GOD'S NAME

GOD’S NAME

Exodus 3:13-15, Exodus 6:1-8; John 17:25-26; Psalm 48:10

I have in mind to speak a little of the name of God, with a desire to draw our hearts away from our sorrows and our burdens and the wilderness around us, that we might afresh find God. Others, in days gone by, have been able to speak of Him as One who is to be found, and He is not far away from any one of us. He is a God at hand. Our lot is cast where He is near. God’s people of old have been able to speak of Him in many ways. Moses, at the end of his days, as contemplating death, says: “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations... from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Moses indicated that he had found a dwelling place for his heart in God.

The Psalmist also tells us that God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in the time of trouble. God is our refuge as well as our dwelling place. Indeed the Psalmist also speaks of God as his exceeding joy. He says, “God, my exceeding joy.” Think of the knowledge of God that lies behind this statement. And, the apostle Paul goes further. He said, “For whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God; or are sober, it is for you.” As he looked on the saints at Corinth he was sober indeed, but as he thought of God, as his heart withdrew from what sobered him in Corinth to what he knew of God, he says, If we are beside ourselves, it is to God.

I want to touch a little on the thought of God’s name. A word in Proverbs challenges us as to what we can tell. “Who hath ascended up into the heavens, and descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a mantle? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou knowest?” Proverbs 30: 4. What can we tell? I do not mean what scripture can we quote, but what do we know as having the conscious knowledge of God? For the knowledge of God’s name measures our part in the great service of praise that the Lord died to establish, a great living system of praise to God. It is His great objective, like David’s.

If you follow David’s history you can see that the thing he was working towards in all his conflicts, in his suffering, in his rejection, in his power and glory, was to establish the great service of God in praise, as he says at the end, “The instruments which I made to praise therewith.” The Lord Jesus takes that up (for David is but a figure of Christ), and He establishes fully the praise of God. “According to thy name,” says the Psalm we read, “so is thy praise.” It is according to the name that God has, as known to us in our hearts, so is His praise. Hence the extension of our knowledge of the name is not only gratifying to our own hearts and edifying, but is the basis of the contributions of all living praise. God only has the right to be praised; for a creature to seek it is sin.

God inhabits the praises of Israel. God is so blessed, so glorious, that the creature’s blessing lies in the knowledge of Him and in His praise, and God finds a habitation in the praises of His people. So I would say a word about His name, trusting the Lord would add a little to us, for we are all conscious, I am sure, of our small measure, yet He has much to unfold. His greatness is infinite; there is a boundless horizon before us, but as to our own receptivity, it is “here a little, and there a little.” If God becomes a little greater to us, it will find its answer in greater praise in the assembly. The assembly is the vessel of praise that Christ is Head over, and, indeed, in which He sings. He, Himself, sings. Wonderful thought! The assembly is the instrument through which Christ sings the praise of God. “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises.” Think of that coming from the lips of the One who was in agony; who groaned, who sighed, who wept, and who suffered. The praise of God is so blessed to the heart of Christ that He sings as He has a vessel through which to bring praise to God. He sings, showing the joy of His own heart in having the means of uttering the praise of God. Praise is founded on the knowledge of the name, for it says, “According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth.”

One can only touch the subject simply and feebly, but I would touch a little on some of the names of God. First of all, I would like to refer to the name by which God is introduced to us in Scripture, namely, “God.” Scripture opens with this, “In the beginning God.” What a name that is! It conveys, no doubt, many great and infinite thoughts, but it designates the One who is absolute and supreme — God! One who subsists outside of any relation to any thing or any one. No creature could be that. Every creature has life relatively. It must be so. We can have no existence except as in relation to others, primarily to God. No creature is absolute and no creature is supreme. Whatever power a creature has, it is limited intensely, but GOD alone is supreme and absolute. He was, before there was anything, even before there were heavens. You will notice it says heavens, not only heaven, but before there were heavens, or earth, before there was a beginning, before there was time, God was. Oh, how beyond us! One who was from eternity, self-existent, and self-sufficient. Think of One self-sufficient from eternity, as Moses said, “from eternity to eternity thou art God.” Nothing magnifies God more to the soul than to realise that He was self-sufficient from eternity, needing nothing, dependent on no one, but from eternity past, sufficient in Himself in those relationships of love and glory that existed in the Godhead. And “According to thy name, ...so is thy praise.” God desires that some sense of this, in its infiniteness and inscrutability should come over our hearts, that we praise Him in the conscious sense that He is God, and would be God to us, supreme and absolute, so that we worship Him. One loves to hear the great men of old speaking of their God. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The One of whom David says, “My God”; the One of whom Daniel says, “My God”; the One of whom Paul says, “My God.” God known and recognised in the secret of the soul as the One who is absolute and supreme, who calls thus for the praise and the worship of our hearts. Now, dear brethren, that lies behind everything. God gives us desires that, what may be known of Him should be known by us. Scripture speaks of what may be known, and God wants us to know everything that can be known. There is that which is inscrutable; there is also that which may be known, and God proceeds to unfold His name in various ways so that the praise might extend, and widen till it fills the universe. God conveys to Abraham, through His servant Melchisedec, that He is the Most High God. He brings this name to him, “the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.” Clearly that is relative. It is brought to Abraham in contrast to Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, and his associates, dignitaries in this world; and also the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah with their possessions and with their elevations in this world. Melchizedek comes to Abraham with this name, “The Most High God.” The One who is above every power in the universe, the Highest — clearly relative. Never mind how high Chedorlaomer or the king of Sodom were; never mind how much their possessions; there is “The Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.” Abraham’s soul receives this name, so that when he meets the king of Sodom, he says, “I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.” I have worshipped Him; this great name is known to me, for He is above all the authorities in the universe and He is the possessor of heaven and earth. I have lifted up my hand to Him. “I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet.” “According to thy name... so is thy praise.”

Then God discloses more to Abraham. He says,

“I am the Almighty God.” That was when Abraham’s body was as good as dead, and also Sarah’s, as far as offspring was concerned; when death was on them both. God appeared to Abraham as Almighty, as One who could bring life out of death. How Abraham’s heart laid hold of this! It was a treasure to him. He could say in his measure, we have this treasure in earthen vessels; we understand that God is not only Most High, but He is Almighty, so that death itself is no hindrance to God working, for He brings life out of death. Thus Abraham’s faith is sustained, so that afterwards when Isaac is put on the altar, he counted that God was able to raise him from the dead. He counted on this name Almighty. According to this name, he will praise God. Even at the offering of Isaac there would be, coming from his heart, the praise that this name would bring forth, for Scripture says he counted that God was able to raise him from the dead. In his approach to that altar, he reckoned on the almightiness of God.

What comes out, is that the unfolding of God’s name is cumulative. Each name carries forward what has already been known. No one who truly knew God would ever forget that He is absolute, supreme, inscrutable. That would stand behind all the names, yet He is known to us as the Most High and the possessor of heaven and earth, and He is also Almighty; He knows no limit to His power; death is no limit to it, so Almighty is He.

Then you come to Moses. He is going down into Egypt to be the deliverer of a thorny people. The thorn bush primarily has reference to them. God’s appearance to him was in a thorn bush. If you touch thorns you may get pricked, you may get hurt; the people they represent are not reliable, but God loves them. He has good will towards them. He is telling Moses as His servant, to go down and deliver them, and Moses says, If they ask me who sent me, what shall I say? What name will I tell them? In having to do with this thorny people, the evidence of sin manifest in them, yet the subjects of God’s good will, what name will I tell them? And God says, “I AM THAT I AM.” However much they may alter, however unfaithful they may be, tell them that “I AM THAT I AM,” that I could not alter. That I AM commits Himself to them, and I cannot alter. However little the children of Israel understood it, Moses understood it. Once Moses had fully realised God’s name in this connection, there was no more weakness with him. The irrevocable committal of God to His people, Himself unalterable, becomes the bulwark of Moses’ heart, “I AM THAT I AM.” Then God alters the word a little. He says, “say... I AM hath sent me unto you.” Tell them that “I AM” — such a One — hath sent you. What a name for One who graciously comes near to us in our ruin and bondage and commits Himself to His people. I AM, the One who is not subject to time. Moses may go down and say that he had come to deliver them on behalf of God, but they might say to him, The days of our years are three-score and ten, and we soon fly away, and what about the position then? “Say... I AM hath sent me unto you.” Moses will disappear, Aaron will die, Miriam will die. I AM will not die, and “I AM hath sent me unto you.” The Eternal, the One whose name signifies that He is outside the restrictions of time, “I AM.” Carry these great thoughts forward, dear brethren, that the One who commits Himself thus to deliver His people is eternal, is the Almighty, is the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, is the Absolute, is supreme. How the praise would deepen and widen from the hearts of those who receive the name. “According to thy name... so is thy praise,” and God’s name gathers up from point to point what is disclosed at each stage.

