What did God mean when He said, "I will not give my glory to another" in Isaiah 48:11?

(Vv. 9–11). Then we learn why God had not cut them off. For His own name’s sake, and for His praise, Jehovah had spared them. Nevertheless, for His own sake God had also chastened them in passing them through “the furnace of affliction.”

Once more the obstinate sins of the people are thus exposed — so what then? Just when we might have expected further announcements of coming judgment, God states what He proposes to do for the sake of His own Name and praise. He will defer His anger and not cut them off entirely, though He is going to pass them through the furnace of affliction. He will consider not only their ultimate good as a nation but also His own glory and the honour of His own Name.

This is the language of pure and inflexible justice. Immediate destruction is the work of justice. Full and final preservation is the glorious and vital characteristic work of divine Grace — grace reigning through righteousness. Had God dealt in mere justice with the people, His name would not have been declared, inasmuch as there is far more in His name than justice. There is love, mercy, goodness, kindness, long-suffering, deep and unfailing compassion. But none of these things could be seen had the people been consumed in a moment, and hence the name of Jehovah would not have been declared or glorified. "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off … For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory to another." Isaiah 48:9, 11.

How well it is for us that God acts towards us, and for us for the glory of His own name! How wonderful too that His glory should most fully shine — yea, could only be seen in that vast plan which His own heart has devised, in which He is revealed as "A just God and a Saviour." Precious title for a poor lost sinner! In it is wrapped up all that such an one can possibly need for time and eternity. It meets him in the depth of his need, as a guilty hell-deserving one, bears him along through all the varied exigencies, trials, and sorrows of the wilderness; and, finally, conducts him to that bright and blessed world above, where sin and sorrow can never enter.

(Vv. 8, 9). In the light of all that God will do through His lowly Servant, Jehovah appeals to the nation as to their idolatry. They are reminded that their God is Jehovah, the eternal I AM; that His name, and His glory, He will not give to another, nor permit the praise that is due to Him to be given to idols. He alone can bring to pass things already foretold, and declare the things to come before they spring forth.

It may however be asked, What scripture do you give for this? The answer is that God says, "My glory will I not give to another." What is God's glory which He cannot give to another? The glory surely of being the source of all goodness and blessing. He cannot be otherwise than what He has ever been. "God is Love," and He cannot but sustain that character. This is His glory. Ours is to know Him in the love and to reflect that character.

But till we come to this no blessing can come, for it is impossible that God should give His glory to another. Did He do so, He would cease to be God. He cannot hand over His place to you; He cannot give you the credit that belongs to Himself alone. Blessed be God, He must have the glory. Therefore it is that God must smash us to pieces in order to bless us, because only thus can He be glorified in His Son, and it be seen that He alone is worthy. Man is worthless, he is done for, there is not a single good thing in him at all. God has set him aside and begun again in a new Man according to His own heart, and when God works in us all is well, not otherwise.

Two things need to be remembered: First, the position of blessedness belongs to the one man, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who becomes the root of blessing to others; secondly, this blessing is meant to bear upon the heart of man, that it may go back to God in praise. God does not give His glory to another; but in giving, He so gives that it is all to go back to Him in the perfect enjoyment of Himself, to His own praise. There is more in this than in the thought the censer conveys, because the censer is not capable of enjoyment. God is steady, immovable in His purposes of mercy. Even in the rain which He gives, causing the verdure to spring up, we see it. Blessing He will give, and, give it so that He lays the blessing on the heart; and so lays it, that the heart enjoys it, and gives it back to God in praise. God's creative power has come into the soul; the man revels in the enjoyment of it, and says, "Here it is; I give it back to thee in praise." Thus it goes up to God.

"It behoved Christ to suffer." It was a necessity, for all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death, and after this the judgment. If sinners ever were to escape the judgment to come, and know the unspeakable blessing of sins forgiven, Christ must suffer, and this Jesus whom I preach to you is Christ; He is both Lord and Christ, and there is no salvation in any name but His. If men could have cleansed their own souls from their filth and atoned for their own sins and saved themselves from Satan's power and the just judgment of God, do you think that God would have sent His well-beloved Son to suffer? Nay, He is a just God, and while He will not give His glory to another, He will not rob others of any glory that is their due, and if men could have saved themselves He would have let them try, and when they had accomplished the work He would have said, "Well done!" and crowned them with the glory of a great achievement. indeed, for 4000 years they had their opportunities, though God well knew the result from the beginning, and they only proved that they were without strength for good, that all their righteousnesses were but filthy rags, that all the world was guilty before God.

This leads Jehovah in magnificent terms to speak of what He will accomplish through His own name and glory, in contrast with graven images. "Thus says God Jehovah, he that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he that spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. I [am] Jehovah; that [is] my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them" (vv. 5-9). Is this, or anything else, too hard for Jehovah?

Following the chapter in Isaiah, we next come to the sad facts of their history which bring into evidence man's failure in spite of all God's goodness. God sought for praises, but only sins were brought before Him. "Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins," He says, "thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities" (verse 24). He had laid no hard burden upon them in the sacrifices ordained for worship, but in stead of rendering joyously what was ordered, they committed sins which loudly called for judgment, and thus defeated God's purpose in redeeming them for Himself. He then comes in again to do what could not be done without His direct intervention, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (verse 25, see also chapter 44:21-22).