Barking Mad!

[Just imagine that this video is slickly embeded so that you’ve watched it before proceeding.]

It was a solemn covenantal act when the priests of Israel put the name of Yahweh on the people of Israel in blessing them with these words. God instructed Aaron:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

‘So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.’ ” (Numbers 6:22–27 ESV)

God’s name was placed on his people as His bride. The priests had authority to do this acting as His ministers in faithfulness to His word, but they were not to play light with this ministry. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).”

In the new covenant, the church is given the authority to baptize disciples in the name of the triune God (Matthew 28:18–20) . Thus it is that the name of God is now visibly put on the people of God, His bride.

To speak this name over a pomeranian, is blasphemous. If a bride uses her wedding vows when adopting a dog from the local pound, what does it say of how she regards her husband? By the blood of Christ, we are in covenant with Him as His bride. In Christ, we are adopted as sons. The name of the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—abides on us. May we cringe with righteous anger when it is so flippantly pronounced over a poodle.

Jesus shed his blood for sinners, sinners who blaspheme His name, so that those very sinners might carry that name as His redeemed. Let us not cheaply use the name Christ purchased for us at so high a price.