God acts for his name (Ezk 36)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, how are you doing? Tim here, and we are diving deep into the ten words. So in the last episode, I talked about all the different ways. I just we just looked at the Hebrew scriptures and all the different ways that the name could be misused. And in this episode, I want to talk about essentially what God does about that. If you ever kind of heard us kind of walk through the big story of the Bible before, or if you've read the Hillcrest um kind of statement of theology, you'll know that one of the things we try to pay attention to is the way the whole story of Scripture works together. And one of the key parts is in the Hebrew scriptures that God calls Israel, well, the descendants of Abraham starting in Genesis 12 to be his agent of blessing to the world. And then he, of course, he rescues them, informs them, forms a covenant with them, gives them the Torah, they're walking his way. But what happens is they themselves descend into uh into sin and wickedness, and eventually uh they are sent into exile in Babylon. And in this way, you really get what NT Wright calls like a double bind. Um, the rescuers, Israel, need rescuing because God has promised that he's going to do his blessing work through Israel. And so when you come to the New Testament, Jesus is both the savior of Israel and then through that the savior of the world. Um, and we get some of this, uh, I think you get some of that, and I explain all that because I think to me this informs what's happening with the name here. Um, you know, they were given the gift of the name, they're meant to represent the name uh to the world. So, but this in the we see that clearly this has gone this has gone wrong. So you get something like uh in, let's see, Isaiah 52, I think it is. Yeah. Um, so this is a reference um to the time that Israel is in Babylon in Egypt. And of course, this this moment of exile in Babylon, it represents the failure of God's rescue mission people. Uh uh Isaiah 52 verse um five. Uh all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Um then he goes on, therefore, my people will know my name, and therefore in that day they will know that it is I, I who foretold it. Um but the point being that it's because of their failure and they're being taken into exile, um, God's name is blasphemed. Um we get a similar idea uh showing up here in Ezekiel 36, and this is really what I can't I want to camp out. Um let's see, Son of Man, uh I poured out my wrath on Israel. Um this is ex uh uh Ezekiel 36, starting in 18, because they had shed blood in the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols, so so murder, idolatry, I dispersed them among the nations, exile, and they were scattered through the countries. I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned my name. Okay, so now they're not rightly bearing the name, they're profaning the name, their exiles profaning the name. For it was said of them, these are the Lord's people. Lord there is capital L-O-R-D, Yahweh's people. Um, and yet they have to leave his land. I now God continues, I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. Therefore say to the Israelites, This is what the sovereign Lord says. It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I mean, he's clearly this idea of profaning the name through the sin that led to exile. This is showing up over and over again. Uh I will show my holiness, I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among you them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord. Now we see this missional aspect, because God wants all the world to know his name. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. Okay? So the whole setup is Ezekiel saying that um they have profaned the name. God wants all the nations to know his name, his name is holy, he will act for the sake of his name. And then um we get to Ezekiel 36, uh, verse 30 24, and some of you may recognize some of this now. For I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and bring you back into your own land, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Um and it goes on. Uh Verse 32, I want you to know that I am I what I'm doing, this I'm not doing this for your sake, declares the sovereign Lord. Um I got, yeah, there you go. I thought he was gonna say, I'm doing it for my name again, but he left that part out. But clearly that idea was at the beginning. Um the the point being, you get this, the the the what I want us to see here is uh Israel fail, they they fail to uh bear the name uh to Kavot, to well. They because of that, they go into exile, they profane the name in their sin in exile. And then God says uh for the sake of his name, that people would know him, they would know his goodness and truth and beauty and justice, um, for the sake that all the nations would know, he is going to act. And when he acts, it will be this ending of exile for the people of God and putting this uh this, you know, taking a heart of stone and a heart of flesh, putting his very spirit in them. And uh this is all prophetic uh foretelling of what God does in Jesus through his incarnation, his life, his teachings, his death, his resurrection, and then outpouring of the spirit. Uh because in and through Jesus, when you when you come to the New Testament, you see how Jesus' ministry is framed as like an ending of exile. Um sometimes we talk about a new exodus, but it's this ending of the exilic condition. Um he's ending, putting an end to the suffering that began with the exile of Babylon. Uh we see that in the ministry of Jesus and ultimately through his cross-resurrection, outpouring of the Spirit, that he is making us new from the inside out. He's taking our heart heart and putting a heart of flesh inside, and he's putting the very Spirit of God within us. He's fulfilling these promises made to the people of God through Ezekiel. Um, and his and God's aims are that his name would be honored and that all the nations would know how great his name is. And so um I just think, I mean, you know, as we're we're looking at this third word and we see how how it points ahead, that this is like the third word, like, you know, do not bear the name to Shav. Like, God says this is this is like what is happening in the the sending of Jesus. Um it's completing, fulfilling the call of Israel, um, and then extending that mission out to all the world. So when when we trust in Jesus, know that God is acting. This is not something that we have achieved. God is acting for God's sake, that his name would be honored, that all the nations might know, and that his people could walk and trust in uh in him, being cleansed, forgiven, and given a heart of flesh with his very spirit in us. So hope that's encouraging for you today. Um, because when we trust in Jesus, uh, we are the fulfillment of those good words. Grace and peace.