What’s in a Name #2

(Go To Meeting)

Michael Heiss—June 6, 2025

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What’s in God’s name? It will astound you when you realize all that is in that name. If you will recall in part 1 we connected a couple of dots between the Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei the [YHVH] of Exo. 3, with the Logos (John 1:1-3). They’re the same, because Yahweh means:

• to exist
• the Ever-Living One
• the Forever One

The same thing is true for the Logos (John 1:1-3):

• He was with God
• He was God
• nothing came into existence without Him or apart from Him

So they are the two, but what we want to do now is take a look at the name, because Yahweh is the name, it’s not a title!

On the other hand, Elohim, El Ohim, is a title! So Elohim is like Caesar or Pharaoh, and this is something sometimes we overlook.

Exo. 3—we will see where God is actually revealing His name; so we want to be careful not to read right over it. This is where Moses says to God:

You’re sending me, but they’re going to ask what’s my name, what do I tell them?

Look what God says:

Exodus 3:14: “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM THAT I AM.’.... [to exist] ...And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you”’”

• the Existing One
• the Forever One

That is implied in the name itself!

Verse 15: “And God said to Moses again, ‘You shall say this to the children of Israel, “The LORD God of your fathers...”’”

Now we have to stop right there, because we don’t want to read right over the LORD God, because it doesn’t quite say the LORD God as we tend to think it says. What it really means is ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers.’

LORD comes from Yahweh or Adonai, which is the name, and then GOD is the title.

“...This is My name forever... [He’s declaring Yahweh as His name] ...and this is My title...” (v 15)—that’s Elohim!

So, He’s got a name and a title, and He is revealing Himself as Yahweh for the first time here in Exodus. Very, very interesting.

Exodus 6:2: “And God... [Elohim, the title] ...spoke to Moses, and said to him, ‘I am [Yahweh] the LORD. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El Shaddai]” (vs 2-3)

Genesis 17:1—He introduces Himself to Abraham: “...the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am the Almighty God!....’” That’s the title. But now he’s going to reveal Himself as ‘Yahweh.’

It wasn’t that they didn’t know God, but God didn’t declare His name. I thought about it for quite a while as why He didn’t. It’s His shot to call. He’s God! I’m not. So, He decides:

• what He wants to do
• where He wants to do it
• how He wants to do it

But I think He’s introducing Himself by that name because He is revealing Himself as a Covenant-making God!

God made agreements with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now He’s making a Covenant with the entire nation! He’s putting His name on the line. So, now we have the name of Yahweh.

I have things lined up and I want to make sure I present them properly, I don’t want to get anything out of order or forget it completely. We know His name now is Yahweh or Adonai, which is a substitute.

We’re now going to go to a most pivotal part of the Bible, three verses in the book of Exodus. These verses, in a sense, almost explain the entirety of salvation! They really do, if you understand what I mean.

Exo. 34—the backdrop of this is God giving Moses the second time the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 34:5: “And the LORD came down in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD [Yahweh]. And the LORD passed by before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God...’” (vs 5-6)—Adonai, Adonai; double emphasis!

Then this is what He is. He’s Elohim and He’s abundant in:

“...merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, to the third and to the fourth generation” (vs 6-7).

Now we have to clean up a thing or two here. It seems to imply that God is going to punish someone for the sins of another. That what great-granddaddy did 80 years ago, 100 years ago, God is now going to punish the grandson for. NO! God says specifically He’s NOT going to do that; But it kind of implies that it does.

We have to look at a couple of Scriptures to get more information and we’ll get that much bigger picture.

Exo. 20—where we have the Ten Commandments given for the first time. We’re going to show that description but in reverse. Here’s God saying:

Exodus 20:5: “You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD [Yahweh] ...your God [Elohim or El] am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.”

Now that wasn’t disclosed when we first read it in Exo. 34. What we’re getting the picture of is the father may sin, but IF that sin is continued down generation after generation, THEN God is going to punish the third or fourth generation. Not because the first generation sinned, but because generation after generation followed after that sin! We will see a classic example of it with the nation of Israel.

