Jesus: Bearing the Name and Building the Kingdom

It’s such an honor and privilege to have been selected to teach this class at this North American Church-Building Teacher’s Conference ’24 in Lancaster, CA. I am thrilled about the conference theme: Jesus: The Master Teacher.

I love my topic “Jesus: Bearing (Carrying) the Name, Building the Kingdom, because it’s both a call and a responsibility. I am very glad to have met Jesus in new ways after 33 years, as I sat in many Rocky Mountain School of Missions & Theology classes. I sat and listened to seasons, and experienced professors of biblical studies & theology (Glenn Giles, Steve Kinnard, Jennifer Konzens, Jacoby, Bill Moulden, and the rest. Thank you.  

Let us pray. We humbly come to learn more about you. Your awesome name and its powerful call to build with you. Please bring us to a deeper understanding of who you are as a name bearer and what you did and still do with those you have conferred that name on. Please draw us closer to you as we participate in kingdom building. I pray that this presentation will be used by you Lord to teach, reprove, correct, and train us in your righteousness so that we may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NET)¹ Amen.

Let’s do this little exercise before I start. Go to someone here and spend one minute with and get to know all you consider to be important to know them including their name. Ask him/her to think of the times their name has been misspelled or mispronounced by others. Ask them to share their experience(s) or memories & feelings and how they responded.

My note: Take on name from the audience and ask questions. First and last names, gender, meaning and purpose. Western nations, Europeans, Asians, Greeks, West Africans & Jews. In Jewish groups, like the Ashkenazi community, it is considered bad luck to name a child after a living relative, so children are often named after deceased relatives to honor their memory.

In Africa, names are not mere labels; they are expressions of identity, and heritage, and often encapsulate the individual’s personal or familial history.

The Bible is replete with names and naming. Examples include:

• The creator naming his name and his kingdom in heaven and on earth. Genesis 1:1; 5, 8, 10, 14-18; 26-28.
•  Adam naming other species. 2:19-20
•  Naming the patriarchs, naming of Abram, Sarai and Jacob, and their change of names. Some angels are named in the canonical and non-canonicals books.
•  Naming persons before they are conceived. Jeremiah, Jesus the Christ, …
•  Naming traditions are as diverse as the cultures they come from, and can reveal a lot about what different communities value. In fact, a name can provide fascinating insights about both the individual who carries it and the one who chose it for them. My native name Ndu for instance.

Bearing God’s name and being his representatives on earth has been in God’s heart from the beginning. My one objective is to examine with you, the refreshing revelation of God’s personal name to Moses at the burning bush experience and its narrative analogies throughout scripture. The Bible is a rich collection/reservoir of narrative analogies ranging from character comparisons/contrasts to significant events. The biblical authors are considered ancient but they were intelligently deliberate in their style of writing narrative analogies.

So, as an example, the powerful Pharoah of super power Egypt orders the killing of all male new-born of the Israelites. Readers are being asked to recognize everyone in power who has perpetuated similar evil … Herold, Nero, Hitler, etc. God continues to train us to notice patterns in these texts and in our own lives as well, so we can attempt to discern the divine purpose in our lives.

I would like to take you on a short and mesmerizing, breathtaking journey of one narrative analogy of a story you already know so well…

I see several pictorial or video frames when I reflect on the name of the God of Israel from the TaNaK to the NT. The name frames begin in Genesis and connects in a refreshing way in Exodus 3 with the divine encounter with Moses. YHWH reveals his personal name in the context of coming to save (deliver) Abraham’s descendants from their bondage in Egypt. Reading, re-reading and reflecting on this subject have created a new way to understanding the Name. Its connecting threads explodes in the TaNaK and the New Testament and draws readers into how the Name YHWH disappears after Malachi but reappears in very interesting and surprising way in the synoptics and John.

Matthew recalls the Name of the anointed one, a name which means YHWH saves. Jesus the Messiah makes an outstanding revelation in his John 17 priestly prayer, revealing the Father’s name YHWH, the very name he claims the father gave to him. 

Taking the Name in honor not in vain (Exodus 20), is a responsibility for participating in kingdom building. They go together. He makes us bear the name to build his kingdom.

