His name is His presence

This is my study of the phrase “My name,” continued. I am not going to use all the verses in which God uses that phrase, but will choose a few on which to comment.

­­­24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.

Exodus 20:24  New King James Version)

My understanding of this verse is that when God places His name in a location, on a people, or on a person, His presence is there. His name is His presence. He promises His name, His presence, to His people.

  

20 “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

Exodus 23:20-22 (New King James Version)

In these verses, God is taking a little side-trip from explaining the many sacrificial laws to reiterate His promise to guide His people.

Look at the word, Angel. Strong’s commentary calls this a theophanic angel, meaning a divine appearance to man, or appearing to man as a god. God’s people are cautioned to obey Him (the Angel), and not provoke Him, because He will not forgive them. In some verses, the word Angel appears to refer to Yeshua, as in the time when Jacob struggled with the Angel, but this Angel will not pardon transgressions, making me think this Angel is not Yeshua. However, the fact that the Angel is often no less than God is something to be aware of as we study Scripture.

“My name is in Him (the Angel).” God’s presence is in the Angel. Looking forward to the following verse, not only was His name in the Angel, it was on the children of Israel. His presence was there. Just as He prepared a place for the children of Israel, Yeshua promised to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-3), and He promised His presence in us.

22 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.      Say to them:

24 “The LORD bless you and keep you;

25 The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;

26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’

27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Numbers 6:26-27 (New King James Version)

God told Aaron and his sons to put His name on the children of Israel. Apparently this priestly blessing was given in a kind of ordination service. I would love to have seen exactly how it was done. Was it a private ceremony done in the tabernacle, where Aaron and his sons symbolically held the people before God? The priests were to speak these words to the people, so it would have been a public ceremony, and that His name, LORD – YHWH, would have been proclaimed before them. They all knew exactly what His name was, and that’s the way God meant it to be.

By My name LORD I was not known to them

These blog entries, for anyone who might happen to stumble upon them, are a work in progress, and I really don’t know from one week to the next what I will write next. However, last time I did promise myself to report some of what I had found regarding the phrase, “my name.”

Up until very recently, I had considered the actual name of God to be unimportant. God was a sort of title or description, as is Lord. As long as we know who He is and understand that He hears us when we pray, and that we know who created us and saved us, the actual name is not important, is it? After all, there are so many languages in the world, with many different-sounding names for our God – so what does it matter what we call Him, so long as we call on Him?

Then I started the study that has started this blog, and the phrase “my name” jumped out as a phrase that is often used in the Bible. I decided to look at some of those verses.

2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD.

3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD* I was not known to them.

Exodus 6:2-3 (New King James Version)

 *LORD is the translation given us for the Hebrew, YHWH. YHWH is also traditionally, more correctly, but not completely accurately, translated as Jehovah; I plan to study “YHWH” in more depth at a future date. 

Very interesting verse, “by My name I was not known to them,” don’t you think, in light of the fact that we apparently don’t have the exact translation of YHWH? Therefore this verse comes to us as if God leaned over and said, “It’s very important that you know My Name, My name is… mumble mumble mumble.” Of course He didn’t say that. He wouldn’t have hidden His name when He obviously wants us to know it! But His name was hidden, I understand, by the Jewish scribes, who felt the name too sacred to be written in its entirety. Surely somewhere, by someone, it is known.

15 Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. 

16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.

Exodus 9:15-16 (New King James Version)

He wants us to declare His name in all the earth, but what is the purpose? Some say it is because God is a megalomaniac, wanting all the glory and honor for Himself. I believe it is because His name means something important, and when we know His name, it will add a richness and depth to our understanding of His interaction with us as His creation, and contribute so much more to our relationship with Him. 

This is only the beginning on "my name." More next time.

Names and labels

I have finished, for now, looking at those in the Bible whom God named, including those whose names He changed. The natural progression of my study leads me to consider the importance of God’s name. I am not going to focus on His name specifically, that is, not on what it is, how it is pronounced, etc., but on the phrase, “my name.”

God has a different way of asking for respect than do we humans. When we (Americans, at least; I recognize that other cultures may differ) want respect, we say, "show ME some respect," or "Respect ME." God says, "Respect MY NAME." It seems a slight difference, but my task is to determine if that difference is important. Why doesn’t God just say, “Respect Me,” instead of, “Respect my name?” And what does this have to do with what we call Him—especially when it appears His name is not known?

This request of God, to honor His name, appears to be in contrast to our way of honoring a person, one example being the practice of building statues and buildings in honor of past presidents. Our focus is to honor the person; we don't focus on honoring the name of the person, though that is a part of it – otherwise we would not know whom we are honoring. We tend to think that the name isn’t as important as our knowing who it is that the name represents. This is the reason we readily adapt to nicknames for those we honor in all walks of life. 

Here is a short list of examples of nicknames and changed names of people who have been in the news in recent decades:

Alan Alda – Alphonso D’Abruzzo
Cher – Cherilyn Sarkisian
Chuck Norris – Carlos Ray
Conway Twitty – Harold Jenkins
Dean Martin – Dino Crocetti
Demi Moore – Demetria Guynes
Doris Day – Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff
Elton John – Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Elvis Costello – Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus
Engelbert Humperdinck – Arnold Dorsey
George Orwell – Eric Arthur Blair
Harry Houdini – Ehrich Weiss
Hulk Hogan – Terry Jean Bollette
Jerry Lewis – Joseph Levitch
Joan Crawford – Lucille Fay LeSueur
John Denver – Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.
Judy Garland – Frances Gumm
Kirk Douglas – Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Lauren Bacall – Betty Joan Perske
Leon Trotsky – Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Martin Sheen – Ramón Estévez
Natalie Wood – Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Tina Turner – Anna Mae Bullock
Tony Curtis – Bernard Schwartz
Whoopie Goldberg – Caryn Johnson

(Source: http://www.innocentenglish.com/celebrity-bloopers-news-quotes/celebrity-names-the-original-names-of-famous-people-who-have-changed-their-real-name.html)

The name makes us think of the person, but it is for us a convenient label; in our minds the name isn’t the same thing as the person. There are some who believe that what we name our children influences their direction in life, and we know that some names may cause difficulties for children because of teasing, but having a name that may cause one to make one choice over another is different than having a name that is you.

Next time I will look at some of the many verses in which God talks about His name.