Yahveh Will Tolerate No Rivals
“YAHveh said He would share His glory with no other.” He was very adamant that His name was to be remembered, revered, and honored”
YAHveh, through Moses, gave Israel the pattern for the building of a holy dwelling place for His name and Shekinah glory. YAHveh, “WHOSE NAME IS JEALOUS” (Ex 34:14), would tolerate no rivals. He was very adamant that His name was to be remembered, revered, and honored; it was to be the only name spoken on the lips of His redeemed nation and royal priesthood. The consequences for neglecting this mandate would bring severe curses upon His chosen people. YAHveh said He would share His glory with no other. He commanded that the land be purified and stripped clean of all pagan gods, worship sites, and heathen customs before the dwelling for His glorious presence could be constructed. He warned His people: “Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth” (Ex 23:13).
He would not tolerate the intermingling of His holy presence and name with the common, profane, and unholy. He told His people: “These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which YAHveh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess … You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, … you shall obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this [in their pagan-rooted religious traditions] toward YAHveh your God. But you shall seek YAHveh at the place which YAHveh your God shall choose … To establish His name there for His dwelling …” (Dt 12:1-5)
My People Forget My Name
“The substituted title of “Lord” caused His people then and to this day to forget His original glorious and awesome name”
YAHveh’s dramatic manifestation upon Mount Sinai was the prelude to His Shekinah filling an earthly tabernacle. His glory, which illumined Mount Sinai, was now to dwell on earth in the midst of His redeemed nation. He declared to Moses and Israel that He would have a dwelling place for His name and glory. Israel reverentially worshiped YAHveh and brought honor to His holy name and commandments for only a short time. Soon after Joshua’s death, their hearts became compromised and evil. “And the people served YAHveh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of YAHveh which He had done for Israel. … and there arose another generation after them who did not know YAHveh, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of YAHveh, and served the Baals, … they provoked YAHveh to anger. So they forsook YAHveh [forgetting His name] and served Baal …” (Jdg 2:7, 10-13), substituting the God of Israel’s most holy name with the pagan title Baal, which means the Lord.
YAHveh’s name was to be remembered forever (Ex 3:15). Israel turned to substitute gods, forsaking YAHveh and His name for the title “Lord.” 1 & 2 This was most grievous and abominable in YAHveh’s sight, for it robbed Him of the praise, honor, and glory due His intimate, holy name. The prophet Isaiah exhorts, “There is No one who calls on Thy name, Who arouses himself to take hold of Thee …” (Isa 64:7).
YAHveh’s grief over the forgetting of His name is spoken through Jeremiah to the false prophets and apostate shepherds. “[The prophets] intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?” (Jer 23:27). The substituted title of “Lord” caused His people then and to this day to forget His original glorious and awesome name. “To forget the Lord’s name is tantamount to forgetting Him.”3
The apostasy of forgetting YAHveh’s name through the worship of Baal was precisely why the prophet Elijah was sent to Israel and is now, as prophesied by Malachi, going forth at the close of the age. EliYAH is sent to turn a remnant away from every generic title and compromised form of worship, back to the pure worship of YAHveh.
A Temple for His Holy Name
“King David had it in his heart “to build a house to the name of YAHveh his God”
The holy ark of YAHveh remained at Shiloh until it was captured during the priestly service of Eli’s two rebellious sons. It was not inquired of during the rebellious reign of Saul. Through David’s efforts, the ark, YAHveh’s throne, was retrieved and YAHveh’s name, presence, glory, and kingship were restored to Israel. King David had it in his heart “to build a house to the name of YAHveh [His] God” (1Ch 22:7). He desired this dwelling to be an earthly temple more splendid than the one built at Shiloh (Jo 18:1). It was to be a holy and royal house for YAHveh’s throne, the ark, where Israel could worship her King and praise His memorial-name. The Almighty’s reply to David’s desire to build this holy temple was: “I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a Father to him and he will be a son to Me; …” (2Sa 7:12-14)
This covenant with David finds its prophetic fulfillment in the eternal kingship of YAHshua Messiah, who was born of David’s lineage, from the tribe of Judah. Our Savior is the Son of YAHveh God the Holy One of Israel and the “Son of David” (Lk 3:23-38, Mt 15:22). YAHshua, like his forefather David, is building a royal house however this house is built of redeemed living stones who are washed through repentance in His sacrificial blood. They are the temples in which His glorious presence dwells through the Holy Spirit, who is teaching the redeemed to come out of the world and be “separate”, Kodosh in Hebrew, which means holy and set apart for a specific purpose.