Now, IF you really want to see this explained, THEN we have to go to Ezek. 18. This is a very, very interesting chapter. Every time I read it, I laugh a bit when you see what God is saying in his dispute with the children of Israel. Shades of Job. You’ll see what I mean.

Ezekiel 18:20 (also v 4): “The soul that sins, it shall die....”

I was first introduced to this when I was just a teenager, just beginning to understand about the Worldwide Church of God and that Jesus really was the Christ. Mr. Herbert Armstrong—who at that time was the leader of the Church, the Radio Church of God as well as the Worldwide Church of God until his death in 1986—was explaining about the immortal soul. He’s trying to explain it.

Now, there is no such thing as an immortal soul, because, he said, ‘Look, v 4: “...The soul that sins, it shall die.” It’s going to die, so there is no immortal soul!’

But that wasn’t the main thrust of this chapter. What it’s saying is the soul, the individual, the one who sins and keeps on sinning, he will die.

Verse 20: “The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

This is God’s call throughout this chapter for repentance. IF you change your ways and obey Him, you’re not going to die. He won’t punish you for your sin, because you will have recognized it and repented!

Verse 21: “But IF the wicked will turn from all his sins, which he has committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live...”

So you can read the entire chapter, it’s very, very, very interesting. But there’s a particular part here that really got my attention.

Verse 25—God speaking: “Yet you... [meaning the children of Israel, the northern kingdom especially] ...say, ‘The way of the LORD is not fair.’....”—Remember Job?

IF I could just get God to come down and listen; IF I could get a mediator, He would see that I’m right.

Well, we’ve got the same thing going here!

“...Hear now, O house of Israel: Is not My way fair? Are not your ways unfair?” (v 25).

Isaiah 55:7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (vs 7-8).

What we have to do is make sure that our thoughts become as God’s thoughts are, and that our ways become as God’s ways are!

This was a clear-cut example of the fact that God is not going to punish party ‘A’ because party ‘B’ sins. Let’s look at the classic example for an entire nation.

1-Kings 11—We know that God loved Solomon, visited him twice, but Solomon blew it! We can all speculate as to what happened. God warned him and all the kings of Israel and Judah, two things not to do:

1. don’t multiply horses, because then you get a big army and think your army is going to save you
2. don’t multiply foreign wives

Solomon did both! God was furious, so He’s going to rend the kingdom away, and he’s going to give it to Jeroboam.

1 Kings 11:26: “And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, he too lifted up his hand against the king.

We know that Jeroboam was a mighty man, so God is now going to give the kingdom to Jeroboam. Look at how He did it:

Verse 33—God says to Jeroboam: “Because they... [meaning Israel] ...have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the goddess of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My eyes, and to keep My statutes and My judgments, as David his father did.”

We’re going to see what a fond place God has for David, the way He talks about him.

Verse 34: “But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand...”

And Jeroboam, what does he do? God tells him, I’m going to give you the kingdom IF you keep My Commandments.

1-Kings 12:25: “And Jeroboam built Shechem on Mount Ephraim...”

Verse 26: “And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now, the kingdom may well return to the house of David!’” God just told him it wasn’t going to happen that way!

Verse 27: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me and return again to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

Verse 28: “Then the king took counsel...”

What does he do? You have a golden calf in two places. We have the Feast changed from the seventh month to the eighth month!

God becomes furious with Jeroboam, and he causes the people to sin. That’s very, very, very interesting here. We’re going to see where he causes the people to sin.

1-Kings 14:16: “And He shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who sinned, and because he made Israel to sin.”

The king sinned, the people sinned, and they never changed all the way through, generation after generation!

Here would be the clear-cut example of God visiting the sins—in this case the sin of Jeroboam, their father—unto the last generation; because nobody ever changed, nobody ever repented!

That’s why God visits ‘the sins of the father upon the third or fourth generation.’ No repentance! That’s the assumption! That’s the operation!

Now we’re going to look at and connect another dot. Remember in Exo. 34 that God is merciful, gracious, and all of that.

Now let’s consider the Apostle John. Nobody wrote more about love than the Apostle John did. Others wrote about that, but John was especially acute and decisive with it! He made an amazing statement; he wrote :

1-John 4:8: “The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.”

