For His Name's Sake

We continue our study in Ezekiel, the last time we met was about Forgetting the Holiness of God. You can read more in my Ezekiel Studies here and here.

Do you remember yesterday that the Lord had concern for his holy name?   He had disciplined his people and still they made mockery of his name.

Today the Lord is going to do something.. you see that word "THEREFORE"? It is a connector word linking two thoughts. "“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God:"

God is going to act "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."

So God is going to vindicate the holiness of his great name.
That name that has been profaned among the nations.
That name which THEY (his people) have profaned.
 The end result: The nations will know that " I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holines before their eyes."

Vindicate means to justify, prove, or reinforce an idea — or to absolve from guilt.

God is going to justify the holiness of his name, absolve it from guilt, prove his holiness.

To do so God will do the following.
- take them from among the nations and bring them into their own land
- will clean up from from their uncleannesses
- clean them up from their idols.
- give them a New heart and a New Spirit.
- remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
-   And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules      
- You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
- there won't be a famine in their land
- crops and produce will be abundant
-  Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.  

But God is not acting for THEIR sake (though they will benefit).  He wants that to be really clear to them.  They should be ashamed of what they have done, confounded by God's mercy to them.

When the people are cleansed, the Lord God will populate their cities, till desolated land, what was waste will become beautiful.   It will be a noticeable change.

 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. 

The Lord would have his people know this:

³⁷ “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. ³⁸ Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

He will build up his people. 
The change in them will be noticeable by the nations around them.
And all will know this....The Lord is God.  

God did all this stuff for his people.
I have to wonder if they appreciated it.
If they saw his goodness and holiness.

I know that God does all this stuff for me...even without me even asking... and how often I fail to see his holiness.  Do you ever have that reader?   That you fail to see God's holiness or fail to thank him for the blessings he bestows, or fail to see just how holy he really is?

Let us do better at this eh?