Sanctifying
God’s Name
Here are some
things I was considering today. In the
Lord’s Prayer, where Yeshua is teaching the disciples “how” to pray, he tells
them this…
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who
is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’” (NASB)
Without getting
too technical, the word translated as “hallowed” can also be worded as “sanctified”.
This can mean to ‘set apart’ or to ‘honor’
something. Set apart is another way of
saying ‘holy’, consecrated, and/or dedicated as in:
Genesis 2:3 “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He
rested from all His work which God had
created and made.”
I say this because
a version of the Lord’s Prayer that I really like was introduced by Keith
Johnson and Nehemia Gordon in their book: A Prayer to Our Father.
In it, they word
Matthew 6:9 like this: “Our Father in Heaven, may your Name be sanctified.”
That’s where I
first heard that “sanctified” and ‘hallowed’ mean the same thing.
So, today, I was
part of a Bible study with friends at - http://moedministries.com/
The discussion was
on John 12:20-41. But it was when we got
to verse 28 that I had some thoughts.
John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what
shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose, I came to
this hour. 28 “Father, glorify Your
name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 29 So
the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had
thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” 30 Jesus answered
and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.” (NASB)
As we looked at
these verses it became obvious that glorifying God’s name was the same as
hallowing it or sanctifying it. I
immediately thought of verses in Ezekiel chapters 36-39 where God talked about
His Name being ‘sanctified’.
Ezekiel
36:23 “And I will sanctify my great name, which
was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them;
and the heathen shall know that I am the
LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I
shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.” (KJV)
Ezekiel
38:16 – “And thou shalt
come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be
in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may
know me, when I shall be sanctified in
thee, O Gog, before their eyes.” (NASB)
Ezekiel
38:23 – “"I will
magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and
make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am
the LORD."' (NASB)
Ezekiel
39:6,7 – “And I will send
a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD. 7
So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel;
and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall
know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.”
Ezekiel
39:27 – “"When I
bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their
enemies, then I shall be sanctified
through them in the sight of the many nations.” (NASB)
In each one of
these, God wants to be sanctified. He
wants His people to know who He is again.
He wants them to honor Him, glorify Him, make Him holy in their eyes
again. If a man wanted these things we’d
say he was vain and self-centered. But
this is Yehovah! He is the ONE who we
all should glorify, magnify and sanctify!
I especially was
hit by Ezekiel 36:23 – “I will sanctify
my Great Name”. That is important to
God. Then in Ezekiel 39:6 he says, “they
shall know that I am the LORD”, but in verse 39:7 He says, “So will I make my
holy name known”. My Holy Name? The LORD is not His Name. That is just a
title. We know that the Bibles we read
all SUBSTITUTE the words ‘the LORD’ or ‘GOD’ for the actual Name of God which
most Bible translations refer to as ‘the Tetragrammaton’. By that they mean the
four-letter Name represented in Hebrew by Y-H-V-H. By now, in 2018 we know the evidence is
overwhelming that God’s Name is:
YEHOVAH
- Yeh-Ho-Vah
(That is why my
blog and YouTube channel have the name: Return to Yehovah.)
By the way, I am
not interested in getting into arguments with those who think they are smarter
and know better than the Hebrew scholars I have learned this from. I am here to proclaim the Truth, not argue an
opinion.
It’s amazing to me
how many want to argue and fight about this but usually they want to put God’s
Name back into the box of “the Lord”, “God”, “Adonai”, “HaShem”, or “Yahweh”
(of which there is NO evidence in any Hebrew manuscripts, period). God’s Name
was known to the priests, religious leaders and over the centuries, many
rabbis. Over time due to intense persecution,
they banned the use of God’s Name and instead used titles.
Now, as we
approach the End of Days, God has decided He wants His Name known again. When I
first read how His name is pronounced, then later heard it spoken, it just AGREED
with my Spirit. For lack of a better way
of saying it, “it just felt right”. I have been in congregations singing songs
to or about “Yahweh” but it always drove me crazy. I just knew inside that was not His
Name. So, when I learned it was Yehovah,
I was at peace and thrilled to now know the Name that has been hidden for centuries.
Back to the
original point. God spoke audibly from
Heaven to Yeshua in John 12:28, and the people standing there heard Him. Some said it ‘thundered’ or that an ‘angel
spoke’. Yeshua had just said, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause I came unto this hour.” (John
12:27)
He was preparing
to go to his trials and the cross. He
knew what laid ahead. He was NOT going
to ask God to save him from this. He
knew what the result would be. He knew his
death, burial and resurrection would defeat Sin and Death and make a way for
millions of people to be forgiven of their sins and glorify God his
Father. A few sentences later he says, “Now
is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
(John 12:31)
What dawned on me
while reading this and the verses referenced above was that this mighty work
that Yeshua was going to do, would greatly MAGNIFY, GLORIFY and SANCTIFY the
Father’s Name! This was a HUGE deal!
I realized that in the spiritual realm of
angels and demons and all the residents of Heaven this was well known. When Yeshua rose from the grave on that
Sabbath evening (just after sunset on Saturday night – not at dawn on Sunday
morning) He was now the Victorious Son of God!
All the angels knew this and rejoiced!
The demons probably screamed out and cried in horror and fear – knowing their
end was coming.
You see, they all
knew Yeshua when He lived with Yehovah and had the glory with God before he
came to earth. To the angels, he was the
Son of the Most High.
He was the highest ranking of all beings –
just a little lower than Yehovah, as the Son of a king would be to his father. They knew his power. They knew how he was, and they loved him and
would follow him anywhere. He was the
general of heaven’s armies. Not one who would
sit back and order troops around, he would LEAD them into battle. For now, that hadn’t happened yet. First, he had to go ahead alone and face the
enemy on his own. Not just the devil and
his demons, but he also had to deal with all the wicked sinners who didn’t want
him to rule over them. Remember, when
Yeshua approached a demon-possessed person, often the demon would cry out in
fear, “Are you here to destroy us before our time?” (paraphrase) They knew
exactly who he was and how powerful he was and is.
This is so
beautiful to me and so awesome! I could
go on and on about these things.
But, in all of
this, Yeshua came to glorify his Father.
Yes, he wanted to save sinners, but his Father’s glory was paramount in all
that he did. What does that tell
us? Maybe we should look to glorify God
in all we do?
God is glorified
when we follow His commandments and treat people according to His Ways. He is glorified when we honor His Son and
love him for all he did for us. God is
also glorified, magnified and sanctified, when we sanctify His Holy Name. HE is the one who decided to reveal His Name
at this time. He knows how close we are
to the end. He wants us to be able to
have His Name as our Strong Tower to run to when the enemy harasses us.
Yes, he has given
all authority to the Son, Yeshua – both in heaven and earth. And Yeshua has a name that is above All Names
(excepting that of the Father). Every knee
will bow, and every tongue will confess that Yeshua is Lord – to the glory of
God the Father!
Now, see these
last 2 verses:
John
17:6 – “"I have manifested Your name to the men
whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and
they have kept Your word.” (NASB) – some versions say I have “revealed” your
Name.
John
17:26 – “and I have made Your name known to them,
and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in
them, and I in them." (NASB)
I had to wonder,
why did he need to make God’s name known? In those days in Israel, people knew
God’s name. But then it dawned on
me. There are several things Yeshua said
that may have been more for future generations than for the day when they were
spoken.
One example is
when he said he did not come to “destroy the Law, but to fulfill it” (Matthew
5:17) It may have been important then, but today, it is HIGHLY important.
With God leading
people back to the Torah, the church often fights this by saying the Law was
done away with. This verse completely
destroys that possibility. Those who have come to read and learn God’s Law know
this without question.
In the same way, I
think Yeshua knew that in the Latter Days, the Name of God would be replaced or
substituted; but then God would reveal His Name again for Yeshua’s followers.
Seeing these verses in John 17 confirm that to me. Yeshua himself was concerned about his Father’s
Name being known and magnified. This is
all part of glorifying God. It is part of who He is. His Name is his reputation, character and is
KNOWN to all the spiritual realm. If
there is power in the Name of Yeshua to the demons and angels, imagine the
power in the Name YEHOVAH!
Remember, Yeshua’s
name is short for Yehoshua (Joshua).
Yeh-Ho-Shua – which means
Yehovah will save!
His name is above all names and is made up of parts of God’s Name! He told us, “I and my Father are One”. (John
10:30)
In summary, Yeshua
taught us to pray, “Father may your Name be sanctified”. He made it known to all his disciples. And,
when he prayed out loud, God spoke to him saying, “I have both glorified it,
and will glorify it again.”
How can we as believers
in Yeshua follow the things he said and taught, if we refuse to even learn God’s
Name? We won’t say it. We won’t pray it.
We would rather just use titles. We are a stubborn and stiff-necked
people. One day, like it or not, the
whole world will know the Name Yehovah.
In addition to
bringing His Law back to His people, God is revealing His Name again. Don’t miss out and be one of the rebels. Return
to YEHOVAH.
