Acting for His own name does not leave His people out:
Numerical Bible NotesGod is jealous of His holy name; He acts to vindicate it, and in this His people get their full blessing. How gloriously redemption accomplishes both — His glory and our blessing. And so with Israel in that day. But living safely as a regathered people will only give them a deeper sense of their shame and wrongdoing. The grace that restores and blesses writes our failure on the heart more deeply than the rod of judgment does.
What God's name requires: a new heart
The promise does not stop at bringing people home. Commentators note that the same passage guarantees an inward work, and that this rules out treating the return from Babylon as the fulfilment:
William KellyWas the Jew — not to speak of Israel — then cleansed from all his filthiness? Malachi tells a different tale; and so in fact did our Lord prove in person. Here, when fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in holy obedience — they His people, and He their God.
Another writer ties this promise to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel:
The Christian's FriendThe Lord shows what Nicodemus ought to have known. Even for the earthly promises the testimony of God was clear: Israel had to be born again, born of water and of the Spirit.
The same ground for us
The same ground holds for everyone God blesses:
An Outline of Sound WordsIn sovereign goodness He has blessed us. It was not because of anything in ourselves, or because of anything that we have done. We were only 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."
Summary
- Name dishonoured. At home Israel shamed God's name by idolatry and violence. Among the nations they profaned it again.
- Name pitied. God did not consume them, because He had pity for the name they had outraged — He does not change.
- Name, not merit. Had He dealt with them by their sins, they must have perished. Their blessing rested on His promises and His own counsels of love.
- Name vindicated. He acts to clear His own name. In that same act His people receive their full blessing — His glory and their good together.
- Name applied. The promise runs on to a new heart, a new spirit and His Spirit within — what Jesus told Nicodemus he should already have known, and what believers now receive, forgiven "for His Name's sake."