Do you know why the chief priests went wild when the Roman guards posted the notice "Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews?" (John 19) I was once told in a sermon that when all the first letters were placed together it spelled the name of God. A name the Hebrews were not allowed to speak.
Have you ever wondered why they weren't allowed to speak it?
Well, according to The New Testament Environment, speaking the proper name of God risked taking on the responsibility of guilt for misusing his name, or worse degrading his name from its holy status to a level of profanity. When they spoke of the holiness of God it was with a great amount of deep respect, awe, and admiration.
In order to acknowledge him many other names are used: the Lord, the Most High, the Word, the Almighty, the list goes on. Often one of his attributes or the word heaven has been used instead of his name, or when referring to him.
I find this intriguing. How wonderful that we can approach Jesus, the Son of God, as a friend. But, his Heavenly Father (and ours) is still the Almighty whose name is holy. We still need to treat him with the same awe and respect and admiration that was given to him by the ancient Hebrews. This we must remember.
Yes, I wrote once that the Jews were afraid to even speak His name, and yet today His name is used continually in vain. It sickens me that something so precious is tossed around as slang.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reminder that He IS God and He deserves our respect.