His Names for September 2011
Here are all the names of the Lord written about this month, in the order in which they were written:
Here are the same names in alphabetical order:
Reflect on these names of Him who is with us. And who is with us always.
He is always true to His name.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
Rabboni
Jesus was not only called Rabbi (as we saw in yesterday’s post), but He was also called “Rabboni” on a couple of occasions. (One was when Mary Magdalene first saw Jesus after He was raised from the dead.) This variant of “rabbi” seems to intensify the term to “my rabbi.” There are even examples in ancient Judaism of it being used as a way to address God in prayer. These two points seem to make the term particularly appropriate for Jesus.
Call to “Rabboni” (your Rabbi) today – He whose name is Jesus and Lord. Ask Him for your daily bread – that is, your daily teaching of how to live, how to love. It will take a few minutes. Will you do that for Him? Will you do it for yourself?
Once you then get up to live your day, keep in mind that you will never leave the presence of Rabboni. You will be before Him all day long as you seek to flesh out what He has taught you about right and wrong, about justice and forgiveness, about kindness and mercy.
Rabboni is a faithful teacher.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
Rabbi
During His earthly ministry, Jesus was addressed by His contemporaries as Rabbi. This was appropriate for three reasons. (“Rabbi” is a term referring to a leader of a Jewish synagogue, or a scholar of Jewish law able to interpret it, or both.) The first reason is Jesus’ Jewishness (which was addressed in yesterday’s post). The second reason is that He was most assuredly a teacher, able to interpret the Law of Moses like no one else (as He was the one who gave it to Moses in the first place!). Thirdly, He was the leader of a congregation of Jewish followers.
We need to remind ourselves that whatever Jesus was in the flesh during the days of His earthly ministry, He is today in the spirit. (For more on the distinction between flesh and spirit, see Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh - or you can just know that flesh is that dimension of creation you can see with your physical eyes, while spirit is that which is unseen.) Jesus is unseen today…but He is doing all of the same things we saw Him doing in the gospels – including teaching.
Jesus is today – and every day – our teacher, our Rabbi. He was Jewish but He did not come to teach us how to be Jewish. Rather, He came to teach us how to be righteous, whether we happen to be Jew or Gentile. He is still teaching righteousness today…to all who will listen. (By the way, righteousness is seen in the love you saw Him constantly show to others in the days of His flesh; we should do likewise.)
Turn to the Rabbi. And sit at His feet. He will teach you how to live today. The lesson will be about love. But that love must be founded on the faith you have in the Rabbi.
Are you actually learning from Him how to do right in this life, or are you merely paying Him lip service?
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
Yeshua Ha’Mashiach
After yesterday’s post about all the different ways the name “Jesus Christ” is rendered, I thought I should add this one:
Yeshua Ha’Mashiach.
This is a transliteration from Hebrew to English. In “Yeshua” you can see the resemblance to Joshua. And in “Mashiach” you can see the resemblance to Messiah. (“Ha’” is equivalent to the article “the.”)
People will use this version of “Jesus Christ” when they want to stress His Jewish ancestry. His “Jewishness” is particularly important to appreciate because His life doesn’t make sense apart from that context. He was a descendant of both Abraham and David – men to whom God had made many specific promises regarding an ultimate descendant. Jesus was that ultimate descendant and the heir of all those promises. Jesus is therefore the fulfillment of all that the Jewish Scriptures prophesied.
Most Bible scholars believe that Jesus would have spoken the lingua franca of 1st Century Palestine which was Aramaic. The Aramaic version of “Jesus Christ” would have been similar, but not identical, to the Hebrew version you see above. Don’t worry. I’m not going to write about the name Jesus Christ in all known languages. I only thought it worthwhile for our purposes to show all the English renderings and trace their origin back the biblical languages. We’re done.
If we trust the name of Jesus in our native language, loving and obeying Him with all our hearts, He will be satisfied. He’s not just the God of the Jews – He’s the God of the whole world!
