So the question is raised: were you automatically an image of God,
bearer of the name by being an Israelite?
The question really is, are they representative of Yahweh?
Well, if you're worshiping Baal, the answer is obviously no.
But in Exodus 27, this is the list of the 10 commandments we read;
«You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.»
Let's just open our interlinear pane, click on the word «take.»
The lemma here is nasa', which really means again, overwhelmingly means
"to lift up" or "carry" or "bear."
The command actually has nothing to do with verbal speech.
It's not a command that has anything to do with what comes out of your mouth.
We have a sense of this already. And again, we've touched on this a little bit before,
but bearing the name is the notion that wherever I go, I take the name "Heiser" with me.
So, people when I was growing up, would know who I was by name,
they would identify me by name, and if I did something terrible or amiss,
it would tarnish the family name because I bear it.
What I did would sort of color or would blemish other people.
because of what I do, my behavior.
And this is the idea of "bearing the name", we are representing God.
So, this command actually, "bearing the name" is very much related
to the concept of imaging. And imaging is a representation status.
And so, you know, the law, more widely, and not just this command,
but the whole point of that specific command is to bear the name well.
To not call yourself a follower of Yahweh, and Israelite, and do things
that would cause others to consider the name of Yahweh lightly or contemptibly.
Negatively. And this is the whole idea. And the law, more widely, was designed
to avoid that set of circumstances and to positively distinguish
Yawheh from the other gods.
And Yahweh's people from people who worship those other gods.
It's a very simple set of ideas when it comes to the law.
Let's go to another one. Exodus 28. This is in regard to the high priest here,
what he wears.
«You shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod.»
The ephod was part of the High Priestly garment that fit over the head
and around the shoulders and upper torso.
«Set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance
for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names
before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.»
Now, if you remember in your Old Testament about the ephod and then the breastplate,
there were stones on the breastplate. And on each of this 12 stones
there was the name of a tribe carved on that stone, engraved on it.
And Aaron was literally bearing, carrying, wearing the names of the tribes
when he went in to do certain things as a priest, he represented them before God,
and of course, God before the people.
So again, the "bearing the name" idea is very clearly representation.
Numbers 6, which will be familiar to a lot of people, this is the priestly blessing.
«The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them.»
Again, this is what Aaron's supposed to say to them.
«The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you
and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel."»
The priestly blessing is conceived of as having the results that God's name
is now it's not just on the high priest. Remember, the high priest's weared that banner
over the forehead, "to the Lord", "to Yahweh", "l'Adonai".
That we have a situation where that sort of transferred, symbolically or
verbally, in this case, this is a reminder through this prayer, that
"hey, you people out there, you also bear God's name.
If this is the relationship that God wants with you, and it is,
or else he wouldn't give these instructions,
what that entails is you represent Him, you bear his name as well."
So again, the bearing the name idea is conceptually pretty clear.
2 Samuel 7, isn't a passage that we typically associate with this, but let's read it.
«Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you,
and there is no God besides you,
according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel,
the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people,
making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things
by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt,
a nation and its gods?»
Again, just think of the bearing the name, the representation idea.
God does this with Israel.
When he brings them up out of Egypt, they are emblematic of who he is.
They are emblematic of the fact that "this is my family and I'm still working this plan
to restore what was lost at Eden."
And it's sort of a general statement as to what's going on here and why God is doing this.
And sort of how it works in terms of the perception.
So imaging God, again, this goes back to the language of Genesis
where God chooses a human family we're supposed to represent God as his family.
Adam is a really a ruling steward.
He is God's Prince as it were, okay, and Eva again having the same status.
They're royalty.
They're like a king and a queen. And again, there's only two in the beginning of the story.
But they are royal in that they are the children of the king.
And they are to steward the earth.
So you've got this representation, stewardship, royalty thing going on.
And that's going to just be continued in what we see with Israel;
kingdom of priests, and kingly royal representatives, they are children of the king,
and they are to represent him.
So the "imaging God" material that we've talked about quite a bit.
"Bearing the name", God chooses to restart the whole idea after Babel.
And now it's just made corporate, is the point. And this notion of family
and representation, family and partnership, representation
that we saw in Genesis is just transferred over and continued into Israel's history
corporately, as a people. So the question is raised;
were you automatically an image of God/bearer of the name by being an Israelite?
Well, in the one sense, every human is an image of God, we know that.
But the question really is, are they representative of Yahweh?
Well, if you're worshiping Baal, the answer is obviously no.
So, you have to, as an Israelite, you're human. So yeah, we're created as God's images,
and that this is what God wants. The question is: is it a reality
in terms of its operation? Every human has this status by virtue of being human.
But in terms of, you know, sort of boots on the ground reality, is it happening?
And if you're just born into Israel, is that a guarantee that it's working?
That it's happening? That that what God wants to happen in this status that he's given you?
Is that a guarantee just because of ethnicity? And the answer to that is no.
I mean, you had to make choices.
You had to believe in Yahweh; who he was and what he had done.
And you had to demonstrate that belief, you actually have to represent him.
Okay, so there is sort of a default representation,
God's relationship to humans. Humans are like God, from Genesis.
But there's also a different kind of imaging and representation
where you're actually bearing the name,
by the way you live, you are showing what you believe.
And you are giving your God a good reputation, and you're distinguishing yourself
as His child. That isn't something that happens by default.