Now let’s try to figure out what that means. God is love. Herbert Armstrong defined love as an outgoing concern! That made sense to a point. But it didn’t fully set well with me because it was too vague. So I thought to myself and came up with ‘betterment.’

God thinks about the betterment of people. Everything He does is for the betterment!

• the betterment of the Kingdom
• the benefit of the people

But then I realized it’s more than that!

1-Cor. 13—many of us call this the love chapter. We’ll see what Paul says. In the first three verses he’s talking about, ‘Oh, if I do this, if I am great, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing, I’m not worth anything.

1-Corinthians 13:4: “Love is patient and is kind...” But IF God is love, THEN this is God. He just turned it around. So, vs 4-8:

• God is patient
• God is kind
• God envies not
• God does not brag about Himself
• is not puffed up
• does not behave disgracefully
• does not seek its own things
• is not easily provoked
• thinks no evil
• does not rejoice in iniquity
• rejoices in the Truth
• bears all things
• believes all things
• hopes all things
• endures all things
• God’s love never fails

When we want to think about God’s name, how do you describe Him? What does His name cover? Every word that we find in Exo. 34:6 and 1-Cor. 13: 4-8. God is all these things.

When you talk about the name of the LORD, that’s what He’s referring to. All of that, the sum total of God, is bound up in these verses! All these attributes  are His.

Now we are told to walk in the way of the LORD. Walk in His name.

Micah is one of the former prophets; we call them the minor prophet. Not because of their importance, but simply because of the size of the book.

Micah 4:5: “For all people will walk, each one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.”

Now this is a pre-Millennial description. What it’s really saying is: instead of ‘for all people will walk,’ think of although, or though all people ‘will walk each one in the name of his god.’

“...we will walk in the name of the LORD our God.’ which means all that you saw in Exo. 34 & 1-Cor. 13. That is walking in the name of the LORD!

• when we keep the Commandments
• when we get ready to keep the Sabbath
• when we observe His Holy Days
• when we keep His Laws and Commandments

That is walking in the name of the LORD!

There is something else interesting. I don’t know if anybody remembers Stevie Wonder, the blind songwriter and composer. He sang many decent songs. But one of his songs that really moved me had words like this:

I just called to say I love you. I just called to say I care.

God has a description for those words and it is in perhaps my favorite Proverb. God calls words like that:

Proverbs 25:11: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures [pitchers] of silver.”

• how eloquent
• how pure

I just called to talk to him. I heard he had this problem or I heard his son was in the hospital. So, I called to say, ‘Hey, how is he doing? Can I help? Can I do anything? Do you need anything?’

God says that is: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures [pitchers] of silver.” That constitutes walking in the name of the LORD, of Yahweh, because that’s how He is:

• merciful
• gracious
• long sufferings
• slow to anger

Now we are going to go back to Jeroboam. Well, not to Jeroboam, but to Sennacherib and Hezekiah. We are going to look at Isa. 37, and this will show God in a very, very special way. This is the time when Sennacherib was advancing; he has taken over Israel and he is advancing on Judah. In fact, he has taken over just about every city of Judah, except one: Jerusalem.

Hezekiah prays to God; He calls upon God. And here we find what God says to Sennacherib as a result of Hezekiah’s prayer:

Isaiah 37:29: “Because of your raging against Me, and your arrogance has come up into My ears, therefore, I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”

He says, I’m going to take to Jerusalem. God says, ‘No, you’re not. The way you came, that’s the way I’m jerking you back.’ That’s exactly what He did.

So now we’re going to look at vs 21; what does God say?

Verse 21: “And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, “Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria.”’”

Because Hezekiah did that, God responded to him in v 29 where he raged against God. In spite of that, God helped Israel, believe it or not, without repentance. It’s an amazing thing!

I call God ‘a sentimental softie’! What I mean by that is He doesn’t want to be harsh. He doesn’t want to punish unless He has to. Remember, He is slow to anger. So now let’s take a look what He says about David in this whole thing of Sennacherib:

Verse 33: “Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, “He shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same way he shall return, and shall not come into this city,” says the LORD. “For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake”’” (vs 33-35).

