Ezekiel 20:9

But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. THEN I SAID, I WILL POUR OUT MY FURY UPON THEM ... BUT I WROUGHT FOR MY NAME'S SAKE, THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE POLLUTED BEFORE THE HEATHEN - i:e. (God speaking in condescension to human modes of conception), Their spiritual degradation deserved that I should destroy them, "but I wrought (namely, the deliverance 'out of ... Egypt') for my name's sake;" not for their merits (a rebuke to their national pride). God's "name" means the sum total of His perfections; to manifest these perfections, His gratuitous mercy abounding above their sins, yet without wrong being done to His justice, and so to set forth Hi...

Here God signifies that he was restrained for one reason only from entirely blotting out so ungrateful and wicked a nation, namely, since he saw his own sacred name would be exposed to the Gentiles as a laughing-stock. He teaches, therefore, that he spared them, and suspended his rigor for the time, rather through being induced by regard to his own glory than by pity to them. Hence, by the word _I did it, _we ought to understand what will be more clearly explained. The sense is, that he abstained from the final act of vengeance for his name’s sake, that it should not be profaned among the Gentiles. Although God here pronounces that he had respect rather to himself than to them, yet there is no doubt that he spared them, because he saw that they could not be otherwise preserved than by his pardoning them even in such hardness and obstinacy; and certainly God’s glory and the salvation of t...

Verse Ezekiel 20:9. _BUT I WROUGHT FOR MY NAME'S SAKE_] I bare with them and did not punish them, lest the heathen, who had known my promises made to them, might suppose that I had either broken them through some caprice, or was not able to fulfil them....

The children of Israel in Egypt were warned to abstain from the idolatry of the pagan. This purpose they lost sight of, yet God spared them and brought them into another state of probation. Ezekiel 20:5 LIFTED UP MINE HAND - i. e., sware, because the hand was lifted up in adjuration. Ezekiel 20:8 IDOLS OF EGYPT - These incidental notices show the children of Israel in Egypt to have been addicted to idolatry. Compare Joshua 24:14. Ezekiel 20:9 I wrought for my name’s sake -

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...

BUT I WROUGHT FOR MY NAME'S SAKE,.... In a way of grace and mercy; did well by thorn, did what he promised to do; not for any merits of theirs, but for his own honour, and the glory of his name: THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE POLLUTED BEFORE THE HEATHEN, AMONG WHOM THEY [WERE]; be spoken evil of, which is a polluting it; saying, either that he was not true to his word, in not doing what he promised; or else that it was not in his power to perform; either of which would reflect dishonour on his name, and so defile it: IN WHOSE SIGHT I MADE MYSELF KNOWN UNTO THEM; by the wonders he wrought; and who, by one means or another, became acquainted with the promises of God to Israel, that he would bring them out of Egypt, and settle them in the land of Canaan: wherefore for the honour of his name he exerted his power, IN BRINGING THEM FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; as he did, as follows:...

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

EZEKIEL 20. THE WICKED PAST AND THE BLESSED FUTURE. Ezekiel 20:1. A Sketch of Israel's Early Idolatries. It is now 590 B.C. Almost a year has elapsed since the last incident that was dated (Ezekiel 8:1): and as the doom draws nearer, the prophet grows fiercer. This lurid sketch of Israel's ancient sins, which partly recalls ch. 16, was occasioned by a visit of some elders (_cf. Ezekiel 8:1_, Ezekiel 14:1), who put to him a question which though not recorded, may perhaps be inferred from Ezekiel 20:32. It seems probable that, in disgust and despair,

I WROUGHT, &c. Repeated in no Ezekiel 14:22, Eze 14:44. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 32:12.Numbers 14:13, &c.) App-92. HEATHEN. nations....

Review of the history of the fathers The principle that has ruled this history is that all through it Jehovah has acted for his name's sake. It is this principle that has given Israel a history, otherwise their sins would have cut them off. For his name's sake he spared the people in Egypt (Ezekiel 20:9), again in the wilderness (Ezekiel 20:14), and again the second generation there (Ezekiel 20:22). The history is reviewed in these divisions: Ezekiel 20:5 Israel in Egypt; Ezekiel 20:11 the people led out into the wilderness:...