Yes! There is Good News! 10.12.18

A couple of weeks ago I made the statement, “It is not about us and what we want; rather it is about Him and what He wants!” I added it at the end of the article as a passing comment. However, this statement is one that should be forefront in our minds. God is Sovereign and so it is His jurisdiction to dictate the rules that we live by!! This is important to understand.

We have been looking into the 10 Commandments recently and find ourselves in the midst of the third Commandment; “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. For the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who takes His name in vain.” In our last article we covered the first half of this by considering what is meant by taking God’s name in an empty manner. But what about the second half? This is the only one of the ten that tells us that God will not hold us guiltless if we break it. Why?

In the book of Acts chapter 2, Peter addresses the crowd on the day of Pentecost after having received the Holy Spirit. In this episode, the crowd is confused as to what was happening – in fact some were accusing the disciples of having drunk too much wine. Peter assures them that they had not and then proceeds to tell them, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel …”. He then quotes from Joel 2:28-32. This is an important piece of scripture and I will leave it to you to read the entire segment. But in keeping with our discussion today I want to center in on the last part of the quote: “And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

In our previous article I mentioned that God’s name consisted of 4 Hebrew letters that transliterate into the 4 English letters: “YHVH” which have been pronounced in various ways. It was Moses, who was talking to God in the incident of the burning bush, who asked God to tell him what His name was. We find this in Exodus 3:2-15, “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.’”

In our day, names are only a series of letters, such as Bill or Jerry or Mary, that allow another to get our attention or address us specifically. In ancient times it was not so. Names meant something. God changed the name of Abram (which means, “exalted father”) to Abraham (which means, “father of many”). Because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when told by God that they were to have a child in their old age, God said that the name of the child would be Isaac. In Hebrew the word Isaac means “he laughs.” And on and on it goes. It can be an interesting study into the meaning of some of the names in the Bible!

God’s name, however, is unique! It can be transliterated as “I AM THAT I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.” The emphasis upon His name is LIFE itself! Some, in an effort to bring this name into English, translate it as “THE ETERNAL ONE.” And so, “Everyone who calls on the name of the One who is LIFE itself will be saved.”

We will go further with this, God willing, in our next article.