Ezekiel 20:44

And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD. The chapter ought to have ended here, and Ezekiel 21:1 begun with "Moreover," etc. WHEN I HAVE WROUGHT WITH YOU FOR MY NAME'S SAKE - (). Gratuitously, according to my compassion, not your merits. After having commented on this verse, Calvin was laid on his death-bed, and his commentary ended....

Here at length God pronounces that his glory would be chiefly conspicuous in the pity which he bestowed upon those who were desperate and abandoned, gratuitously and solely with respect to his own name. Hence Paul so specially celebrates; the grace of God in the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, as that mercy by which God deigns to call his own elect in a peculiar sense — his glory; for his glory extends farther than his pity. (Ephesians 1:6.) As thy name, so thy praise is extended through all lands, (Psalms 48:10) for God deserves no less glory when he destroys the wicked than when he pities his own people. But Paul calls that gratuitous favor glory _par excellence_, by which God embraced his own elect when he adopted them. So also it is said in this passage, then you shall kno

33-44 The wicked Israelites, notwithstanding they follow the sinful ways of other nations, shall not mingle with them in their prosperity, but shall be separated from them for destruction. There is no shaking off God's dominion; and those who will not yield to the power of his grace, shall sink under the power of his wrath. But not one of God's jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world. He will bring the jews to the land of Israel again; and will give them true repentance. They will be overcome with his kindness: the more we know of God's holiness, the more we see the hateful nature of sin. Those who remain unaffected amidst means of grace, and would live without Christ, like the world around them, may be sure it is the way to destruction....

God’s future dealings with His people: (1) in judgment Ezekiel 20:32; (2) in mercy Ezekiel 20:39. Ezekiel 20:32 The inquirers had thought that if Jerusalem were taken, and the whole people became sojourners in a foreign land, they would cease to be a separate nation. In their love for idolatry some may have even desired this. But more probably they thought that this very consequence precluded the possibility of such a catastrophe. God answers that He will not allow them to become as the pagan, but this will only subject them to

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 20:1 A new date is given, and includes what follows to Ezekiel 23:49. The last note of time was in Ezekiel 8:1, and eleven months and five days had passed, during which the prophecies of the intervening chapters had been written or spoken. We may note further that it was two years one month and five days after the prophet's call to his work (Ezekiel 1:1.), and two years and five months before the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem (Ezekiel 24:1). The immediate occasion here, as in...

AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD,.... Jehovah their righteousness, their Redeemer and Saviour, Lord and King; they shall know Christ, and him crucified, and God in Christ as their covenant God; Ezekiel 20:42; when I have wrought with you for my name's sake; in the thorough conversion of them; not that there is any cooperation with God in that work; ministers indeed are coworkers, not as efficients, but instruments; persons converted are wholly passive in the first work of conversion or regeneration; and in all later actings move as they are acted, turn being turned, walk and run being drawn, not being able to do anything as of themselves: but the phrase signifies a working in favour of them; doing great things for them, and good things in them, well pleasing in his sight, and good unto them; plucking them as brands out of the burning; taking them out of the hands of Satan;

CHAPTER S 20-24 Further and Final Predictions Concerning the judgment of Jerusalem _ 1. Jehovah rehearses His mercies bestowed upon Israel (Ezekiel 20:1) _ 2. The impending judgment announced (Ezekiel 21:1) 3. Jerusalem's sins and whoredom (Ezekiel 22:1; Ezekiel 23:1) 4. The parable of the boiling pot and the last word (Ezekiel 24:1) Ezekiel 20:1. The chapter contains a divine retrospect and an arraignment of th

THE RESTORATION OF THE FUTURE. But after all, Yahweh has chosen Israel (Ezekiel 20:5) for a purpose, and that purpose must not be frustrated; and despite the sin and darkness of the present, Ezekiel looks hopefully out to the future. But first there must be a sifting. Israel is to be gathered into the wilderness between Babylon and Canaan (Ezekiel 20:35) and passed under the rod as the shepherd passes the sheep; there the rebels shall be left, but the good shall be brought to Canaan, and with self-loathing and penitent hearts they will offer on Mount Zion acceptable worship. Then Yahweh's gracious purpose will be fulfilled, and His power and His character will be recognised by Israel and the world alike....

WICKED. Hebrew. _raa_. App-44....

Jehovah's regard to his own name will fashion the history of the people to come as it has fashioned the past Having reviewed the past and shewn the elders their own picture in the doings of their fathers, and how the thing which has fashioned the history in the past has been Jehovah's regard for his own name, the prophet now comes to read to them the history of the future as the same regard of Jehovah to his name will model it. First, Ezekiel 20:30. The Lord will not give any answer to such enquirers who follow the ways of their fathers. But they may be assured that their resolution to assimilate themselves to the heathen and become like them worshippers of wood and stone shall not be permitted to have effect. Jehovah _will_assert his sovereignty over them, and will disentangle them out from among the heathen as he gathered their fathers from among the Egyptians. Secondl