You see, God is attached to Jerusalem; He’s attached to David, a man after God’s own heart. Yeah, they had a problem or two. And we’re going to see how God ranks that. It’s amazing! It’s really interesting. I wouldn’t have done it that way. But then that’s why He’s God and I’m not!

• God has His ways
• God has His standard

We’ll see how He waves it, how He lists it.

He says, ‘I got Hezekiah tied up; he’s like a bird in the cage.’ But He never boasted He took Jerusalem, because God wouldn’t let him because He loved Jerusalem. Now let’s take a look at what God thinks of David.

1-Kings 11:11: “And the LORD said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. But I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son” (vs 11-12).

He won’t do that because of David’s sake. Again, he talks about David’s sake, because He loved David. Look how God describes him in 1-Kings 15:

Remember, the word love.

• we’re to love each other
• we’re to love God

Well, God loves us. But the main force, the meaning of the word love is loyalty, fidelity. God was loyal to David. In fact, he’s loyal to us, which is why he’s not going to let us fall. God says here, talking about a certain king:

1-Kings 15:3: “And he [Solomon] walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God as the heart of David his father.” David’s heart was perfect toward God.

Verse 4: “But for David’s sake...”

Why for David’s sake? Because God’s attached to David! That’s part of his name: loyalty, dedication!

“...the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and did not turn aside from all that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (vs 4-5).

Now, to me, that would be a very big matter! Come on, murder and adultery. But that’s not quite how God saw it. Yes, it was wrong, and David was punished for it. The sword never left his house! Absalom his son rebelled against him, almost took the kingdom from him. One of his daughters was raped by her brother.

God punished David. But by comparison of being loyal to obeying God in what he knew, God loved David. Yes, there was another thing, too, about the census. But that’s not a part of the story tonight. You can read about that in 1-Chron. 24.

2-Kings 14 will also show God’s nature, which is in His name.

2 Kings 14:23: In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Jehoash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, forty-one years.”

This is Jeroboam II, and notice how God describes him.

Verse 24: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam... [remember the sin coming down to the 3^rd & 4^th generations, clear down a few hundred years] ... the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin.” Yet, look what is said!

Verse 25: “He restored the border of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain, according to the Word of the LORD God of Israel, which He spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah... [Jonah was a minister in Jeroboam’s court; our reluctant prophet Jonah was there] ...the son of Amittai, the prophet...”

Verse 26 is key: “For the LORD had seen the affliction of Israel to be very bitter. And none were bound, yet, none were free; and there was no helper for Israel.”

God was so attached to His people in a covenant relationship. Even though they sinned, and they never repented of it. As I said, He’s a sentimental softy; He loves His people, even though they sin. So He gave them one last chance. And this was roughly from 780-740_BC.

After the death of Jeroboam II, when Israel was restored to its greatest length, its greatest state of territory, after the death of Solomon, it all fell apart in 20-some years.

Finally, God removed His hand; He had to help His people. He could not really help Himself. That’s just the way He was. God does not lie. Remember we read in Exo. 16, and His name, ‘Full Truth,’ ‘Truthfulness.’ That’s his name; that’s part of his name.

Titus 1:2—where God declares: “In the hope of eternal life, which God Who cannot lie promised before the ages of time”

• Are we going to say God cannot because He will not?

or

• Is there’s some kind of power preventing God from lying if He wanted to?

I’m not getting bogged down in that, because that gets bogged down into what we might call ‘Greek philosophy.’ What’s the point for us? This is why:

Exodus 34:6: “And the LORD passed by before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and Truth.” Yes, abundance in Truth.

Do we remember Jesus before Pilate? There, He is before Pilate, and Jesus talks about the Truth. And then Pilate, the cynic, in John 18 says, ‘What is Truth?

Just before that, in John 17, Jesus said, ‘Thy Word is Truth.’ Which means we can take God at whatever He says. God is Truth! He will never lie. He may not tell us the whole story for reasons of His own, but He just simply will not lie.

Matthew 4:4—which is a quote of Deut. 8:3: “...‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

Why? Because it’s true; God simply will not lie, that’s in His name. His name is Truth, among other things. Then Jesus also says in John 11:25. He does make an astounding statement here just before He’s going to raise up Lazarus.

