For My Name’s Sake

What’s in a name? The Hebrew root for ‘name’ is šēm, similar in meaning to our word semantics, the study of meanings. In the Western world, names have little meaning but many languages include the identity of the object in the name. I worked in marketing and we used the ‘logo’ or visual symbol at the center of all our marketing. This is the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning that which embodies all contained in the nature of that which has this name. 

In Chapter 20 of Ezekiel God says three times, “but I acted for the sake of my name” that what the Lᴏʀᴅ was doing, He was doing so there would be no confusion about who He is. Each time it is followed by “…that it (my name) should not be profaned in the sight of the nations…” ¹

When the Lᴏʀᴅ repeats Himself He is emphasizing the importance of what is repeated. In this context, it is who He is and how He is perceived by those who don’t know Him. He is Lᴏʀᴅ and He does not want the nations who are seeing His treatment of Israel to be confused by what they think His action mean. He is not to be mistaken for one of their gods for He is wholly Supreme and Almighty, distinct from their common views. ‘Profane’ is not simply vulgar but literally means to give a replacement meaning to the holy.

This replacement identity is what God points to in the confusion of their idolatry—that God could be compared to idols, that Israel could continue to ‘profane’ His name by treating Him as any other god. The Babylonian Captivity broke their ties to these idolatries—stopped their serving gods of the nations and returning to the Lᴏʀᴅ alone so His name as their Lᴏʀᴅ will no longer be confused with lesser gods.