God Takes Our Name

Exodus 3:3-6) And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

One of the incredible benefits of baptism is that we are baptized into the name our God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And as a result we are known in this world as “Christians”, the christened or anointed ones; the ones who bear the name of the Anointed One, the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously this is all to the good. God, in infinite goodness and mercy has allowed us to take His name; permitted us to be identified with Him in the once for all sign and seal of baptism and in the ongoing moniker of “Christian.”

But as wonderful as all this is (and it is truly wonderful!) there is an even a greater, more significant way that we have been identified with Jehovah, the Great I AM that I AM. At the burning bush, Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses, in part by naming Himself. But take care to note the very first name that God used to make Himself known to Moses: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In so doing, God forever identified Himself with His people; He willingly bound up His good name and staked His reputation, as it were, with the wellbeing of the ones to whom He had pledged His love and favor.

So the next time you are tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness to His promises, remember this: He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember that He could no more renege on His promise to bless all the families of the earth, then He could cease being who He is and always has been. God will make Abraham’s descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, because the only way the LORD could break this promise would be for Him to stop being who he is in His essence and who He has declared Himself to be.

Christian, always be grateful for the name that you bear; the name lovingly bestowed upon you in your baptism. But take care to rejoice as well that Your Creator and Redeemer has, for reasons entirely beyond our limited capacities to understand His sublime goodness, condescended to take the names of those He purposed to bless, and to include them in His own great name. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and by covenant association, of John, Justin and Cicilia; of Kay, Patty and Brynn; of Rose, Ken and Kayli; of Brent, Khiree and Zachary. Too glad to be true, but true nonetheless.