John 11:25: “Jesus said to her, ‘I AM the Resurrection and the Life....’”

• He didn’t say ‘I resurrect people,’ which He does
• He didn’t say ‘I have Life,’ which He does

He says, “...I AM the Resurrection and the Life...” Because Yahweh is Life; it means Life! His name means Life and given the power to bring into being those things that are not there, yet! That’s the resurrection.

So, He is “...the Resurrection and the Life...” Yahweh is the Eternal One, the Ever-Living One Who never lies! He’s always there, and that is His name, but in John 6 says something very interesting.

Jesus was asking His disciples, many of them were leaving, a hard saying; couldn’t take it.

John 6:66: “From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Therefore, Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Are you also desiring to go away?’ Then Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (vs 66-68).

Jesus is forever, the Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei He speaks, He has the words of Eternal Life. Amazing! Very, very interesting! So, whatever He says is true!

Now let’s look at how Jesus shares His name. Remember He said this is My name, My glory I will not give to another. That’s true! But to His brothers and to family members, yes He will! He has and He is.

John 16:23: “And in that day you... [the disciples] ...shall ask Me nothing. Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until this day, you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in allegories; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in allegories, but I will plainly disclose to you the things of the Father” (vs 23-25).

He’s telling us we can ask in His name! Now it’s interesting. Look at what is said in Acts 4. Here’s where the apostles had been preaching in Jerusalem. They were rounded up, put in a hold, and the next day brought out before Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and so forth.

Acts 4:7: “And after placing them in the midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or in what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit...” (vs 7-8)—and finally says in:

Verse 10: “Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean, Whom you crucified, but Whom God has raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole.” There was power in the name!

Luke 10—here He’s discussing different things, and the 70 that he had sent out on kind of a preaching tour came back.

Luke 10:17: “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us through Your name.’

It was a name; the name was everything. It’s amazing what that name truly means. We also know that that was true, yes, eternal life. So, in that name is Eternal Life and the Kingdom. It’s all in His name. What’s in that name? Life!

• He is the Life
• He is the Resurrection
• He will get us to the Kingdom
• He loves us

By love is faithful; loyalty! So, look what Jesus says in the last sentence of the Gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 28:20: “‘Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age.’ Amen.”

Because love means faithfulness, the two-way street. God is sentimental. He wants us.

Stop and think for a minute. We all love different things. We say, ‘Oh, man, I love that picture. I love this. I love that.’ Kids love their animals, and when the dog dies or the cat dies, they will cry.

I remember an old sheep-herder. He had a sheep dog and that dog faithfully guided those sheep for years. Of course, finally the day came, the dog couldn’t do it anymore, and he died. The old, hard-bitten sheep-herder had tears in his eyes as he petted his dog for the last time.

So yeah, we can love like that. But just think that in Gen. 2:7 Yahweh, the LORD God, came down and fashioned Adam, the man, personally.

• We need some calcium
• We need some magnesium
• We need some iodine

All the chemicals that go into a human being. Just chemicals, flesh, blood, water, that’s all man was, and all the animals are.

But then He created the brain in such a way that a spirit in man could be there, and that later, connected with that spirit in man, could come His Spirit. Behold, He loved Him. We’re God’s creation! Physical flesh, blood, what have we got to recommend us? But remember those words, they’re so beloved in the promised world! For that matter, it should be beloved among us:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world...”

• He loved the people
• He was loyal to the people
• God had His Plan

And even though people sin, yay, ‘let everyone be a sinner, but God be righteous.’ He is still going to offer His Kingdom to them upon repentance. He will work with them. Why? His name!

• His name means loyalty
• His name means dedication

That’s all part of His name!

We ask ourselves, what’s in His name? Everything is in His name!

Now, look to a statement in Acts that I found very, very encouraging and inspiring:

Acts 4:12—this is where the disciples have been arrested, and Peter says: “And there is no salvation in any other, for neither is there another name under heaven which has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” The name of Jesus is the password!

