Isaiah 48:9 - Exposition

For my Name's sake will I defer mine anger . Israel's insincerity ( Isaiah 48:1 ), obstinacy ( Isaiah 48:4 ), addiction to idols ( Isaiah 48:5 ), blindness ( Isaiah 48:8 ), and general resistance to God's will ( Isaiah 48:8 ), could not but have provoked God's "anger." He will, however, "defer" it, "refrain" himself, not "cut Israel off, for his Name ' s sake. " God, having selected one nation out of all the nations of the earth to be his "peculiar people" ( Deuteronomy 14:2 ), and having declared this, and supported his people by miracles in their struggles with the other nations and peoples, was, so to speak, committed to protect and defend Israel "for his Name's sake," lest his Name should be blasphemed among the Gentiles (see Exodus 32:12 ; Numbers 14:13 ; Deuteronomy 9:28 ; Psalms 129:1-8 :10; Psalms 106:8 , etc.). He was also bound by the promises which he had made; and. still more, by the position which Israel occupied in his scheme of salvation, to allow the nation still to exist, and therefore to condone its iniquities and restrain his anger. But the dregs of the cup of vengeance were poured out at last.