Let me paint a familiar picture and allow our minds to imagine a bit.

Engaging the Tanak & the entire Bible

As apprentices of Jesus who love to engage with the word of God (Tanak & NT), imagine you have just completed your goal to read the entire Bible in one year. This is the 10^th time you are doing this. Of course, over the years, many things have jumped at you and hopefully you noticed that you have been reading the story that God began to tell from ancient times through many different people. Hopefully also, you see that there is a network of name(s) and name bearing that the authors leave all over the Bible. The authors expect readers to discover and meditate on this network. Readers are being asked to recall something they are supposed to already know about the network and all of the intertextual occurrences.

The literary works of some Hebrew scholars like Robert Alter, Meir Sternberg, and Brian Sigmon – on narrative analogy pick my interest. They posit the idea that narrative analogy is when an author shapes two or more characters/stories/word(s) or other aspects of a biblical text, so that it bears a significant amount of resemblance to one another inviting serious reader(s) to further investigate the semblance between the two or more things, with a view to seeing new light in them and highlighting powerful parallels. This can be in the same text, different chapters of the same book, different books, or different canons of scripture.

In the OT, you notice different names used to describe the creator God. Names like Elohim

(a Hebrew word appearing over 2500 times and in the very first sentence of the TaNaK),  LORD, God of Israel, God of host, Hashem, El Shaddai, God, Mighty Creator, The Lord who sees me, Holy one of Israel, Lord of Hosts, Lord of Heaven’s army, Shepherd, King, Living God, Righteous Judge, Hope of Israel, The Desire of all nations, Jealous, Consuming Fire, and Lord Most High. All these inspire hope, comfort, awe, fear, and challenge readers/listeners to heightened desire, curiosity, purity, and passionate allegiance.

I contend that God’s decision to reveal his name(s) to and closely associate his name with the Jews, introduced a risk – honoring and dishonoring YHWH’s name became a possibility, the very risk he tried to mitigate by instructing them not to carry/bear/take his name in vain (Exodus 20:7).

Careful readers looking for connections within the TaNaK and the NT with the divine personal name revealed to Moses will come to see, observe, understand and contemplate its hidden-in-plain-sight rhythms in the story of YHWH in Israel’s history and that of the entire humanity.

I contend that the Bible is intentionally riddled with features that puzzle us to make us keep reading and reading and rereading through the collection to help bring clarification of earlier puzzles and finally to discover life-altering answers. An example is the story in Genesis 9, where Ham saw his father’s nakedness, yet did not receive Noah’s curse. Instead, Noah curses Ham’s 4^th son Canaan. The author invites readers to keep reading, meditation, re-reading, searching to solve this puzzle and climax into a joyful spiritual orgasm of biblical proportions. That’s what I plan to do here…elevate your curiosity.

In all of the revelations of God’s names, cultural and historical contexts for the readers are provided. God is introduced as the conceptualizer, designer and creator of the universe (heavens and earth).

In Exodus 3:13-15³, we see the “Exodus Moment”, (a term I borrowed from Carmen Imes), when God visits Egypt to claim Abraham’s descendants as his own, after he dis-inherits other nations in Genesis 10 (Deut. 32:6-8), you read about a single 4-letter word in Hebrew that appear in an unusual fashion that catches the eye. Their deliverance was based on the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15:5, 13-14, 18-21.  

Tell them that “I am who I am” has sent you. The word in Hebrew is YHWH יהוה reading from right to left (“Yod he vav veh”). The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), is yod, he, vav, veh. Kitz, Anne Marie writes that the name may be derived from a verb that means “to be”, “to exist”, “to cause to become”, or “to come to pass” I will be there how so ever I will be there. It occurs over 6800 times in the OT.

This name continues throughout the OT. However, as you turned the page from Malachi to Matthew, this name suddenly stops showing up and you the discerning reader(s) wonder why? As a Bible nerd, a teacher/evangelist, elder, disciple and a lover of God’s word, you want to know why.

My paper which is primarily a historical systematic theological study, based on a few scholarly works I interacted with and my own studies under some Hebrew professors attempts to retell the stories related to the name and its direct and indirection association with kingdom building. In doing this, I hope to draw us into reliving and experiencing God’s story, God’s wisdom, power and presence in his word. Prayerfully, I hope we can internalize it and absorb its message fully.

