Bearing the Name of God
I have been studying 1 Kings, and it has been very interesting to read about the construction of the temple, especially after having studied the construction of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus. Sometimes the details feel a bit dry, but other times the details can bring out themes that can be seen throughout Scripture. One of those details that I noticed was in God’s response to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple for God’s presence:
I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (1 Kgs 9:3, emphasis added)
God’s words, however, quickly turned to a warning for Solomon and his descendants. They must continue to obey the Lord and worship him alone; if they didn’t, he would cut them off from the land “and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight” (1 Kgs 9:7, emphasis added).
As the earliest readers of 1 Kings were fully aware, God’s warning was not idle. Less than 400 years later, after countless warnings and prophecies by God’s prophets, Nebuchadnezzar burned the temple to the ground (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8–9).
So, what became of the name of the Lord that He put on his dwelling place (cf. 1 Kgs 9:3)? Here again a very expansive theme opens up (though touched only lightly upon here). I will point out a few references in the Old Testament before moving to the New Testament.
Israel as a nation was intended to be a name for God, but the nation rejected Him.
I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. (Jer 23:11, emphasis added)
All that God did in pouring out His wrath on Israel for their rejection of Him, He “acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.” (Ezek 20:9, emphasis added).
Jeremiah wrote later of a promise that God would still fulfill his promise to David to have a descendant on the throne forever (cf. 2 Sam 7). This descendant would be unlike any other. He would be righteous and would execute righteousness (Jer 33:14–18).
In the New Testament, Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of that promise, and He bears the name of His Father perfectly. Praying to the Father, Jesus said that He had “manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world” (John 17:6). In fact, everything that Jesus did was for the purpose of our believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might have life in his name (John 20:30–31).
Besides Jesus bearing and manifesting the name of God, we believers, too, bear the name of Christ, though not reflecting the Father perfectly. The disciples of Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch during a time of persecution (cf. Acts 11:26). The apostle Peter encourages believers not to be ashamed for any suffering that may come from bearing the name Christian, but rather to glorify God in that name and be blessed (1 Pet 4:14, 16).
The apostle John shed more light on bearing the name of God when he wrote to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3. He commended their faithful endurance in not denying God’s name and promised:
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. (Rev 3:12, emphasis added)
The one who conquers will himself be made a part of God’s dwelling place, bearing God’s name! Later, John sees a vision in which he sees 144,000 standing with the Lamb “who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev 14:1). He promises at the end of the book that one day all of God’s servants will worship the Lamb who sits on the throne of God. One day believers will stand in the presence of the Lamb of God, bearing His name.
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. (Rev 22:3-4, emphasis added)
Imperfectly bearing the name of Christ now and knowing we will perfectly bear his name as we stand before him face to face in the future—this should humble us and spur us to obedience. Our disobedience could cause the name of God to be blasphemed or reviled by unbelievers (cf. Rom 2:23-24; 1 Tim 6:1), as Israel’s did in the Old Testament (cf. Ezek 20:9). Rather, let our works of love be for His name (Heb 6:10) and our words of praise acknowledge His name (Heb 13:15) so that one day we too can stand before the Lamb bearing His name and the Father’s on our foreheads.
Holly Huffstutler serves with her husband David, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. She blogs with him here where this post first appeared. Holly is a homemaker, raising and schooling her four children.