{"id":1586,"date":"2022-01-23T20:38:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T19:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2022-01-23T20:38:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T19:38:20","slug":"hallowed-be-your-name-ezekiel-3616-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1586","title":{"rendered":"Hallowed be your name Ezekiel 36:16-32"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we began our Week of Prayer and Fasting this morning we started our reflections on the Lord\u2019s prayer by thinking about exactly who it is we are addressing in our prayers. Jesus teaches us to pray to \u201cOur Father in Heaven.\u201d There are two truths which we need to hold together as we pray. We are coming to the God in heaven who is beyond our comprehension: the almighty Creator, all-knowing, ever-present, eternal, holy, loving and transcendent. Yet Jesus invites his disciples to call this God \u201cour Father\u201d. By God\u2019s grace in Jesus Christ we have become God\u2019s beloved children. So we have the privilege of addressing God as \u201cAbba, Father\u201d. The Christian name for God is Father,
\nThe secret of prayer will be to really get to know the wonderful God we are praying to. We sometimes spend a long time thinking about what we ought to ask for in our prayers. We need to spend just as long thinking about the Person we are praying to \u2026 \u201cOur Father in Heaven.\u201d
\nIn the Lord\u2019s Prayer, Jesus then leads on to six requests which we will look at over the days of this week. Three requests are centred on God and then another three are centred on human beings and our needs. Just the first of these prayers will give us plenty to think about for our prayers tonight. I skimmed over that request in the booklet on Praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and in our series of sermons on the Lord\u2019s prayer back in 2014. So it is well worth a closer look tonight. And that prayer is this. Our Father in Heaven,
\nHALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
\nThis is not a request that God\u2019s name will become holy. God\u2019s name is already holy!
\nPsalm 30 4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
\nPsalm 97 12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.
\nPsalm 103 1 Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
\nPsalm 111 9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant for ever \u2013 holy and awesome is his name.
\nGod\u2019s name is already holy. And God\u2019s good name and God\u2019s reputation in the world is very important. The Third Commandment commands God\u2019s people,
\nExodus 20 7 You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
\nGod\u2019s name is already holy. The problem was that all through the centuries of the later Kings of Israel and Judah, God\u2019s people had profaned and tarnished the good name of the LORD among the nations. Very early on God had warned them of the dangers ahead.
\nLeviticus 22 31 \u2018Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. 32 Do not profane my holy name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who made you holy 33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.\u2019
\nIn the end God\u2019s people rebelled against him so much that God acted in judgment and the Jews were taken off to Exile in Babylon. God\u2019s judgment fell to preserve his Good Name among the nations, to stop his name being profaned by his chosen people.
\nEzekiel 20 8 \u2018 \u201cBut they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. 9 But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites.
\nJudgment came on Israel in the form of the Exile, but equally for the sake of his good name God\u2019s cosmic masterplan would ultimately bring salvation to the remnant of his chosen people.
\nEzekiel 36 20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, \u201cThese are the LORD\u2019s people, and yet they had to leave his land.\u201d 21 I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.
\n22 \u2018Therefore say to the Israelites, \u201cThis is what the Sovereign LORD says: it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
\nThe LORD\u2019s Name will be demonstrated to be holy to the whole world by the amazing salvation he will bring to his people. This is explained in the passage which follows which is probably more familiar to us. Ezekiel continues,
\n24 \u2018 \u201cFor I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
\nThis was the wonderful salvation God will bring to his chosen people, not for their sakes but for the sake of his holy name. Indeed, the purpose of every element of God\u2019s masterplan of salvation is so that his holy name will be honoured. There are actually so many promises which make a clear link between the salvation God will bring and his name and his honour and his glory.
\nIsaiah 5 16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
\nEzekiel 38 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.\u201d
\nGod\u2019s end-time salvation will vindicate his holy name.
\nEzekiel 39 7 \u2018 \u201cI will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel.
\nEzekiel 39 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations.
