God Knows Our Names
What’s in a name? If you’re a parent, it may symbolize the hopes and dreams you’ve had for your child since they were born—character traits you’ve always wanted them to grow into or be known for. Whether or not they live up to that name, when we say it out loud, the whole of their identities rises to our minds. God knows our names too—the one our parents gave us and the one he hides in his heart.
A single name may be insufficient to define us. God himself needed more than one to encompass his full nature. He introduced himself to his people through a series of ever more illuminating names throughout history. “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,” He told Moses one day, “but by My name Lord I was not known to them” (Exodus 6:3, NKJV).
While “God Almighty” [el Shaddai] emphasized his might and all-sufficiency, “Lord” [Yehovah] spoke more of God’s eternal existence as himself (“I AM WHO I AM” as he said in Exodus 3:16). One by one, he added names that would elaborate on his character. He was the God who sees (Genesis 16:12), the God who hears (Genesis 16:11), the one who provides (Genesis 22:14) and heals (Exodus 15:26) and gives peace (Judges 6:24).
He Remembers Our Names
To forget a person’s name meant leaving them behind, ceasing to think of them, misplacing them, or even losing them entirely. But God promises never to lose track of us “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?” he says in Isaiah 49:15–16. “Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
God made sure he’d never forget our names. He shows us this in the way he dressed the human priests who would serve in the earthly tabernacle.
The robe of a high priest bore two onyx stones on its shoulders etched with the names of Israel’s twelve sons. On the front of a vest-like ephod, he wore a breast piece embellished with twelve more gems—each inscribed with one of these names. Whenever he entered the holy place, all twelve names went with him. Even after the original patriarchs died, their names remained on the vestments of the high priests because they represented more than twelve individuals. They included all the progeny which would proceed from them—whether by birth, marriage, adoption, or initiation into citizenship.
A New High Priest Appears
Soon after Jesus’ death, the holy place on earth disappeared. No more would human priests be able to come in and out in their glorious robes. But Christ now serves as the Great High Priest of a greater temple—one that can never be destroyed. “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24 – 25 NKJV).
Today, if we have entered the family of God through faith in Christ, our names, too, are part of the garments of God’s final and Great High Priest Jesus.
An exciting thought. But guess what. There’s more.
Down through the years, that twelve-tribe family broke apart. Soon after David’s reign, they became two separate nations. The ten northern tribes reformed the worship rites to suit their condition apart from God. Only the two southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin) continued to worship the Lord according to His ordinances. The family rift would last for hundreds of years.
Hoping Beyond Hope
Here’s the thing. Though ten tribes went astray, God refused to forget their names. Never did he instruct anyone to change the etchings on those onyx stones. Never did he command a single gem be pried off the ephod’s breast piece. No matter how long his people lived apart from him, God remembered all twelve names and held them in his heart.
We’re still a family of clans and sects and tribes. We still struggle to endure one another’s company. However distant we feel from the rest of His family, God knows our names and remembers them.
And he knows the names of our prodigals as well. No matter how far they’ve gone from the Lord’s presence, He remembers their names still.
Day and night, our Great High Priest Jesus ministers in heaven’s holy place. Our names are written in stone, with letters that cannot be erased, upon His shoulders and His breast. Standing at the heavenly altar of incense, he makes his case before the Father who hopes beyond hope and believes beyond reason. Together, they keep their gaze on each family member, remembering their names, speaking their names, calling their names.
Oh, yes. God knows our names. Forever, he remembers us.