John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 20:9

"But I wrought for my name`s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt." — Ezekiel 20:9 (ASV)

Here God indicates that He was restrained for one reason only from entirely blotting out so ungrateful and wicked a nation: specifically, because He saw His own sacred name would be exposed to the Gentiles as a laughingstock. He teaches, therefore, that He spared them and temporarily suspended His severity, being motivated more by concern for His own glory than by pity for them.

Therefore, by the phrase I did it, we should understand what will be explained more clearly later. The meaning is that He abstained from the final act of vengeance for the sake of His name, so that it would not be profaned among the Gentiles. Although God here declares that He was concerned more for Himself than for them, there is no doubt that He spared them because He saw that they could not otherwise be preserved except by His pardoning them, even in such hardness and obstinacy. And certainly, God’s glory and the salvation of the Church are almost inseparably united.

When I speak of the salvation of the Church, I do not include all those who claim to be its members, but I refer only to the elect. Therefore, since God had adopted that nation, He had to preserve the remnant in safety; otherwise, His truth would have failed, and thus His name would have been much more severely profaned.

From this we can gather that whenever God pardons us, though He considers Himself and wishes in this way to exercise His mercy, His pity towards us is also a reason for His pardoning us. But when He says that He has withdrawn His hand from vengeance out of concern for His own glory, He in this way further humbles the pride of this nation, since, whenever He had pity on them, they thought it was a concession to their own worthiness and merits.

The Prophet, therefore, shows here that they were rescued from destruction while they were still in the land of Egypt for no other reason than God’s unwillingness to expose His name to the contempt of the nations. He says, therefore, in the eyes of the Gentiles, among whom they were, referring not only to the Egyptians but to others as well.

Yet the question arises, in what sense does he add, a little later, that he was known to them? For up to that point, He had given no demonstration of His power among the Gentiles. He had testified by two miracles that Moses would be the agent in their redemption (Exodus 4:2 and following). Afterwards, Moses approached Pharaoh himself; there God displayed the signs of His power, which rightly frightened all the Egyptians, but His fame had not yet reached other nations.

But this knowledge should not be simply restricted to past time, for God only means that He had already begun to show, by clear and remarkable proofs, that Moses was chosen, by whose hand He intended to redeem His own people.

Therefore, since God had already displayed those remarkable signs, He says that He was known to those nations—not that His fame had reached them, but because He Himself had gone there, so that the event could not remain hidden, and everyone would know that miracles had been performed by the hand of Moses, making it evident that He wished to claim the Israelites as His own.

Now, therefore, we understand in what sense Ezekiel says that God was known. Some explain this in a relative sense, as follows: "I was known to them" (meaning the Israelites) "in their eyes" (meaning the Gentiles). But this interpretation seems forced to me, for in my opinion, the word “their” in the Prophet’s language is unnecessary here.

He simply means that God was revealed in the eyes of all the nations in leading them forth. This phrase shows the kind of knowledge intended, since God showed His power in liberating the people through remarkable miracles.