The name of a thing, provided it is a true and adequate one, denotes the essential nature of that thing.
When a chemist has discovered a new substance, he is, of course, compelled to invent a new name for it; and he seeks a term that will indicate its distinctive properties. When, for instance, that gas which illuminates our streets and dwellings was first discovered, it was supposed to be the constituent matter of heat, and the name “phlogiston” was given to it--a name that signifies inflammability. But when Cavendish afterwards more carefully analysed its nature and properties, and discovered that it enters very largely into the production of water, it received the name of hydrogen. In each of these instances the term was intended to denote the intrinsic nature and properties of the thing. That nomenclature which Adam originated at the express command of God, and which the pen of inspiration has recorded as a fact, though it has not specified it in detail, must have been pertinent and exhaustive. The names were the things, the natures, themselves. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
Names
Plato (Cratylus, 390) represents Socrates as saying that “the right imposition of names is no easy matter, and belongs not to any and every body, but only to him who has an insight into the nature of things.” (G. T.Shedd, D. D.)
God’s name
God has a name--not given to Him by Adam, or any finite creature, but self-uttered and self-imposed. The denomination which God prefers for Himself, the name which He chooses before all others as indicative of His nature, is I AM, or its equivalent, Jehovah. Whenever the word Jehovah is employed in the Old Testament as the proper name of God, it announces the same doctrine of His necessary existence that was taught to Moses when he was commanded to say to His people that I AM had sent him unto them. The English name for the Deity, our word God, indicates that He is “good”--making prominent a moral quality. The Greek and Latin world employed a term (
èåïò
, deus) that lays emphasis upon that characteristic of the Deity whereby He orders and governs the universe. (This etymology is given by Herodotus, 2:52.) According to the Greek and Roman conception, God is the imperial Being who arranges and rules. But the Hebrew, divinely instructed upon this subject, chose a term which refers not to any particular attribute or quality, but to the very being and essence of God, and teaches the world that God must be--that He not only exists, but cannot logically be conceived of as non-existent. (G. T.Shedd, D. D.)
The glorification of God
The text leads us to raise the question, What is it to glorify God? It is implied in glorifying God--
I. THAT WE THINK OF HIM AND RECOGNISE HIS EXISTENCE. “The duty required in the first commandment,” says the Larger Catechism, “is to worship and glorify God, by thinking, meditating upon, and remembering Him.” No higher dishonour can be done to any being than to forget and ignore him. But this is the habitual attitude of man’s mind toward the Everlasting God. It does not relieve the matter to say that this is mere passive forgetfulness, and that there is no deliberate effort to do dishonour to God. This passive forgetfulness itself is the highest kind of indignity; and is so represented in the Scriptures. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and an the nations that forget God. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” This unthinking forgetfulness of the greatest and most glorious Being in the universe betokens an utter unconcern towards Him. Now, whoever would glorify God must begin by reversing an this. No man has made even a beginning in religion, until he has said, reverently, and feeling the truth of what he says: “Thou art Jehovah, the Great I AM; that is Thy name and Thy nature; and Thy glory Thou wilt not give to another, neither Thy praise to graven images.”
II. THAT WE THINK OF HIM AS THIS FIRST CAUSE AND LAST END OF ALL THINGS. Here, again, we can arrive at the truth by the way of contrast; by considering what is the common course of man’s thought and feeling. Man naturally thinks of himself as the chief cause, and the final end.
1. Whoever would glorify God must think of and recognise God as the First Cause of all things. If he possesses a strong intellect, or a cultivated taste, instead of attributing them to his own diligence in self-discipline and self cultivation, he must trace them back to the author of his intellectual constitution, who not only gave him all his original endowments, but has enabled him to be diligent in the use and discipline of them. If he possess great wealth, instead of saying in his heart, “My hand and brain have gotten me this,” he should acknowledge the Providence that has favoured his plans and enterprises, and without which his enterprises, like those of many men around him, would have gone awry, and utterly failed. Whatever be the earthly good which anyone holds in his possession, its ultimate origin and authorship must be carried back to the First Cause of all things. And this, too, must become the natural and easy action of the mind and heart, in order perfectly to glorify God.
2. It is implied in glorifying God, that we recognise Him as the last end of all things. Every being and thing must have a final end--a terminus. The mineral kingdom is made for the vegetable kingdom; the vegetable kingdom for the animal kingdom; the animal kingdom for man; and all of them together are made for God. Go through all the ranges of creation, from the molecule of matter to the seraphim, and if you ask for the final purpose of its creation, the reply is, the glory of the Maker. And this is reasonable. For God is the greatest and most important, if we may use the word in such a connection, of all beings. In the light of this doctrine we see--
(1) The need of the regeneration of the human soul.
(2) Why the individual Christian is imperfectly blessed of God. His service is imperfect. There is much worship of self in connection with his worship of God. How many of our prayers are vitiated by unbelief; but unbelief is a species of dishonour to God. It is impossible, in this condition of the soul, that we should experience the perfection of religious joy. “I am Jehovah,” saith God; “that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another.”
