Don’t Misrepresent God
Ezekiel 36:16-23
Ezekiel series, Part 65
Introduction
A lot of people misunderstand the third commandment. The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
Most Christians think that means you shouldn’t say OMG. Now, you probably shouldn’t say OMG, but that’s just one part of what it means to break the third commandment.
The third commandment means to misrepresent God. Now, you may say, how can taking God’s name in vain be a way of misrepresenting God? The reason is, because when you are a follower of God, you place God’s name upon yourself. Therefore, the way you behave will be a signpost of God to the world.
For example, we followers of God today are most commonly known as Christians. Now think about this: what are the first six letters of Christian? Christ. When you’re known as a christian, you’re seen by unbelievers as a representative of Christ.
That means when you show love as a Christian, you are showing people that God sees them and loves them and wants to know them.
Likewise, if we show hate or malice toward people as a Christian, it gives the impression that God is angry with them and doesn’t like them, either.
And that’s the essence of the third commandment. Yes, we shouldn’t use God’s name as a swear word. We shouldn’t tack God’s name onto things as a marketing strategy. We shouldn’t speak of God in a mocking way. That’s all part of this commandment. But misrepresenting God is the main way we take His name in vain.
And what we’re going to see today is that God is not as laidback as Joan Jett when it comes to giving him a bad reputation. Turn to Ezekiel 36 as we continue that chapter today on the Cross References podcast.
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For the Sake of His Name
Welcome to the book of Ezekiel: a Cross References Bible study where we learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
My name is Luke Taylor, but my name is really not the one you need to be concerned about today. No, instead, we’re going to read the next set of verses today in Ezekiel 36. This is probably the most wonderful chapter of the entire book that we’ve read so far, especially with what we’ll be talking about next time as we read about the blessings of salvation prophesied all the way back here in the Old Testament.
But for today, I want to read a few verses where God talked about why He judged Israel back in chapter 24 by letting Jerusalem be destroyed.
Yes, we spent literally 24 chapters of Ezekiel already outlining all of those things. But God introduces a new angle on it in this brief explanation: that He had to do it for His name’s sake.
You see, the children of Israel were known to the surrounding nations as the followers of a deity called Yahweh. And every time the Israelites defeated an enemy in a nearby nation, it was not seen by the surrounding people as just a defeat by the Israelites, but in a cosmological sense, it was as if Israel’s God had defeated their god.
And so every time Israel was victorious in battle, it was not just a victory for them, it was a victory for God- Yahweh- because His name was on them.
But then something really really bad happened in the book of Ezekiel: the Israelites had been behaving so terribly that God had to judge them. God had to remove His hand of divine protection and actually allowed them to be conquered by their enemies. In fact, God even brought their enemies right to their doorstep and had them ravaged in a humiliating, devastating defeat.
In a sense, this defended God’s holiness because it showed that God was not willing to dwell with a people who were idolatrous, sexually perverse, sacrificing children and profaning His temple.
On the other hand, this damaged God’s reputation because the people whom He had put His name on had just been conquered, utterly wiped out. The only survivors now are captives in Babylon- people like Ezekiel and the people he is talking to.
God has a dilemma: should He wash His hands of the Israelites and walk away from them and just take the loss? Or should God give them a do-over, a reset, and give them a second chance to show His grace and mercy.
And so God explains from His point of view why He had to destroy them for His name’s sake, but why He will someday have to restore them- again, for His name’s sake.
There’s a heavy emphasis on the land itself in these verses, because if you remember from last time, it was talking about how Israel had been kicked out of the land, but is also talking about how Israel would be brought back to the land.
Ezekiel 36:16-21
16 The word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
God has spoken in the book about how the people had defiled the Temple, defiled God’s name, and defiled themselves. But this is the first and only time He has spoken of defiling the land.
It uses a bit of an uncomfortable analogy here to describe the land’s defilement; God says He views it as a woman in her menstrual impurity. The reason for this analogy is that the woman’s time-of-the-month was considered a time of ritual impurity under Old Testament law. There are two types of impurity: the ceremonial impurity and the moral impurity. The difference in the two are that ceremonial impurity stems from something that makes you literally unclean, such as touching a dead body. You were supposed to wash after doing something like that because you were literally unclean, as in germy. The book of Leviticus, in one of those boring sections that Christians usually skip over, it details the processes for dealing with being germy.
There are going to be times in anybody’s life where they have to do something that requires them to become ceremonially impure, such as handling a dead body, or to use the example brought up here, in a woman’s menstrual impurity. It’s not a mark against anybody’s character or something to be ashamed of; it’s just a part of life.