The TaNaK (Hebrew Bible) (our OT), is a unified fascinating Journey/story/narrative of God leading to Jesus, the one through whom YHWH created all things in the visible and invisible space and through whom he also began his new spiritually creation.

The invitation to carry/take/bear god’s name is a call for it to be honored, hallowed, and revered, not carried in vain 

YHWH successfully brings deliverance (salvation) to his chosen people through Moses, Aaron and Mariam (Micah 6: 4 WEB), having disinherited other nations (Deut.

32:1-8). They leave a mixed multitude, and arrive at Sanai where God organizes them into a fighting army registered by tribe.

In this wilderness liminal space, He instructs his redeemed people not to take his name in vain, meaning they should not bear his name improperly. Instead, they should carry his name as his emissaries. Exodus 20:7 – OJB

Aaron carries the names of the sons of israel (as god’s priest), in a breastplate over his heart as a memorial to the lord  

Carrying, taking and/or bearing God’s name has huge implications theologically and sociologically for the people he has just redeemed from their Egyptian slavery. To understand what this taking or carrying MEANS, we will turn to Exodus 28:29 where we read this, Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of decision over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. Aaron as priest was required to bear the names of God’s community as he ministers before God.

God’s name is proclaimed, put on Israel/put on the land/temple, profaned/blasphemed by Israel

Exodus 34:5-7, (God’s name is proclaimed, showing His character and nature).

Lev. 24:10-16 (misused and resulted in death), Deut. 28:1-14, 2 Chron 7:12-16

(Name in the temple), Isaiah 43:5-7 WEB, Ezekiel 36:20-23 (God’s name is profaned among the nations through Israel’s sin.). 1 Samuel 12:22 (God’s name on the people), the land, the temple, can be blasphemed and profaned by his people’s conduct.

A name change for one of the twelve spies? 

As the recently released descendants of Abraham camped at Sinai, one of the tribal leaders born in Egypt bore the name Hoshea, (Numbers 13:8 NET) from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;). His name means “he saves”. His name suddenly changes to (Joshua) or Yeshua in Hebrew meaning “Yahweh saves” after he and Caleb speak out insisting that Yahweh is able to conquer the land of Canaan.

God’s name in the rest of the Torah

Geoffrey William Bromiley writes that the books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew name.

Daniel 9:19: An 80-year-old Daniel prays to God, asking him to “listen and act” because “your people and your city bear your name”.

Jeremiah 15:16: The speaker says, “I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies”.

Enter (Yeshua) – Jesus as bearer of YHWH’s name

As we move from the end of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament, though I do not see anything old about it.) To quote Robert Alter, ‘one part of the text NT, provides oblique commentary on the other O.T). Both old and new are one story wherein the new is a commentary on the old), Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians notes that the name YHWH appears to have been transferred to Jesus, whose name in Greek (Iesou) is a translation of the Hebrew Yeshua – Yahweh saves. In Hebrew, Jesus’ name proclaims that Yahweh has come to save his people. Jesus’ birth pointed to the return of Yahweh to his people, echoing the name prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6-7 NET).

Matthew the synoptic captures it this way in Matthew 1:20-25⁹

Unlike Joshua, Jesus’ name says something about its bearer. His birth signifies the return of Yahweh to his people, recalling the name prophesied by Isaiah: “Immanuel,” God with us (Matthew 1:23). Through the incarnation, Yahweh has come to be with his people and save them. Imes posits that “There can no longer be any doubt about the source of salvation.”

We who take God’s name are His representatives in the world. We bear or carry His name, so what we do, and who we are, and how we represent God, who’s name we carry, matters deeply and significantly!

Hans-Joachim Kraus posits that the name “Immanuel” implies two things

1. that God’s presence was in the events surrounding Jesus’ conception and birth.
2. that Jesus is Yahweh himself, come to be with his people. Carmen Joy Imes in her excellent book “Bearing God’s Name, Why Sanai Still Matters” proposes the reason for the disappearance of YHWH’s name in the NT and writes, “One thing becomes clear right away when we turn the page from Malachi to Matthew. A remarkable shift occurs. The name “Yahweh” disappears completely. Two factors play into this. The first is the change in language from Hebrew and Aramaic to Greek. (“Yahweh” is very hard to say because Greek lacks both “y” and “w.” there’s also no letter “h” either.)

