Ezekiel 36:23-24

Ezekiel 36:23

Passing over the special application of these words to the Jews and looking at them in their prophetical connection with the scheme of redemption, I remark

I. That God might have vindicated His honour and sanctified His Name in our destruction. Two methods of glorifying His Name are open to God. He is free to choose either; but by the one or the other way He will exact His full tale of glory from every man. In Egypt, for instance, He was glorified in the high-handed destruction of His enemies; and in the same land, by the high-handed salvation of His people. He might, at the fall, have vindicated His justice by swift and unsparing vengeance by destroying the whole human family. He did so, in the case of fallen angels. He might have meted out the same measure to fallen men.

II. God sanctifies His Name and glorifies Himself in our redemption. It is easy to destroy to destroy character, virtue, life, anything. It needs but a devil to ruin the spirit, but it needs a Divinity to redeem it. It needs but a villain to steal virtue, it needs a Divine power to restore the stolen jewel. As man's glory is more illustrated by curing than by killing, so God's glory is more pre-eminent in our redemption than it had been in our final and everlasting ruin.

III. The scheme of redemption is eminently illustrative of the attributes of Jehovah. It illustrates (1) His power, (2) His wisdom, (3) His holiness, (4) His justice.

T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel,pp. 137, 151.