Solomon carried out David’s desire for the building of this temple. He said: “You know that David my Father was unable to build a house [temple] for the name of YAHveh his God because of the wars which surrounded him, [a warrior who had shed blood].’… I intend to build a house for the name of YAHveh my God, as YAHveh spoke to David my father, saying, ‘your son [ultimately YAHshua], whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build [with redeemed holy, living stones] the house for my name.’” (1Ki 5:3-5, 1 Ch 28:3)
“King Solomon prayed, Concerning a foreigner [a Gentile pagan], who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name … when they come and pray … do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name”
As the glory of YAHveh the Mighty One of Israel filled the temple, King Solomon prayed not only for His Jewish people and nation, but also for the Gentile foreigners. He petitioned YAHveh that the Gentiles would learn of His holy name, which is above the names of all of their gods and idols, and forsake their idolatrous pagan worship; that together with Israel they would worship the One True Living Elohim (God) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He prayerfully called on YAHveh saying, “Concerning a foreigner [a Gentile pagan], who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name … when they come and pray … do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.” (2Ch 6:32-33)
We are being called out and chosen to co-labor with the Master Builder, YAHshua, the “Son of David.” Messiah’s spirit is placing within the hearts of a remnant His ancient and holy passion to return YAHveh’s name and glory back to their rightful place—in the hearts of His holy remnant. Through redeemed living temples who bear His name, YAHveh will again receive the preeminence He intended for Himself and His “memorial name” will no longer be replaced but “remembered” (Ex 3:15) and exalted because it is the “name above all names” (Ph 2:9) of all other gods, in all of the earth, now and forever! HallelYAH! HalleluYAHveh! HalleluYAHshua!
Apostle Peter wrote of these living temples, “You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house [holy temple]…” (1 Pe 2:5) Apostle Paul wrote, “…In whom you also [Jew and Gentile] are being built together into a dwelling [a holy temple] of YAHveh God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:20). It was prophesied 500 years prior to Messiah’s birth that the glory of this latter house of living stones would be filled with more glory than the former temples. (see Hag 2:9) Apostle Paul emphasizes to the Gentile believers, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit …” (1 Cor 6:19)
The righteous redeemed remnant, are to follow the example of our Savior and His forefather King David who was “a man after Yahveh’s heart” (1 Sa 13:14) and will. As YAHshua said, “His Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn 4:23-24) May our redeemed lives be as temples filled with the glory of His presence with praises ascending from our hearts and lips exalting and glorifying His holy memorial name, YAHveh. Let us praise Him for redeeming both Jew and Gentile [non Jews] to be as one new man - a “living temple jointly fit together as living stones” (Eph 2:15, 1 Pe 2:5), “marked with His name” (Rev 22:4), praising His name, and filling heaven and earth with glory that is due to His holy memorial name now and forever.
Apostle Paul was teaching the Gentile believers to love and worship the God of Israel and His Son the Jewish Messiah saying,
“Therefore I will give thanks to You, O YAHveh,
among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name…
Rejoice O Gentiles with His people [the redeemed remnant of Israel].
Praise YAHveh all you Gentiles
and let all the people’s praise Him.”
Romans 15:9-11
“O magnify YAHveh with me,
And let us exalt His name together.”
Psalm 34:3
“May His name endure forever;
May His name increase as long as the sun shines; …
Blessed be YAHveh God, the God of Israel, …
Blessed be His glorious name forever;
And may the whole earth
Be filled with His glory.
Amen, and Amen.”
(Ps 72:17-19)
Footnotes
1 “At first the name Baal (lord) was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the religions developed, the name Baal was given up in Judaism as a thing of shame” (emphasis added). The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Baal.”
2 Footnote for Hosea 2:13. “days of the Baals. The whole period of the worship of Baal (the chief Canaanite deity) by Israel. Baal means “lord” or “owner” and was often used as a general term for god. Israel’s worship of Baal developed in three stages: (1) placing the Canaanite gods in a secondary place to the Lord (Yahweh; see note on Gen 2:4); (2) considering Yahweh as a super-Baal; (3) Canaanizing or Baalizing Yahweh worship so that the people completely forsook Yahweh.” Ryrie Study Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), p. 1377.
3 Note on Jer 23:27. The NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, 1985), p. 1162.
