"The Memorial Name"

The angel, messenger of Deity, appeared to Moses “in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush”; and calling him by name, told him that he was come down to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians; and said unto him: > “Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Moses, earnestly inquiring, said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” And God said unto Moses, “I WILL BE, WHO I WILL BE”: Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,“I WILL BE” hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, > “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, YAHWEH, Elohim of your fathers, Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, and Elohim of Jacob hath sent me unto you: this is my name for an Olahm (or hidden time), and this is my memorial for a generation of the race” (Exod. iii. 14, 15). (Phanerosis p. 26—Eureka Vol I., p. 98).

The things pertaining to this memorial name were typically foreshadowed in the Mosaic constitution and order of things: which, saith Paul, were “shadows of good things to come” (Heb. x. 1). Therefore Christ made particular reference to the writings of Moses in His teaching: “For,” He said, “Moses wrote of me” (John v. 46).

When a certain one came to Jesus and asked Him, saying, “Which is the first commandment of all?” the answer returned by Jesus, as rendered in the common version of the New Testament, reads thus: > “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark xii. 29).

In the literal translation of this title from the Hebrew, the true meaning and beautiful signification of it is brought to light. The same words were uttered by Moses, and are recorded in Deut. vi. 4. “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh, our Elohim, is One Yahweh.” The literal translation of which is,—“He who shall be our mighty ones, is the One who shall be” (Eureka Vol. I., p. 100).

This is a name of deep and wonderful significance. When we understand that it is a title which introduces the great Creator of heaven and earth to His people Israel, and that it expresses to them His purpose of being manifested in future time in the person of a promised One; and also in a multitude of mighty ones; and yet He is One. And in making Himself thus known to them, He requires them to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, it may well fill our minds with the deepest reverence and most soul-stirring contemplations; causing us to feel our own unworthiness and insignificance, in proportion as we are able to apprehend the greatness, the power, the goodness, and the majesty of that glorious and fearful name “Eth-Yahweh, Elohekka”, “the I shall be, thy mighty ones, O Israel” (Deut. xxvii.) (Phanerosis p. 32).

For, because of the neglect to hear and venerate this, Jehovah hath visited upon Israel all those evils which Moses foretold. The crowning act of rejection of this name appeared in their attitude toward Jesus. When He told the Jews that He was the Son of God, and said, “I and my Father are one” (John x. 30), and “Before Abraham was, I am” (John viii. 58), His speech was to them incomprehensible. The teaching of Christ links together in inseparable unity the name of the Father with Himself. For He said plainly, “I am come in my Father’s name” (John v. 43). He also referred His hearers to the teaching of Moses concerning Himself, and said, “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (v. 46, 47).

Concerning this memorial name, the Psalmist saith, “Thy name, O Jehovah, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Yahweh, throughout all generations” (Psa. cxxxv. 13). “Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name, Yah” (Psa. lxviii. 4). Yahweh is sometimes pronounced Jehovah in the English version of the Scriptures. In Psa. lxxxiii. it is thus written, “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”