In the sixth chapter it is again what He says to Moses to assure him. He tells Moses that He had already appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as the Almighty, but that He did not make Himself known to them as Jehovah. The word Jehovah, of course, is used from the second of Genesis because that scripture was written long after the events recorded. It was written by Moses, who used the name by which he personally knew God. God says, “By my name Jehovah I was not made known to them.” The fact that the word Jehovah is in the second of Genesis does not alter that, but now God says to Moses, I am Jehovah; this is My name, which I believe indicates that God is entering into covenant with His people; Himself, the Eternal, is making a covenant to bring His people out and be their God and they His people. That name settled Moses for the rest of his life, for God has made a covenant; the Absolute, the Supreme, the most High, the Almighty, the I AM, is now known as Jehovah and enters into a covenant with His people. Can He fail? Never. The name is a guarantee that God will carry out what He commits Himself to; for, while He enters into a covenant, He is not subject to time, to limitations of power; to limitations of resources, for heaven and earth are His; He is absolute and supreme. When Moses gets that name, his fears are banished; he is assured in his heart. He acts and stands before Pharaoh as controlling the situation because of the Name.

Now to pass on to John 17. I want to say a word as to how that name has extended, for it is cumulative, everything is carried forward, nothing is lost. God is now known to us under this wonderful designation, Father. John says, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be,” yet, “now are we children of God.” God is disclosed in grace to our hearth now as Father and unto us there is one God, the Father. The Thessalonians were the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father, which, in this setting, indicates that God has taken up the training, the discipline, the protection, the support of His children. Oh, what a name! Now are we the children of God. “I write,” says John, “to you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” They know God now disclosed in this wonderful position of grace and love, that He is the Father. Think of the One who is the Absolute, who is the Most High, who is the Almighty, the I AM, Jehovah who keeps covenant, now known to us as the Father; that we are the subjects of His love, care, protection, service, training, of the discipline which the Father sees is needed. Oh, what praise is due to Him on this line! Most scriptures that speak of the Father do so in this character, but what volume of praise in the various epistles you will find to Him who is God and Father. But then in John 17 the Lord speaks from a more exalted platform still. He says, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee.” Think of the knowledge the Son has of the Father. “I have known thee.” How often the Lord speaks thus, “My Father.” Even in Gethsemane, “O my Father.” He begins His public life at twelve with these words, “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Think of the knowledge that lay in Jesus as Man when He said, “My Father,” and when He said, “My God.” And the Lord says, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” The Lord spoke anticipatively of our knowledge of God as Father, and ourselves His sons. He is speaking there not on the platform of our earthly circumstances where a Father’s care and protection attend us every day and hour, but on the platform of what is heavenly, as John 20 further develops. He says, “I ascend.” It is not a matter of earth and earthly conditions, of care and discipline, but of what is heavenly. He says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father.” Behind it lies all the import of the other names. “My Father and your Father,” and the Father thus known would have praise according to His name. While He would maintain all the other relations in which God is made known, and praise accompanying each, yet we have this great elevation. “I ascend to my Father and your Father.” How wonderful to touch for a few moments a realm of praise connected with that name, the Lord pre-eminent, the First-born amongst many brethren, the many sons brought to glory. It is in the mind of the Lord and according to the purpose of God, that God should be known as the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our God and Father, and the praise that befits that name, coming from our hearts, in the responsive love of sons. God loves to look at His people and say of them, “sons of the living God.” “Let my son go, that he may serve me.” So it is in the mind of God to have the service of sons who know God as Father. The apostle speaks of it in Ephesians. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who... has taken us into favour in the Beloved.” We are brought into that same favour. The Lord says in John 17, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Oh, what praise flows from that name! “According to thy name... so is thy praise.”

Well, dear brethren, one would commend us to God, as the apostle says when leaving the saints at Ephesus, “I commend you to God.” There is that in God to which he could commend the saints on the Ephesian platform. He says, “I commend you to God.” God becomes greater and greater to us. We hasten the day of God. Peter speaks of hastening the day of God, the day when God will be all in all. I think that is becoming increasingly attractive to us, that God is to be all in all. In every setting God is to be all in all. When the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and He shall be their God, and wrapped up in that name is all that can be known of Him. He is all that I have indicated and more than I could ever name, the background of all being His inscrutability and absoluteness, but the unfolding of what may be known, is to the end that the heart may find everything in God.

The Lord would help us to reach that in our spirits, that we hold nothing apart from God, our affections, our bodies, our homes, our time, our relationships, our business. The spirit of what is going to fill eternity would lead us to hold everything in relation to God as finding God our exceeding joy. God will fill every heart to the exclusion of everything else. Peter exhorts us to hasten that day, to bring it nearer. We bring it nearer by letting what will fill that day fill our hearts now. In the light of His name, is not such a God worthy to be everything? There will ever be a stream of living praise ascending to God. The Lord would maintain that in the assembly now, in its own proper elevation. “In the midst of the assembly,” He says, “will I sing thy praises.” He declares the name of God to us to that end.