Scripture Daily

Context No. 1761 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 20:8-12: in context

8“‘“But they rebelled against me and wouldn’t listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt. 9But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 10So I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. 11I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them. 12Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

Recounting Israel's history, God recalls how they rebelled even in Egypt, refusing to cast away their idols; yet he acted for his own name's sake, that it not be profaned among the nations, and brought them out. He gave them his statutes, which if a man does he will live by them. And he gave them his Sabbaths, to be a sign between him and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

The phrase worth dwelling on is at the end: I am the LORD who sanctifies them. The Sabbath was given as a sign of this truth, that it is God who makes his people holy. Sanctification, the making holy, is named here as God's own work; he is the one who sets his people apart and makes them his. This matters, because we are prone to think of holiness as something we must achieve on our own, a self-improvement project we manage by our own effort, so that if we are to be holy, it is up to us to make ourselves so. God's word here corrects that. He calls himself the LORD who sanctifies them; the holiness of his people is his doing, not merely their achievement. This does not mean we are passive, that our effort and obedience do not matter; but it means that beneath and behind our striving, it is God who is at work making us holy, God who sanctifies, and that we depend on him for it rather than manufacturing it ourselves. There is rest in this. If holiness were entirely our own project, it would be a crushing burden, and its failures would be despair. But the God who commands holiness is also the God who sanctifies; the one who calls us to be holy is the one at work making us so. Our part is to cooperate with his work, to yield to the God who is sanctifying us, rather than to shoulder the whole task as though it were ours alone. He is the LORD who sanctifies us; and to know that is to be freed from both the pride of thinking we make ourselves holy and the despair of thinking we must and cannot.

Do I treat holiness as a project I must manage by my own effort, crushed by its burden and its failures, or can I rest in the truth that God is the LORD who sanctifies, at work making me holy, so that I cooperate with his sanctifying work rather than shouldering the whole task as though it were mine alone?

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