We value our good name. People are not permitted to touch that. That hurts us.

In the world of the Bible it is even more so. What is the meaning of a name in Israel? And what does that tell us?

When we try to find the meaning of a name in the Bible, we meet with a mystery. Things have names because that is what they are called. Grammatically speaking, such a name is called a “noun.” When we begin to look for how everything got its name, we have to go back to the first day, the first day of creation. That brings you to God:

God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. Then there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:5

Given⤒🔗

God gives names to things only on days one, two and three.  The light he calls Day, the darkness Night, the expanse Heaven, and the dry land Earth; and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. Literally, God calls out to the light:  “(You are) day.”

On days four, five and six he does not do that. He waits, so to speak, for the coming of Adam. Then he will bring all the beasts of the field and every bird of the heavens to Adam to see what he would call them. “And whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). They are called that because that is what they are.  Their names indicate their essence. Adam gives them names on behalf of God.

Man also receives a name because that is what God calls them. God causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep, takes a rib out of his body and out of it he fashions a woman. He brings her to Adam. And also “this time” (meaning, “just like before”) God allows Adam to name her: She shall be called Isja, Mannin . Literally: they shall call out to her (you are) Mannin ( Genesis 2:23). She is the part-ner of Adam, a “part” of him because she was taken out of him.

Proper Name←⤒🔗

Isja is a noun, which means “woman.” But it is more than that here. Here it is a proper noun. However, it is not the first proper name in the Bible. That would be the name of God. Before Adam gives names, God gives his name (Genesis 2:4). He gives himself. From the moment that the spotlight is turned onto mankind, God no longer is Elohim but YHWH Elohim (we say then Adonay Elohim because to say the holy Name is blasphemy to Jewish ears). At the same time, the covenant comes into view. “Remember this now and forever.”  This is a great mystery. Giving people and things their name is inherent to being human, and being human is based on God’s involvement with us people. That is Torah, “teaching,” in Genesis 2. We sing about this in the Psalms.

Power←⤒🔗

Psalm 8 is an example of this. Something else is becoming clear. He who is allowed to give names to things and people, and so decides on their essence, has dominion over these things and these people. Giving a name or “calling out a name” to a thing or a living person, literally is like making it what it is. In Genesis 1, people are told to do that: “let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds in the air, over the cattle, over all the earth...”(verse 26).

The story of Genesis 2 is sung about in Psalm 8. To name is to have dominion, to control: “Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have established strength.” The mumbled “amen” of a small child—for instance, before or after a meal—is able to stop the foes of God. The enemy and the avenger will be stilled (verse 3).

No matter what happens, you may cling to the greatness of God. When you ponder the heavens at night (verse 4 speaks of the heavens, the moon and the stars), you may feel how small you are, but you are special. Because you are human, you have responsibility. God gives that to you. That is how majestic his name is in all the earth.

That is the first and the last thing we have to discuss now. It was already torah (teaching) in Genesis 1: “Let them have dominion over… all the earth...”( verse 26).

Just before that sentence we read, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” These sentences run parallel to each other. It is “we” and “they” interconnected. Dominion by us as people is placed between the image of God and the name of the Lord. As images of him we may feel his continued association with us in our lives: “What is man… yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings” (Psalm 8:4-7).

To Jerusalem←⤒🔗

In the Hebrew Bible the order of the Bible books is different than in ours. The beginning is the same: the Five Books of Moses, the Torah, the Law. But they are followed by Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 and 2 Chronicles. The Hebrew Bible ends in the middle of a sentence: “Whoever is among you of all his people-the Lord God be with him- and let him go up to…” (2 Chronicles 36:23; compare to Ezra 1:3).

We find many, many names in the Old Testament. Every name has a face to go with it. After the fall into sin and the building of the Tower of Babel, the Lord says to Abram, “Go from your country…. to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).  The people of God are on their way to the land of promise, to the city of God, for there is the house of God.  From the start they are on their way to Jerusalem. Along the way there are many experiences: the exodus from Egypt, the return from exile in Babylon. These are the awesome deeds of the Lord. There are hundreds of names, especially in the books of Genesis, Numbers, 1 Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah. These are not random people. These are the twelve tribes, these are families, and there is the genealogy of David. Some will fall by the wayside, for not all are Israelites who are called Israelites. There are also those who are added to Israel. They also may bear the name of Zion’s children (Psalm 87).

The book of Ruth will be read later, on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Name←⤒🔗

In this context, the book of Exodus is very special. It begins with the words: “These are the names,” which  also is the title of this book in the Hebrew Bible. “These are the names of the sons of Israel, who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household.”   Everything in this Bible book is focused on the revelation of God’s holy name in chapter 3. The Lord appears to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: “I have come down to deliver my people out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of this land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

The Exodus happens so that they can go to the promised land and ultimately so they can go up to Jerusalem. God’s “coming down” ultimately leads to their “going up” to Jerusalem.

In order to be able to bring this message to the people, Moses asks the Lord what his Name is. He then says, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14a). Now Israel is able to sing their songs of pilgrimage, literally their “songs of ascent” (Psalms 120-134): “Lift up your hands to the holy place” (Psalm 134:2). The name of God reveals who he is. He is from everlasting to everlasting. God does not need people to be God, while we people do need God to be people. He is perfect in himself.

Yet in his good pleasure he reveals himself. Moses hears his voice. At the same time he is veiled: He is as he is. God is holy. He keeps his distance. He says to Moses,

Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.Exodus 3:5

At the same time, he is so very close. For the “I AM” also means “I am with you”: “Tell Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14b). His Being is also being-present. This is what he means when he says his name: “I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

The Son←⤒🔗

God reveals himself in his Son. The Lord Jesus uses the “I AM” word as he becomes flesh and blood. We find the “I AM” words of the Savior in the Gospel of John. The Lord Jesus lives among us as the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the True Vine. 

He goes with us on our way to the land of promise, and he leads us. He makes sure we have bread, for he gives of himself. He is the Good Shepherd, for he gives his life for the sheep. He is the only Door. On our way we will not perish, for he is the Resurrection and the Life. You can count on that, for he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Along the way you already have something from home, from paradise: “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” We also are included in this last “I AM”-word of Jesus. The ascension from Jerusalem becomes a reality in our everyday life, in the glorification of the Father.

A New Name←⤒🔗

By faith you become a citizen of God’s kingdom. You also receive a new name. We find examples of that in the Bible. We can see how special that is, because of what Christ says to the congregation of Pergamum: “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).

It was customary at that time that one who was condemned in court was given a black stone and one who was acquitted received a white stone. He who truly believes, that is, he who clings to my name — says Christ — he will be justified. You will receive a white stone! But what is that new name that no one knows but he who receives it?  Christ. But does not everyone know that name? Yes, but the question is whether we know the Lord Jesus personally, not just knowing him as others do but for me: “My sheep know my voice and I know them and they follow me.”