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
The Anointed Joshua
If you’ve been reading the posts of the last several days you might have recognized that “The Anointed Joshua” in today’s title is just another of the many ways of saying “Jesus Christ.”
To briefly review:
- “Jesus” is synonymous with “Joshua.”
- “Christ” is synonymous with “Messiah” which is synonymous with “Anointed.”
- The word order doesn’t matter. ”Jesus Christ” is synonymous with “Christ Jesus.”
- The inclusion of “the” doesn’t matter. ”The Christ” is synonymous with “Christ.”
- “Anointed” is synonymous with “Anointed One.”
These things being the case, consider then that every expression below is unique but synonymous with the others. Each can draw out a shade of meaning about our wonderful Lord and Savior. It’s pleasant and beneficial just to meditate on His name, in all its forms.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Anointed
Jesus the Anointed
Jesus the Anointed One
Joshua Anointed
Joshua the Anointed
Joshua the Anointed One
Jesus Messiah
Jesus the Messiah
Joshua Messiah
Joshua the Messiah
Jesus the Christ
Joshua the Christ
Christ Jesus
Messiah Jesus
The Messiah Jesus
Anointed Jesus
The Anointed Jesus
The Anointed One Jesus
Anointed Joshua
The Anointed Joshua (this is the one you see in the title to today’s post)
The Anointed One Joshua
Messiah Joshua
The Messiah Joshua
All these renditions speak of our God Jesus Christ.
How wonderful that our Lord’s name can be rendered in such a variety of ways that all are rooted in the meanings of Jesus and Christ. Meditate on His name and let the reality of His presence take root in your mind.
By the way, why do people curse with His name…as if He is not in the room?
Let us rather honor His name, for He is worthy!
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
Joshua
To an English-speaker’s mind, the names Joshua and Jesus are different. However, in reality the names are identical. How so? ”Joshua” is the English translation of the Hebrew name, and “Jesus” is the Greek translation of the same Hebrew name, translated once again into English.
Therefore, you can think of Jesus as Joshua, or Joshua as Jesus. They’re interchangeable.
It is practically unheard of for English-speaking parents to name a child “Jesus.” However, the name Joshua was as common in 1st Century Palestine as it is in English today. Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth – that is, Joshua of Nazareth – would not have stood out for His name. It was His behavior that distinguished Him – and God’s behavior regarding Him, of course.
As Jesus talked about Moses during His earthly ministry and especially when Jesus was raised from the dead, the fact that His name was Joshua began to generate an interest all its own. This is because, of course, Joshua was the leader God raised up after Moses to take charge of the people of God.
The Joshua who followed Moses, therefore, was a type of the great Joshua who would one day arise.
The Old Testament Joshua led God’s people into the promised land of Canaan. The New Testament Joshua leads the people of God into the kingdom of God.
Jesus is our Joshua. Those names are really one name, and that name means that “the Lord saves.”
This Joshua will lead you today into the promised land of obedience to God and the blessings that flow like milk and honey from such obedience.
This Joshua is your Lord.
This Joshua is your leader. This Joshua is your commander. Follow Him wherever He leads. He knows where He is going.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
The Anointed
If you’ve read the posts from the last two days, you know that Anointed, Messiah, and Christ all mean the same thing. They are all translations of the same root word. Therefore, the terms can be used interchangeably.
Even though their definitions are identical, however, we can still find shades of meaning in each individual term.
“Anointed” can be rendered in various ways, as in “the Anointed,” or “the Anointed One,” or even “the Lord’s Anointed.”
“Anointed” brings us a picture of oil being poured on the head of the person being anointed. This symbolizes not just God’s choice, but also God’s empowerment through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus in abundance. The power of God worked for Him in ways that had never been seen to such a degree. His story in the New Testament is beyond match in the annals of the human race.
As we relate to our Lord, the Anointed, He pours forth this same Holy Spirit on us. The Spirit comes to us as a river of life from “The Anointed” Himself – that is, Jesus. This is an ever-flowing stream of thoughts straight from the heart of God.