I remember some time ago when I was first trying to get set up here and Steve was on the other end working with me. He said, ‘OK, what’s your password for this?’ Password? ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’ll work it out another way, and he did. Steve is so gracious to me; he puts up with me, but we’ve got it pretty straight now.

The point is the password, the password to the Kingdom by the name of Jesus! There was a story that came out of the Civil War and some of these stories, some Truth to them, some are somewhat apocryphal. So I can’t boast for the complete validity of it.

But anyway, during the war, there was a widow in the north who had four to five sons who were fighting. They were all killed except one. He knew that his mom was going to starve because she couldn’t harvest. So he figured ‘I got to do something.’ He made his way to Washington, D.C. and was kind of sitting outside the White House. And as he was sitting there kind of looking down, a kid came up to him, a young boy, said, soldier, what’s wrong?

Well, he was explaining what he had to do. And he said, oh, you need to see the President; I can get you in. What? You can’t? Come on. He got him by the hand, led him around the back way into the back door. Oh, the beehive of activity, reports writing, reports being given, plans. All the armed members of the Union Army were there, the generals were there. Here he comes, leading the soldier. Nobody says a word. Nobody blocks his path.

Ken comes to a door, knocks on the door, opens it up. And there’s the President who looks up and says, what is it, Tad? Tad Lincoln the son of the President! He says, ‘Dad, This soldier needs to see you.’ And he explained about the need for furlough. Mr. Lincoln understood, gave him the furlough. But for us, the point is, when the son knocked on the door, when the son entered, the father dropped everything and said, ‘What is it, Tad?’

Well, that was the Civil War. To us, we have the Son; His name is Jesus! He can knock on the Father’s door, and any time He does, the Father drops everything and says, ‘What is it, My Son?’ He’s the gateway!

I remember riding in a car one time with my rabbi—this goes back a way long time ago—and he was telling me how he was part of a group and they were giving a prayer. He was asked to give the prayer. So, he talked about this, that, and the other thing. He says, ‘In Thy name.’

There were plenty of Christian ministers there. Oh, you didn’t say ‘in the name of Jesus.’ You forgot the name of Jesus. And he said, ‘No detours, straight to God. No detours.’

Well, I’m sorry, my rabbi, but that’s a detour you better take, because IF you don’t go through Him, you don’t get into the Convent of God the Father, that’s all there is to it.

John 10:9: “I am the Door. If anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out...”

‘You’ve got to enter by Me,; and the name is the password. Everything is in that name. The Father, the Christ, His name is power! His name shows might!

By His name we are going to be into the Kingdom of God. So, you see what’s in His name? Eternal Life and the Kingdom. What else is there? He wants us there!

He’s going to get us there and remember something. God cannot and he will not deny his own name! His name is Life and those to whom He chooses to give it.

In conclusion to this, I tried to figure out a closing sentence. I really didn’t have much success, so I had to turn to the Book. What better source is there?

I found it in Psalm 113 9_{[transcriber’s  correction]}and you will see a most poignant statement.

Psalm 113:2: “Blessed is the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.”

All I can add is Amen and Amen!

Scriptural References:

• Exodus 3:14-15
• Exodus 6:2-3
• Genesis 17:1
• Exodus 34:5-7
• Exodus 20:5
• Ezekiel 18:20, 4, 20-21, 25
• Isaiah 55:7-8
• 1-Kings 11:26, 33-34
• 1-Kings 12:25-28
• 1-Kings 14:16
• 1-John 4:8
• 1-Corinthians 13:4-8
• Micah 4:5
• Proverbs 25:11
• Isaiah 37:29, 21, 33-35
• 1-Kings 11:11-12
• 1-Kings 15:3-5
• 2-Kings 14:23-26
• Titus 1:2
• Exodus 34:6
• Matthew 4:4
• John 11:25
• John 6:66-68
• John 16:23-25
• Acts 4:7-8, 10
• Luke 10:17
• Matthew 28:20
• John 3:16
• Acts 4:12
• John 10:9
• Psalm 113:2

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• John 1:1-3
• 1-Chronicles 24
• John 17
• Deuteronomy 8:3
• Genesis 2:7

MH:bo/po

Transcribed: 12/8/25

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