In Ezekiel 36 God puts forward a future hope for the people of Israel. The mountains of Israel would put forward blessing as the people returned to their land (36:8-11). There would no longer be reproach, but the people would walk in God’s blessings. As God looked upon the future of His people, He would act on behalf of His name. The disgrace of the people resulted with a disgrace on God. The people’s judgment and the desolation of their land made the Lord look bad, and even more the people’s idolatrous, sinful lifestyles misrepresented God!
In response to this, God declares, “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” (36:22). God’s work on the people’s behalf wasn’t just to bring blessing on them, but to clear His name amongst the nations where His people had defiled it. They had no concern for God’s holy name and so God determined to fix this through His own acts towards them.
One of these ends up being the promised new covenant. God promises,
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Ezekiel 36:26-27, ESV
Why this promise? Again, in context, for the sake of His holy name.
As recipients of this new covenant promise, we receive the blessings of this covenant. We receive the promise of God’s Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee or down payment of our heavenly inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). We are given a new heart to obey God’s will, where He works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
God says in Ezekiel that these promises are for the sake of His holy name. The people of God had disgraced Him through their lives. They defiled His holy name through their idolatry. God promises to work a new heart, a new Spirit, and to transform His people. This isn’t just for our sake, but for His, so that we might properly represent Him to a watching world.
This is probably something we seldom think about and as we hear of the new covenant. God’s desire is that His holy name would be honored as He deserves, but this in part will only come as His people faithfully represent Him. As we look on our own lives and see the purpose of this new covenant, we have to ask ourselves, “Is God’s name kept holy through my life’s example?” Has His promise of a new heart and His Spirit within us fulfilled the purpose for which He’s given them? The Apostle Peter once wrote, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:9-10). May we seek to accurately represent our God, and as His holy people, point to His holy name.
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