After The Journey on Saturday, I was thinking more about the concept of believing in "the name" of the only-begotten Son of God (from John 3, and as we compared it to Philippians 2). Then I was reading in Sirach 47:10, where the phrase "The Name" is a substitution for the Divine Name, in other words, "The Name" is God. And I remembered that this is a thing in Judaism, to refer to God as Hashem, "the Name." So here we have something very much parallel to the I AM statements of Jesus, in which he identifies himself with God. The same thing is going on here. "The Name" is another reference to Divinity, and another affirmation of the divinity of Jesus.
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
I hope to have another installment of THE JOURNEY up this Saturday - here's the text for the rest of the chapter - I didn't bother with the colored text since this is all from the Gospel of John.
