God's Honor Swings Both Ways

“And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.” (Eze 36:20-21 AV)

One of our hopes is that God is an honorable God who will not allow His name to be tarnished.  He will not allow His perfect name to be sullied by the saved or by the lost.  In our passage, the people of Israel had gotten so immoral, the reputation of God was dirtied among the heathen who conquered them.  In their very temporal way of thinking, they believed external success defines reality.  Since they conquered and destroyed the land of the people of God, then their God must not be a very powerful one.  What the heathen do not realize is God is a God who can do all things and their day is coming, too.

Let us no minimize the necessity of chastisement.  God must judge sin.  In the lost as well as His people.  He will judge the lost in this life and the next.  For the saints of God, He will judge our sin in this life.  This often required He use the hand of the lost to do just that.  When He does, it hurts a lot.  Whether it’s a rebuke from a wicked employer, a financial setback at the hands of the world, or a tongue lashing by the tongue of an unbeliever, we may deserve those things.  And, they are needed.  The hardest of all is when we are corrected for sin by the heathen who were able to discern what we did was wrong.  They corrected us and said something like, “I can’t believe someone who claims to be saved would do such a thing.”  That one especially hurts.  It hurts because we know that we have tarnished the good name of God among the heathen.

But, this passage also teaches that to keep us in such a state would tarnish the name of the LORD beyond what the LORD will tolerate.  He will honor His name.  Even if the people of God are in the wrong, which they often are, it does not give the right to the self-righteous to exalt their lack of submission to the LORD.  God will honor His name!  He will turn the tables.  Take this promise with you:  God will honor His name.  In both chastisement and reconciliation.  His name is not honored if the means of chastisement are excessive beyond reconciliation and restoration!  Grace is as much a part of His name as justice.