(3) This subject discloses the reason of languid vitality in the Church, and its slow growth in numbers and influence. The Christian life is in low tone, because the Church gives glory to another than God. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The glorification of God
It is an objection of the sceptic, that this perpetual assertion in the Scriptures that God is the chief end of creation, and this perpetual demand that the creature glorify Him, is only a species of infinite egotism; that in making the whole unlimited universe subservient to Him and His purposes, the Deity is only exhibiting selfishness upon an immense scale. But this objection overlooks the fact that God is an infinitely greater and higher being than any or all of His creatures; and that from the very nature of the case the less must be subordinated to the greater. Is it egotism, when man employs in his service his ox or his ass? Is it selfishness, when the rose or the lily takes up into its own fabric and tissue the inanimate qualities of matter, and converts the dull and colourless elements of the clod into hues and odours, into beauty and bloom? There would be egotism in the procedure, if man were of no higher grade of existence than the ox or the ass. There would be selfishness, if the rose and the lily were upon the same level with the inanimate elements of matter. But the greater dignity in each instance justifies the use and the subordination. And so it is, only in an infinitely greater degree, in the case when the whole creation is subordinated and made to serve and glorify the Creator. The distance between man and his ox, between the lily and the particle of moisture which it imbibes, is appreciable. It is not infinite. But the distance between God and the highest of His archangels is beyond computation. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The rights of God maintained
God is jealous of His honour. The first four commandments of the decalogue have special reference to His rights, and are couched in the most forcible and impressive terms. But, though these injunctions are reasonable, they have been repeatedly violated by all the nations of the earth. This declaration was made in connection with the mission of the Messiah. But the text is of vital interest to ourselves. It is not the idolater only that dis-honours God; but every impenitent sinner, and every unfaithful follower of Christ.
I. THE IMPORT OF GOD’S NAME. “Jehovah.” By this name God revealed Himself to Moses” (Exo_6:3).
1. It means the Being that exists.
2. It implies that He is the Fountain of all being.
3. That He is also the Preserver of all being.
And the sublimest feature in His providence is that which was exhibited in the redemption of mankind. The name Jehovah leads us to this point. It implies that God is the Saviour of the world, and for this reason, above all others (since, for a sinful world there could have been no preservation without redemption), the great Preserver of the world. That this, too, is the import of the name, is evident from the attributes ascribed to God in connection with it, by Moses: “Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” In Christ, the character of God as the merciful I AM, is clearly manifested (Joh_1:14.)
II. THE GLORY WHICH BELONGS TO HIM. The term “glory” is sometimes used in reference to the visible symbol of Jehovah’s presence--the Shechinah; at other times it denotes the manifestation of His power and wisdom in creation, and at other times again it is employed in a more general sense, to set forth the attributes and perfections of His character. But in the text the word is equivalent to honour, worship, adoration, or whatever else God lays claim to from His creatures’ hands, and hence the latter clause of the passage may be viewed, though with an intensity of meaning, as explanatory of the former. “My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.” That is, that which belongs to Me as Jehovah, I delegate to no one. What, then, is the glory which belongs exclusively to God?
1. His is the glory of the creation of all things. He is the Fountain of being.
2. His is the glory of the world’s redemption.
3. His is the glory of the application of redemption to the case of each individual believer in Christ Jesus.
4. His is the glory of the advancement of mankind in knowledge, holiness, and peace.
III. HIS DETERMINATION TO MAINTAIN HIS RIGHTS. “I will not give My glory to another, neither My praise to graven images.” In this impressive declaration God speaks to men of every class, of every country, and of every age. This declaration may be viewed as corrective of--
1. The sin of idolatry.
2. The sin of pride.
3. The sin of unbelief. (Thornley Smith.)
The glory of God incommunicable
I. THE DIVINE SUPREMACY. “I am the Lord, that is My name.”
1. This assertion involves the idea of the Divine existence.
2. The assertion suggests the idea that He stands infinitely distinguished from all creatures in the manner or mode of His existence.
3. This language intimates dominion. He is related to nature, and He is related to nature necessarily and intimately, because nature is the production of His skill and power. We cannot think of God as the Creator, without being compelled to acknowledge His right and authority to legislate and govern.
4. This phrase is applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the most valid of all testimony in connection with the point, namely, the express and unqualified assertion of the Redeemer Himself, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Here we have the same terms employed, and employed in the same sense.
II. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. “My glory will I not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.”
1. He will not give His glory to nature. Nature exists, but only exists as an effect. In nature there is no originality.
2. He will not give His “praise to graven images.”
3. He will not give His glory to the Church.
(1) He does not give His glory to the ministers of the Church. They are only the stewards of the mysteries of His kingdom. They are but the messengers of the Churches. They are but stars, deriving all their light from the great orb of day.
(2) God, we are likewise assured, will not give His glory to ordinances. The sacraments, whatever may be the mystery and the sacredness associated with them, are but means. Conclusion--
1. Learn from this subject the value of the Bible. This is the only and the great source of all correct information and sound theology as to the essence and moral character of God.
2. You may gather from this text and subject, that Deity is propitiated, and “waits to be Gracious.”
3. You may fairly infer from the subject that such as have the great (J. Newton.)
