Sanctifying the Name of God
22: 29-33
Sanctifying the Name of God DIG: What does it mean to profane God’s holy Name? How are our choices in life a reflection on the Name of God? Why does 7:17 say one thing and 22:29-33 say another? Why were the people duty bound to comply with God’s holy offerings?
REFLECT: How do you sanctify the Name of God? What does it mean to sanctify His name? Why is it important to do things God’s way? What happens when we do things our way? How can you sanctify the Name of God this week? Who can you tell of our great God this week?
When God’s will is done on earth, His commandments are being kept;
When His reign and rule are being exercised on earth, and His Name will be sanctified.
When you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to ADONAI (to see link click Ak – The Peace Offerings: At Peace with God), you must do it in a way such that you will be accepted. It must be eaten on the same day it is offered; leave none of it till morning; I am ADONAI (22:29-30). That principle affirmed the sense of fellowship with YHVH. To leave an offering for several days loses its connection with the sacrifice itself.
But 7:17 appears to contradict 22:29-30. The earlier text permits eating of the sacrifice on the second day as well as the first. In Leviticus 22 the prohibition clearly limits consumption to the day of the sacrifice. However, in 7:17, the sacrifice had to be eaten on the day he offered it, but anything left over could be eaten on the next day (see As – The Shalamim Offerings: Leading the Celebration of Peace). The difference was that in Leviticus 7:17 the mitzvah was for the priests, and in Leviticus 22:29-30 the mitzvah was for the people.
You are to keep my mitzvot and obey them; I am ADONAI. You are not to profane my holy Name (22:31-32a). What does it mean to profane or desecrate the Name? Conversely, how does one sanctify the Name of ADONAI? The concept is one of reputation. It is the idea that our actions and behaviors affect God’s reputation. Our behavior reflects on Him (see the commentary on Second Corinthians Be – The Ministry of Reconciliation: Reconciliation is by the obedience of faith). If we act in a holy manner befitting children of God, God’s Name is sanctified. However, if we act in a godless or wicked manner, the LORD’s reputation will be tarnished. In that case, our behavior would profane His reputation.
This can be understood in a parable. A king had two sons: a wise son and a wicked son. When people encountered the wicked son, he would abuse them and carry on in a manner unbefitting the prince. People would remark, “Is this how the king raises his son? Is this the kind of man the king is?” Yet when people encountered the wise son, he would treat them courteously and provide them all manner of service as befits a prince among his people. Then they would say, “What a fine king we have over us who has raised such a fine son. Truly he is worthy of his throne” (Midrash Immanuel). A significant amount of Jewish ethical standards are formulated around the idea of sanctifying the Name of God. Every choice we make in life will in some way or another reflect upon ADONAI. Our every interaction with other human beings will in one way or another say something about the God we serve.
This conclusion has a structure built around the threefold declaration: I am ADONAI, which occurs once in each verse. To sanctify God’s Name means to treat His Name with the respect, honor and dedication that He deserves. But in the broader sense, it refers to obedience and uprightness of character. The Torah explains that the formula for sanctifying (setting apart) God’s Name is in obedience to the commandments. I must be regarded as holy among the people of Isra’el; I am ADONAI, who makes you holy, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am ADONAI (22:32b-33). The Master concurs: Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). The central claim in this conclusion: I must be regarded as holy among the people of Isra’el, can as easily be rendered: I will be regarded as holy among the people of Isra’el. It can be a command or a promise, and that point explains the structure of these concluding verses. They move from commands Ha’Shem gives to Isra’el, to promises of His work for Isra’el to make her holy as He did the past. Safeguarding the holiness of the Tabernacle, God’s house, dominates the world of Leviticus. Isra’el needed to purify its House, because a holy God demands a holy House.412
Therefore, consecrate yourselves – you people must be holy, because I am ADONAI your God. Observe my mitzvot, and obey them; I am ADONAI, who sets you apart to be holy (20:7-8). ADONAI commands the Israelites to make themselves holy. The only other place in the book where YHVH commands Isra’el, “consecrate yourselves,” is 11:44, which concerns eating kosher. Leviticus 20:7 repeats this because, as with the clean and unclean animals, Isra’el’s holiness required distinction from the practices of the Gentile nations and adherence to a separate way of life, whether in diet, worship, or sexual practices. By avoiding activities that would tie Isra’el with the deities of other peoples, they would be recognizing that ADONAI was their God alone.413
This is part of the meaning of the words the Master taught us to pray: Our father in heaven! May Your Name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:9b-10), are all parallel statements. When God’s will is done on earth, His commandments are being kept. His reign and rule are being exercised on earth, and His Name will be sanctified. In Judaism, martyrdom for the sake of faith is regarded as the ultimate sanctification of the Name. When we sin, God’s Name is profaned. His reputation is tarnished because of us. This is a very serious matter that deserves far more attention than we can give to it here.414
Conclusion to the Holiness for the Priests (21:1 to 22:33): As the spiritual guides of the people of God, Isra’el’s leaders were to be without blemish and above reproach. The same principle applies to those who take the mantle of leadership in the Church today. A congregation leader must be above reproach, he must be faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, orderly, hospitable and able to teach (First Timothy 3:2). One particular feature of holiness of the Israelite priesthood emphasized in this section is the avoidance of contact with the dead (21:1-6). This possibility formed part of the rationalization of the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who avoided contact with the injured man (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Gw – The Parable of the Good Samaritan).415
The priests’ motivation to obey these mitzvot was the fact that the God who lovingly gave these commandments was the same God who delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians (22:32-33). As the Exodus was the motivation for service for the righteous of the TaNaKh in the Dispensation of Torah (see the commentary on Exodus Da – The Dispensation of the Torah), so the sacrifice and death of Messiah provides our motivation for obedience and service in the Dispensation of Grace (see the commentary on Hebrews Bp – The Dispensation of Grace).
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your gracious gift of righteousness (Second Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:15). Too often the idea of a gift is thought of as something that we are given and then we can do with whatever we like; but Your gift is not like that. Your gift of salvation is a loving covenant. Salvation is all Your work, Your mercy, Your grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we do have a part in the covenant – to love and respect You, heeding all that You tell us to do. No matter how good and righteous any person may be, they can never earn their own way to heaven. You paid for our sin at the cross. It was Messiah’s blood that brought our redemption (Ephesians 1:7) and His blood is what is needed to bring us near to You (Ephesians 2:13). What a joy to have you as our Lord!
My heart is heavy for friends and family who know about You and who think You are good and kind, but they have only head knowledge and not heart love. Covenants are not made by head knowledge. You Yourself tell of those who will stand before You and they have performed miracles in Your Name, cast out demons, and You tell them: Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:21-23)! Please give my family and friends who are not saved a moment of spiritual clarity so that they can see their sin for what it is and make a decision on what to do with their eternity. In Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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