Then you have incidence of moral impurity. This kind of impurity comes from actions that are sinful that someone willingly engages in; things like idolatry, sexual immorality or bloodshed. At this stage of Israel’s history, they have certainly been guilty of moral impurity.
But the land itself has become defiled as well, but God uses the analogy of a woman in her menstrual impurity to describe it. The reason being that the land has been made impure, but the land hasn’t done anything wrong. The land is not morally culpable for its impurity, just as a woman is not culpable for her impurity from her monthly cycle. The land is innocent, but has been made impure due to circumstances beyond its control. And this is why Israel had to be driven out of Israel; why the IsraelITEs had to be separated from their land. The land needed cleansed.
So scholars often refer to this triangle as the deity-nation-land relationship, the triangle of tension in the Old Testament. You have the people, their God, and their land, and God has covenantal statements in regard to all of these elements, and we could get into a whole deep dive into deity-nation-land theology, but I think you’re familiar with the basics by this point in the book.
Now that Israel has been divorced from its land, in keeping with God’s Holy character and holding people accountable for their actions, now this has brought up an awkward moment for everybody paying attention to geopolitics. Now God’s reputation has been threatened because Yahweh was the God of this people and the God of this land. The Israelites themselves might understand why they’re being punished, but to the outside world, it has made God appear less powerful. And that’s what verses 20 and 21 get into. Let me read those verses again.
20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
It hurt God’s reputation for His people to suffer this defeat. It made God look lesser than Marduk, the god of the Babylonians. So let’s read the final two verses for today:
Ezekiel 36:22-23
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: 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. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
So God says a couple of things here. First of all, He says He is about to “act.” It’s not clear from what we read because we stopped at verse 23, but if you keep reading, God’s action is going to be to restore Israel to their land and to relationship with Him. We’ll learn some incredible truths about relationship with God in the New Testament covenant, but that will be next time.
Another really interesting comment God makes right here is that He is not saving Israel for their own sake. That’s actually a little brutal, but it’s the truth they needed to hear in this moment. God is saying, “You weren’t worth saving, but my reputation was on the line, and so I had to do it. You’re more blessed than you even realized.”
Now, this is where we Christians, such as myself, who believe that God had a special plan for the Jewish people, need to keep that in perspective and not go too far with it. Because many Gentile Christians such as myself can get confused and think that being a Jew is better than being a Gentile, or that God might like Jewish people more than He likes everybody else.
And I can see why they would think that, because there are so many verses in the Bible about the favor shown to the Jews. But let’s balance that with statements like what is right here in Ezekiel 36: God says that they really weren’t worth saving, that the only reason He preserved them and brought them back was really more for His own name than for their sake.
If God could have just wiped them out and never given them a second thought, He may well have done so. But then everybody else could have said, “Well what’s so great about being in relationship with Yahweh? It didn’t keep the Jews around.” So God graciously saved them, and this chapter is making it abundantly clear that it was only, purely, by grace, not of works.
Which is a good reminder for ourselves as well. Because we can very easily get high on ourselves and think we’ve done something to warrant God’s favor in our own lives. No, not at all. We who are saved could never have done anything to earn God’s favor for a minute, and don’t you ever forget it. God’s salvation was provided because of His great love and grace and mercy.
If we could fathom the depravity of our own sinfulness and if we could fathom the exceeding perfection and holiness of God, we would probably never understand why God would dare want to have anything to do with us. But we only have a partial understanding of the depth of our own sinfulness, and only a fragment of comprehending the holiness of God, and so we get high on the hog and sometimes believe for a minute that we were worth saving. That God must have really needed us or had a good reason to come after us. To think, “Man, I’m a pretty valuable human, I’m a catch, the church sure is lucky to have me.”
Let me say something that is going to sound a little jerky, but I think anyone out there who is a parent will understand this: if I had a perfect son who never did anything wrong, would I ever sacrifice his life for a sinner like you? No way. I would probably never do that in a million years.
But that’s exactly what God did for you. God looked at you and said He would sacrifice His perfect Son on your behalf. Why would God do such a thing?
John 3:16 - for God so loved the world
I John 4:19
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
And if you ever get off-base in your thinking and believe that you were deserving of God’s love, let me just remind you of what God had to remind the Israelites here:
It is not for your sake
There is nothing you could have done to deserve it; it is all a matter of God’s grace.
