Page 100 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

'94 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
idols drew out His anger, so that it became a question of
letting it all out against them in that land. But mercy
prevailed against judgment, and regard for His own
name before the heathen.
“ I therefore brought them forth out of the land
of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And
I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judg­
ments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign
between me and them, that they might know that I
am Jehovah that sanctify them. But the house of
Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they
walked not in my statutes, and they despised ray judg­
ments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them;
and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said,
I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness,
to consume them. But I wrought for my name’s sake,
that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in
whose sight I brought them out.” (Ver. 10—14.)
When out of Egypt, Israel was no better than when in
it; yea, their evil became more evident and less ex­
cusable. For they were in the solitudes of the wilder­
ness with Jehovah, yet they sought false gods; they
had his statutes and ordinances, yet they walked not
accordingly but despised them; they had His sabbaths
as a sign between Him and them, yet profaned them
greatly. So that Jehovah was again provoked to
destroy Israel in the desert as before in Egypt: His
own name, against which they sinned so proudly and
perseveringly, was their shelter and defence. “ Yet
also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness,
that I would not bring them into the land which I had