63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

— Deuteronomy 28:63-64

9 For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I will restrain it, so that you will not be cut off.

10 See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.

Isaiah 48:9-11

But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

— Ezekiel 20:9

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

A right view of God enables people to recognize His worth and their position before Him. God intended His chosen people to represent Him to the nations. Israel’s blessings came from God’s gracious hand and never should have filled them with pride and self-sufficiency. They had ignored and rejected God, displaying a confusing message to the world. As neighboring peoples considered Israel’s exile, they struggled to understand why God’s people needed to leave His land.

Ancient people connected deities with regional authority. If God’s people left the land He gave them, then who was this God?
Israel’s sin and God’s righteous judgment confused the world. God was concerned about the reputation of His holy name. God calls His people to represent Him to the world and magnify His glory. God’s holy name, incorporating the totality of His character – His glory and worth, matters far more than our independent, self-willed desires and everything the world exalts.