Jesus is the Anointed. Receive His thoughts.
Love Him as Jesus. Serve Him as Lord. Listen to Him as Teacher. Believe in Him as Messiah. Honor Him as Christ. Receive from Him as the Anointed.
Truly, He is the Anointed One.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
The Messiah
Yesterday’s post on The Christ mentioned that the term’s meaning is identical to “Messiah.” Jews may talk about Messiah and Christians may talk about Christ but they are talking about the same thing.
Jesus is the Messiah. More specifically, He’s the Messiah of Israel.
Messiah was the long-held hope of ancient Israel. For centuries – even for millennia – God had promised a child who would grow to become the greatest figure in the world. This great figure would lead Israel to victory against all God’s enemies.
Staggering as God’s promises about Messiah were, Jesus fulfilled them all!
Can you see this Messiah before you now? (You see Him with the eyes of faith; you received this kind of sight by believing in His name.) He is invested with all the power of God. Whatever God can do, He will do through Messiah, for the Messiah is God presenting Himself to us.
Live for Messiah. Live in the presence of Messiah. He is Jesus. He is the Lord. He is your Teacher.
Messiah is full of promise. He is the promise of God fulfilled. And He is the promise of God ready to be fulfilled again and again for you.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
The Christ
Jesus is the Lord. He is the Teacher. And He is the Christ.
Some people have heard the name Jesus Christ and wondered if “Christ” was a surname, as “Smith” would be in John Smith. It isn’t.
Christ is a title, and it appears in the Bible both with and without the article “the.” The meaning is the same whether you see “Christ” or “The Christ.”
It also is combined with the name Jesus either at the beginning or the end. That is, you’ll find both “Jesus Christ” and “Christ Jesus” in the Bible (the former about 130 times and the latter about 90 times).
The word “Christ” comes to us from the Greek but it’s based on a Hebrew word (Messiah) which means “Anointed.” In ancient times, kings and priests of Israel were “anointed” with oil as a sign of their having been chosen by God for a task or role. Therefore, to say that someone was “the Lord’s anointed” was to say that he was God’s designated person to accomplish God’s designated task.
“The Christ” came to be the title applied to the great figure God promised throughout the Old Testament scriptures and revealed in the New Testament scriptures. This was to be THE Anointed, THE Christ, THE Messiah. It is this Christ who would overcome all the enemies of God.
Jesus, the Lord, was this great Christ promised by God from long ago. In other words, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. And that’s saying a lot.
This Christ is watching you now. He has always been watching you, and watching over you. He loves you. He died on the cross for you. He’s present in the room where you’re now sitting. He’s always present in every room we occupy. Why do we act like He’s absent?
Worship Christ the Lord, for truly Jesus was anointed by God to be the Lord.
Let us live forever in His presence, beginning if not before, then at this moment.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
Jesus
The Lord who is present with you – His name is Jesus. He is your Teacher and your Lord.
“Jesus” is the name given to Him before He was born. Angels communicated it to Mary and also to Joseph.
The angel told Joseph this name was given because “It is He who will save His people from their sins.”
You see, the name “Jesus” in the original language is a combination of the word “Lord” and “saves.” Thus the Lord saves His people. For this reason He is the Lord. The Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. The ever-present Lord Jesus Christ.
If you trust that He is present with you now, you will not sin. His presence is your power to resist temptation, and your faith is your connection to His presence.
Your faith doesn’t make Him present. That He is present is the truth. And the truth is the truth. Your faith is your recognition of the truth. Therefore, if you don’t believe, it doesn’t mean He is absent. He just might as well be absent as far as your soul is concerned. If you don’t believe the truth, you are trusting a lie. Don’t trust a lie.
Learn to trust the truth without having to always having to have fresh evidence. Jesus has given plenty of evidence over time.
The Lord’s name is Jesus. Call on His name. And think about what it means.
Jesus.
Bible notes on this post.
See also the post Call on His Name.
The purpose of this blog is to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church – or anything else – but Him.
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