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Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, we will keep charging forward in Ezekiel with chapter 36, and finish the chapter up. This will focus on blessings of the New Testament covenant with God, which is prophesied back here in Ezekiel, but for us we can discuss how it all came into fulfillment and what benefits we can enjoy.
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By the way, even if I did want to sacrifice my son for you, I couldn’t because he is faaarrr from perfect. Don’t listen to what his grandma says. I just took the kid on a vacation two states away and take my word for it, he has a long way to go before he reaches perfection.
Closing Thoughts
Now, as we close down today, I’d like to revisit this idea of protecting God’s name. Sometimes we think, “well what could little old me do to hurt the big, powerful God?” Well, we actually can do some damage when it comes to God’s Name, by which I mean His reputation.
How can we do that? Well, remember what I said at the beginning: when we misrepresent God, we bring shame to His name. We damage His reputation in the eyes of the world.
Just like ancient Israel was known as the people of Yahweh, we Christians today bear the name of Christ. That’s what it means to be a Christian; it was a name the Romans came up with that literally means “little Christs.” And that’s what we are trying to be: the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.
And that’s what the early church was doing; that’s how they got the name “Christian.” Sidenote: the word “Christian” only appears in the Bible three times. Yet it’s the most common word we use today to denote followers of Christ.
And so since we do, we need to wear that title with honor. We need to demonstrate the love and the character of Jesus in those we interact with. Your reputation reflects God’s reputation. And we want God to have a good reputation.
To make this really practical, there’s an interesting line in Proverbs 30. I believe this chapter was written by Solomon himself, even though it has a different name at the top. But regardless, this is what the writer of this chapter says.
Proverbs 30:7-9
7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
Two things Solomon writes here: Don’t make me rich and don’t make me poor.
The second one I can understand. I can sympathize with praying not to be poor. But to pray not to be rich; has anyone in here every prayed a prayer like that? I sure haven’t.
I’ve prayed for the money to come in for something, like “God I have this or that need.” And I’ve prayed lots of times for enough money for my needs. And I’ve never prayed to actually be rich. But I’ve never prayed NOT to be rich. And I’ve never heard of anyone praying that God wouldn’t send them too much money.
And why doesn’t he want to be rich? “Lest I be full and deny You and say ‘Who is the Lord’” Because people who have all their needs met tend to not think they need God anymore.
I tried this before. “Please God, don’t let me have too much money.” I don’t know if I meant it. But I tried.
Why doesn’t the writer of Proverbs 30 want to be poor? Not because he’s greedy. It’s because he’s afraid he’ll steal and profane God’s name. How would that be profaning God’s name? When you’re a Christian and you do something wrong, you don’t just make yourself look bad. You make God look bad.
We often think of taking God’s name in vain as just in our words. But we also do it when we sin publicly.
And that’s what it means to the fullest degree to take God’s name in vain. Yes, it includes not using God’s name as a cussword and saying OMG and all that. But that is small potatoes compared to the purpose of this rule. That’s like a Level 1 basic understanding. Most Christians never go beyond Level 1. Level 2 would be in the realm of false prophecy and saying “God said blah blah blah” when God didn’t say it. That would also be taking God’s name in vain. But it even goes beyond that. Level 3 means to wear God’s name with honor and dignity in how you conduct yourself. It means to care about your reputation to the extent that you know your reputation reflects God’s reputation.
Taking God’s name in vain is more about representation than vocabulary.
You’ve probably been out in public before with somebody who embarrassed you. Might have been one of your parents, or maybe out on a date with someone who did something awkward and you just couldn’t wait to get home, or maybe you supported a politician who did something corrupt, or maybe you went a church and a scandal erupted, and you felt some embarrassment at because you were associated with them, and you felt like when they damaged their reputation, it hurt your reputation.
I was once eating out with someone at a restaurant called Shoney (IDK if they still have Stoney’s anymore). I was with someone who made a big scene because they didn’t have cole slaw anymore. First I heard the angry speech about how mad he was that they didn’t have Cole slaw and how he used to live in the same city that had the Shoney’s headquarters and they always had the best Cole slaw and how the founder of Shoney’s would be rolling in his grave if he knew they didn’t keep stocked up on Cole slaw, and then he told the waitress, and then the manager, and then the lady you pay the money to. It was so awkward! I could not wait to get out of there!
Your behavior can cause embarrassment for everybody around you.
Now imagine how God feels when a Christian sins publicly?
Think about this: do you want God to feel embarrassed to be associated with you?
Thanks for listening to this Cross References Bible Study on the Book of Ezekiel. This has been Luke Taylor, reminding you that taking God’s name in vain is more about representation than vocabulary.