God's passion for His name

The Bible is God-centered not man-centered. One of the key categories we will deal with in our class is to show from the Bible that God is passionately God-centered. The first part of the Westminster Confession reads "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Even though that is true here is my revision "the chief end of God is to glorify Himself and enjoy Himself forever."

In Ezekiel 20 the LORD is speaking to Ezekiel about three specific events :
1. The Israelites worship of false gods while in Egypt
2. The Israelites disobedience of the law out in the wilderness
3. The children of the parents from the wilderness that disobeyed God even after they arrived in the land

In all three of these situations the LORD tell Ezekiel why he withdrew judgment and did not pour out His fury on them. We might think it was because He loved Israel and they were valuable to Him and therefore He knew they were "diamonds" in the rough so to speak. But this is not at all what the Bible teaches us about God as it regards these events. The reason that God did not pour out His fury nor bring judgment on them was "to protect the honor of His name."

Here are the verses and exactly the way it reads in the New American Standard Version:
Ezek. 20:9 "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
Ezek. 20:14 "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before whose sight I had brought them out.
Ezek. 20:22 "But I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

Do you get the main point? It is not about the people of Israel it is about God Himself! God is most passionate about His name, His glory and Himself. May we learn to pray and live this way (God-centered) in a culture that is constantly trying its best to convince us and our children that life is about us!