Malachi 2:1-2
“Therefore, this decree is for you priests: If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart to honor my name,” says the Lord of Angel Armies, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.
Today the lesson from the prophet Malachi has got me thinking that I want to talk about the Holiness of God's name, not just the symbolic meanings behind the many names given to God, but the immediate presence of The Holy One that is his name.
People get into this business of naming God in their prayers. They'll be sure to end each prayer in Christ Jesus' name, or with every new line of thought they plug in a "Lord" here, or "Father God" there. And that's not necessarily a bad thing if you're wondering. However, the lesson today has to do with taking God's name to heart, giving him the honor he is owed. Not simply tagging a prayerful thought with the mention of his name.
Jesus taught us to pray the name of God. He gave us what has become known as "The Lord's Prayer". And the very first prayer that is offered in that prayer...
Luke 11:2
And he (Jesus) said to them (the disciples), “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name."
...is to elevate the name of God. His supreme emphasis begins, not as a postscript at the end of a prayer, but he begins by saying "hallowed be your name."
Why is this important?
We don't really know who we are unless we first understand who God is. Not only don't we not know who we are, but we also don't know or care to know who God says we are if we don't first understand, and respect from the heart, who God is.
And so, Jesus prays, "hallowed be your name". Jesus opens his prayer addressing God as Abba, "father", and then his prayer begins by giving glory to God, whose name is holy (hallowed).
Hallowed - Merriam Webster says:
HOLY, CONSECRATED, SACRED, REVERED. That word can be traced back to the Old English adjective hālig, meaning "holy."
And more to the point, Jesus isn't simply stating a fact that God's name is holy, he's expressing from his heart that he's looking for the coming of God’s kingdom, inwardly in the heart and outwardly on earth. And so, he prays holy is your name, your kingdom come your will be done. He prays this because it's his honest full desire, first and foremost, that God be given all the glory before he asks anything for himself. He joins his voice, in spoken words of prayer, with the angels in heaven who stand around God's throne singing "Holy Holy Holy".
Holy to the third degree. Most High God, "Jehovah" (Isaiah 40:3),"Yahweh" (Isaiah 26:4), "I AM" (John 8:58), "The Amen" (Revelation 3:14). There are a multitude of ways to say God's name and express his many attributes, but first and foremost we must KNOW that his name is HOLY.
ISAIAH 8:13
"The Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear and let him be your dread."
How do we give God's holy name the glory he deserves?
We can begin by NOT doing what the ancient people did that brought about his wrath. By NOT having other gods before him, not disobeying his commands, not using his name for vain purposes, by not giving him a bad name by our bad examples. By living what we pray for.
1 Corinthians 10:31
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
1 Peter 3:15-16
"In your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."
Honoring our Creator as holy entails us doing the opposite of what those who God has called lawlessness and unrighteousness. It means trusting Him and Him alone when faced with the prospect of death and destruction. And probably most importantly in this matter of the heart is to be completely honest in our prayer. Confessing that He is holy and that we are not.
It's a good start...recognizing that God is holy and confessing that we aren't, all that within your heart and expressed by saying his Holy name. If you want the rest of your prayer to be heard and received, you'd better begin with reverence given to his Holy name.
Hebrews 5:7
"In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence."