יחזקאל, פרק כ׳, פסוק י״ד

God's actions toward the Israelites were not driven by their own merits, but rather by a profound concern for His honor and reputation in the world. The primary approach among commentators is that God intervened and spared the people specifically to prevent His name from being degraded or treated with disrespect.

This concern was focused on the observing nations, particularly the Egyptians, who had personally witnessed the exodus with their own eyes [מצודת דוד]. If God had chosen to destroy the Israelites in the wilderness, these nations would have completely misunderstood the situation. Rather than seeing a just punishment, they would wrongly assume that God lacked the power to bring the people into the land of Canaan. They would conclude that He was simply forced to wipe them out in the desert because He could not complete their journey [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד].