Mat 6:9; What Name Do You Call God?

Class Outline:

Thursday August 8, 2024

 

Idea: Christ added gave us a new name to call God - Father; and it is as holy as all His other names.

 

MAT 6:9. 

 

The name of God is the idea of Him that He would have us possess.

He has a lot of names.

 

To think of God as most people naturally do, they would find this petition odd at best. The names by which the untaught heart knows God are names like absent, distant, impossible to please, unsympathizing, grudging, separate, and even ignorant tyrant. 

 

But while the world has been forgetting God, God has never stopped thinking upon us. He looks from heaven, above the circle of the earth, with compassion, forbearance, and a patience that only the divine could accomplish.

 

God gives us His name. His name was not left for us to discover for ourselves.

 

Nearer and nearer did heaven seem coming to earth, closer and closer did God involve His glory with human interests, until the Son of God came and showed God to us fully. 

 

EXO 6:2-3

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord [Yahweh]; 3 and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them. 

 

They were given His name and that name was to be holy and serve as a light of holiness to the pagan world around them - Yahweh, I Am, Almighty, the living God. 

 

EXO 3:13-15

Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM" [ehyeh asher ehyeh]; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM [ehyeh] has sent me to you.'" 15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The Lord [Yahweh], the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

 

The name, was forever marked on the world of history when He told it to Moses from the burning bush - I am that what I am or I will be who I will be (Robert Alter), or I will be there howsoever I will be there (Justin Jackson).

 

The name was not to only be a light by stating it. It was to be a light by living it. Israel would be beset by many enemies, but by the name of Yahweh, the eternal and unchanging one, they found comfort and refuge.

 

Israel was commanded to keep His name holy. They were warned of dire consequences if they did not. 

 

Israel was instructed not only to treat instruments of ritual worship as holy, but also the treatment of others and themselves. 

 

LEV 20:3 [offering their sons to Molech]

to profane My holy name

 

LEV 21:6 [touching dead, shaving and cutting to worship idols]

'They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God,

 

LEV 22:2 [defiling temple instruments]

which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I am the Lord. 

 

Often, at the end of a declaration / commandment like this, God would say, “I am Yahweh” It is God saying, “This commandment will not change, and if you break it, you are standing against Me, the Almighty.” 

 

LEV 22:32-33

"You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord."

 

Moses could not enter the Tabernacle after it was completed (EXO 40:34-35).

 

This is the closing of the Book of Exodus and it is then followed by Leviticus, which opens with the offerings that were required of the worshipers.

 

The most holy object in Israel was the ark of the covenant. Soon after David finally ascended the throne of Israel, he made a tent for the ark and went to get it from storage. He did not bother to move the ark according to the instructions given by God and a man died as a result (Uzzah, 2SA 6:6-11).  

 

The first failure, after getting over himself, was followed by success because David went back for the ark, but this time treated it as holy. 

 

Treating God as holy is not solely procedure. (Perhaps we picture a very stolid, serene man in a long robe performing rituals.) It also was not all fear, though there certainly was fear in terms of respect, always. Treating God as holy, when God is understood, is a celebration along with our reverence and respect. 

 

1CH 16:4-36.

 

PSA 30:4

Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones,

And give thanks to His holy name. 

 

We have the law in the OT, and with it, the rituals that demanded holiness. It was not just rituals, but the laws concerning the treatment of others, of your neighbor, the stranger, the poor, all fell under holiness.

 

LEV 19:2

'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. [directly followed by honor mother and keep God’s Sabbaths.]

 

But with Christ, something came that was new (one of many new things). It was a new name. Not actually new to God but new to us in terms of His telling us to call Him this. It was this name that the hearts of God’s people were unconsciously yearning after through all other names that were given, until the Son came forth, for whom all revelation of God’s nature and relation to us was preparing, and in whom all revelation is summed up.

 

PSA 138:2

For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.

 

JOH 1:1, JOH 1:14

the Word was God … And the Word became flesh,

 

The word gave us the name Father, and now that name is holy, as much as Yahweh.

 

MAT 6:9

 

Our Father leads all the petitions. It is our Father that we ask to rule us, our Father we ask to forgive us, our Father we ask to care for us and lead us.

 

There is always a danger: hypocrisy, thinking that many words or type of words or method is going to get the right audience and answer. And there is a danger of removing the name Father from the realm of holiness.

 

And the Son of God gave Himself to glorify Him and the result, one of the results, is that we call Him Father and we also make that name holy in our hearts and proclaim His name holy to the world, through our words and through our lives.

 

1PE 3:13-16

Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.