\nSo God promises that he will restore his good name and demonstrate that he is holy. Even in present times God\u2019s people can hallow his name by righteous living Equally God\u2019s people can continue to profane his name and bring it into disrepute among the nations by living unrighteously. But ultimately only God himself is able to restore his good name before the nations. Praying \u201challowed be your name\u201d is not some pious aspiration that people everywhere will give honour to God. It is a prayer that God himself will intervene to restore his good name. There are plenty more wonderful promises looking forward to the day when God\u2019s name will be glorified and sanctified by God himself when he saves his chosen people.
\nMalachi 1 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,\u201d says the LORD Almighty.
\nZechariah 14 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
\nAll this is summed up in the verse I just read from
\nEzekiel 36 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
\nIn Jesus\u2019s time the Jews were already expecting God to bring his end-time salvation and by doing so fulfil all his promises and restore his reputation and his good name among the nations. This is the background of the simple request we find in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, \u201challowed be your name.\u201d
\nThat is the prayer we offer. That God will break into his world, show his power and reveal his glory, so that people everywhere will recognise and acknowledge that God\u2019s name is holy and show to God the appropriate respect and reverence which he is due.
\nIsaiah 29:23 looks forward to the time when people, \u201cwill acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.\u201d
\nThis is what we are praying for when we say, \u201challowed be your name\u201d.
\nGood News Translation \u2013 May your holy name be held in honour
\nWe want God\u2019s name to be proclaimed and lifted high. God\u2019s name will be hallowed when people everywhere acknowledge God\u2019s holiness and stand in awe of him.
\nWhen we pray \u201cHallowed be your name!\u201d we are praying that each of us we will give God all the glory and all the honour and all the praise of which He is worthy. Of course this should start in our lives and in our church. We want God to be adored for Who He is, God of heaven. We want God to be praised for all the wonderful things He has done in creation and redemption. So when we pray \u201cHallowed be your name\u201d in the Lord\u2019s Prayer we are asking God to help US to glorify His Name as He deserves. We join our praise with all the angels and the saints in heaven around the throne of God,
\nRevelation 7:12 \u201cBlessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.\u201d
\nBelievers are already giving God all the glory and all the praise which is his due. But the primary concern of the request in the Lord\u2019s prayer is that God\u2019s glory is recognised and proclaimed throughout the whole world. We long for the time when God breaks into his Creation and is acknowledged as Almighty and Eternal and Holy by every human being and every creature.
\nSHOW YOUR POWER, O LORD, Demonstrate the justice of Your kingdom.
\nProve Your mighty word. Vindicate Your name Before a watching world.
\nAwesome are Your deeds, O Lord; Renew them for this hour.
\nShow Your power, O Lord, Among the people now.
\nHallowed be your name! As we sometimes sing, \u201cGlorify your Name in all the earth.\u201d Hallowed be your name throughout the whole cosmos! As Psalm 150 says, \u201cLet everything that has breath praise the Lord!\u201d We want every living being to stand in awe of the LORD and to show God the respect and the allegiance and the obedience of which He is so completely worthy.
\nHallowed be your name. We ask this in prayer because only God himself can accomplish this. May God bring his end time salvation so that his name is rightly sanctified and exalted and glorified throughout all of creation.
\nNow we can see that this petition actually leads directly into those that follow it. \u201cHallowed be your name. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d All of these are prayers that God\u2019s end-time salvation will arrive on earth. It is only by God\u2019s direct intervention that these things will be fulfilled. And we have the glorious promise that the day is coming \u2013 and coming soon!
\nPhilippians 2 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
\nand gave him the name that is above every name,
\n10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
\n11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
\nThat wonderful day when Christ returns is coming soon. On that day, every person will honour and revere and stand in awe of God\u2019s holy name. That is what we are praying for every time we pray, \u201challowed be your name\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we began our Week of Prayer and Fasting this morning we started our reflections on the Lord\u2019s prayer by thinking about exactly who…<\/span><\/p>\n

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