Deeply disturbed by reading Ezekiel Chapter 20 - I need help

My question is: Based on what I'm reading in Eze 20, did God do everything for Israel up until the exile, only for His name's sake? That would mean that Israel was doomed from their time in the wilderness. Am I missing something? This is a very fatalistic theme. It seems like, why bother, there is no hope for you.

Here's what is causing my concern (from the Faithlife Study Bible)::

"20:9 for the sake of my name Yahweh’s forbearance is based solely on His sovereign choice. Concerned with preserving His reputation, He delays judgment for a time.

The same theme appears in Isa 48:9–11. The emphasis on God acting for the sake of His own reputation is significant to Ezekiel in light of his assertion of individual responsibility in chap. 18. Judgment was deferred to preserve Yahweh’s reputation, not to pass on the punishment to the next generation."

Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Eze 20:9). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

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abondservant

Going to re-direct you to ChristianDiscourse.com, where Logos has set up a forum for discussions like this. They prefer we keep to discussing Logos here on this particular forum.

Always happy to see people asking deep questions of the scriptures

Mike Pettit

The Sovereignty of God can be troubling for a time, but read up on the subject and meditate on the centrality of God in creation, not of man the creature and it becomes sweet to have a purpose in history and a loving Father for his people. Our hope is in Christ, not whether we "bother" successfully or not.

GaoLu

Perhaps you needn't be disturbed if you discern what is different between what men say and what the Bible says. The theological part of this question might be interesting to discuss at http://christiandiscourse.com/

NB.Mick

Steve,

welcome to the Logos forums!

Like others have said, these forums are mainly focused on the Logos software and how to use it rather than for a discussion of theological topics. Since you only cite the Faithlife Study Bible, we don't know what resources you have in your Logos library - which will obviously determine the results, when you run the Logos functionalities.

When you want to study a certain passage or verse, you might simply use the "Go-Box" from the home page - this will invoke a predefined layout and run certain functionalities.

It will e.g. open your preferred bible(s) to the passage, a preferred commentary resource and run a passage guide and an exegetical guide.

You might run those guides individually from the guides menu and avoid Logos turning over your existing layout on the screen.

One thing you may have noticed from the drop down suggestions in the Go-Box or in the Passage Guide is that they offer to work on a chunk of text from Eze 20. The verse you concentrated on is part of a passage, most often associated with Israel's rebellion. The commentators and several study bibles note a pattern in this section (e.g. CSSB = NIV Study Bible)

God's revelation
Israel's rebellion
God's wrath
God's reconsideration

This pattern shows that the people of Israel rebelled against God, disobeyed them and are responsible for that. They deserve God's wrath and brought it upon themselves (in the book of Ezekiel this is a relevant topic: see Eze 18). So I don't read this as a fatalistic "they had no chance, were determined".

Moreover, the verse you cited belongs to the reconsideration part. God for the sake of his name will not bring the judgement upon Israel that they deserve for their rebellion.

One aspect of the Passage Guide is that it will tell you about the relevant topics and offer to run a topic guide from there, so you can run a topic guide on "name". Nearly all of the topical consideration will tell you that names in the bible signify the nature and character of a person. In this context, the FSB's 'Concerned with preserving his reputation' surely needs some more unpacking.

It is God's nature and character to be merciful in spite of the fact that his people don't deserve it. God shows his nature by reconsidering the judgement.
"Name and person are closely connected in the Bible. God’s name is what he has revealed concerning himself, that by which he is known. The phrase used here is equivalent to “for my own sake” (cf. Isa 37:35; 43:25). God’s acts of deliverance—past and future—identify him, revealing his true nature (see 36:22; Ps 23:3; Isa 48:9)." (CSSB)
God is concerned with making his name (=nature and character) known among the nations of the world and be rightfully known for how/what he is - I think this is what the FSB editors meant when they wrote about 'preserving his reputation'. They already give the link to Isa 48 where God speaks like here in Ezekiel and the point is that God is saving Israel even though they don't deserve it. People shall know God not by looking how reverently His people act, but how miraculous and gracefully he acts towards them - like in the Exodus from Egypt, he will bring them back from exile.
There is a reminiscence to the story where God did not destroy rebellious Israel because Moses reminded him that then the Egyptians would get a wrong impression about God's character, motives and capabilities. Classical commentators Keil & Delitzsch point that out: "what He did, namely, abstain from pouring out His wrath, is to be gathered from what follows: “that I might not profane my name.” This would have taken place if God had destroyed Israel by pouring out His wrath"

Those last two bullets can be seen when looking for the cross references to Eze 20:9 - again, we can go there from the Passage Guide:

Thus Logos helps you study a passage.

Gary Osborne

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/635425#Comment_635425

Steve, let me plug a resource that is in Community Pricing but it set to close this Friday.

https://www.logos.com/product/16526/the-works-of-adam-clarke

This is, imho, the finest "older" commentary (anything pre-20th century) around and it might explain things in a different way than the Faith-Life notes. Just a thought.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/635517#Comment_635517

If I remember right, Moab's god had the same conundrum. He had to punish Moab for disloyalty, but simultaneously risk destroying himself (being a national god). But the Moab god never appeared to extend to far outside the confines of Moab. At least per archaeological evidence. And thus a plug for the Logos continued investment in hard data.