Scripture Daily

Context No. 4256 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 20:39-44: in context

39“‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord GOD says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols. 40For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things. 41I will accept you as a pleasant aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. 42You will know that I am the LORD when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers. 43There you will remember your ways, and all your deeds in which you have polluted yourselves. Then you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed. 44You will know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.’”

God speaks to a people who had polluted themselves with idolatry and evil, and yet he promises to gather them, accept them, and bring them home. And he tells them plainly on what basis: I will deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways or your corrupt deeds. Their restoration would rest not on their deserving, which was nothing, but on God's own faithfulness to his name.

What stands out is this ground of grace: for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways. God does not save his people because they have earned it; he saves them for his own sake, out of his own mercy and faithfulness. And he foresees the response this grace will produce: when they remember how they have lived and see God's undeserved mercy, they will loathe themselves for their evils. Grace received produces not pride but humble grief over sin.

We are not accepted by God because of our good record; we are accepted for his name's sake, by his sheer mercy, not according to our sins. This is grace. And such grace, rightly received, does not make us casual about sin but humbles us, moving us to grieve over the very evils God has forgiven.

Do I rest in the truth that God deals with me for his name's sake and not according to my evil ways, receiving his mercy as sheer grace rather than earned reward, and does that grace humble me into grief over sin rather than making me casual about it?

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