Put My name upon the children of Israel.
The Christian’s Divine name
I. The name of God put upon his people indicates God’s love towards them.
II. The name of God put upon his people indicates the relationship in which they stand to God. Not only His friends, but His children.
III. The name of God put upon his people indicates God’s property in them
IV. The name of God put upon his people indicates their conformity to God’s will.
V. The name of God put upon his people indicates the resemblance they bear to god.
VI. The name of God put upon his people indicates the assurance they have of final union with God. (The Evangelical Preacher.)
God’s name upon His people:
Your old name is an ugly one. I suppose you know what your name is? If you have forgotten, let me remind you that your name is entered in God’s Book as “sinner.” I do not think you will be sorry to exchange that bad name for a better. I knew a lady once who had a very ugly name, and she could not bear to be called by it. She got all her friends to promise never to use it, and she always signed herself by a pretty name which she selected for herself out of many others. But of course, that never altered the fact that her real name was the old and ugly one. Just so, you may not like the name “sinner,” and you may call yourself by anything else, and persuade everybody that it does not belong to you, but that never alters the fact that you are a “sinner.” God gave you the name, and God alone can change it. But oh! if you long for a “new name,” tell Him so. He has one ready for you, and such a splendid, beautiful, adorable name! “I will write on him My new name.” (Eva Poole.)
Valued because of the Giver:
When our soldiers returned from that great succession of blunders, the Crimean War, those who had specially distinguished themselves were marshalled in a line to receive the crosses or medals which rewarded their valorous merit from the Queen. As she passed along the line she took the decorations one by one from a salver carried by her side and pinned it to the breast of the happy recipient. As she was pinning one on it slipped from her hand and fell to the ground. A little girl, who was near, picked it up and was proceeding to pin it to the soldier’s breast, when he stepped a pace back and said, “No; I do not value that piece of metal. It is the hand which bestows it I value.” So with the gifts which God gives us here, though they are of themselves of priceless value, yet even more precious is the knowledge that they are bestowed by our heavenly Father..