A second factor that explains the disappearance of Yahweh’s name proposed by Kendall Soulen is Jewish reverence. Jews by the time of Jesus decided that it’s best not to say the divine name at all to avoid the risk of profaning it.

Yeshua, the one who carried and bore YHWH’s name, was about JUST one thing…bringing the rule and reign of God in himself, and welcoming humans into this rule in order to joyify the one he called Father. Hebrews 1:8-12 WEB (But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom. ⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.” Psalm 45:6-7. And, “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does.  You will roll them up like a mantle, and they will be changed; but you are the same. Your years won’t fail.” Psalm 102:25-27

John roots his narrative in the foundational verses of the Torah in Genesis 1:1 “in the beginning, God….” For John, perhaps even more than the other Gospel writers, everything begins with the Torah. Secondly, the idea of the logos of God, possessing extraordinary qualities and functions in relationship to God himself, was in alignment with the 2nd Temple Judaism. The Jerusalem Targum translates and expands the original Hebrew of Genesis 3:8 states. “They heard the voice of the word of the Lord God walking in the garden, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” When translating Genesis 19:24, it says, “And the word of the Lord Himself had made to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah raining fire from before the Lord from the heavens.”

Jesus’s was serious about bearing god’s name and building god’s kingdom  

• Luke records Jesus’s claim in Luke 24:44-47, that he is the one who connected all the threads of the plot/plan of God. He defines discipleship around obedience. It’s not enough to claim allegiance to Jesus; one must also do God’s will. Lip service to Jesus without action that flows out of an intimate relationship is falsely bearing his name (Matthew 7:21-23).
• The key disposition of one who truly belongs to God is a commitment to action— to doing his will rather than one’s own (Matthew 7:21-22; cf. Luke 6:46), to building God’s kingdom not ours.

In his great priestly prayer, (John 17) Jesus calls attention to the meaning of his name, the responsibility for carrying that name, whose name it is, and his purpose on earth –

Verse 1-3 “Bearing YHWH’s name includes being sent to do YHWH’s work. How are you doing with bearing his name and completing his work?

Verse 4-8: I have manifested “your name” to the people whom you gave me out of the world. I have given them “the words that you gave me”, and they have received them. Bearing YHWH’s name includes manifesting His name to others Verse 11-12a:

• Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. 12 When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me.

Verse 26a:

I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known,

▪ By carrying and bearing YHWH’s name with honor and reverence, Jesus fulfilled Israel call by YHWH to not carry his name in vain. Exodus 20:7.

Paul makes an incredible discourse in 1 Corinthians 15:20–23¹³ and 42–49¹⁴. He explains how Christ’s achievement has provided a way for spiritual formation and transformation for everyone who believes. G.K Baale posits that this brings believers into corporate union with Christ himself, making them the trues Israel.¹⁵

Jesus commissions name bearers: the 12 as name bearers and name

Transmitters. Matthew 28:19-20. Acts 2:1-42. Acts 4:12

Peter proclaims to the crowd of Jews who were familiar with the Torah and the name, post-Pentecost that “there’s no NAME given under heaven by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12). This posture of name carrying or name bearing was shown in Jesus’s kingdom bringing and kingdom building life of doing only YHWH’s will, not his own (Matthew 7:21-22; cf. Luke 6:46). Let me close with a brilliant quote by Carmen Imes. She writes, “Here’s the bottom line: Jesus is not simply a conduit of God’s teachings the way Moses was. He is the source of those teachings. He possesses authority that Moses and the other prophets never had. Moses was only a messenger. Jesus is both the sender and deliverer of the message. Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh. He doesn’t say “thus says the Lord.” His teaching comes from within: “I tell you.”¹⁶  

I posit that “Those who bear the name but refuse and continue to refuse to carry out God’s will bear his name in vain”. You are blessed that you bear his name and are building with him.