In Jesus' response to the disciple who asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray”, the first specific request to His Father that He shared was “Thy Kingdom come”. This probably came as no surprise, as the 12 would have known from their scriptures the many references to God's Kingdom (Ps 45:6; 145:13; Dan 2:44, etc).

In the context of the Roman occupation of their land, the desire for God's rule of justice and righteousness would have been first on their lips. But they would also have remembered the kingdoms of Israel, especially that of King David, and maybe longed for a return of those times of peace and glory. But was this the Kingdom that Jesus referred to?

Man's Kingdoms

While His Father's Kingdom was clearly Jesus' intention, Man very early had intentions to establish his own kingdom, in seeking power and independence from his Creator. Nimrod was the first to claim a kingdom, named Babel (meaning confusion of tongues) in Mesopotamia. In his arrogance he tried to build a tower that would reach to heaven (Gen 10:10), though satan had seduced Adam in Eden long before this to disobey God, and to desire to be like Him, knowing good and evil.

Other Gentile kings also established kingdoms for their own power and glory, and even God's chosen nation Israel, when their judges turned from God's way, rejected Samuel (and God) in asking for a king “such as all the other nations have” (1 Sam 8:5-7).

Modern man still seeks independence from God and His Kingdom in order to dominate and rule the earth. Secular humanist powers are engaging in social engineering in many Western nations, notably in Europe¹ and America², encouraging people to reject God as their King.

God's Kingdom

So what is special about God's Kingdom, that we should ask for it to come? It has to do with authority – and rebellion, because God's Kingdom is the domain of the King, the King of kings. For all authority has been given to the Lord Jesus (Matt 28:18). When God chose a people to witness to His way, He called them to be His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests (not a priestly kingdom but a royal priesthood to Him (KJV, see 1 Peter 2:9 and Rev.1:6 for believers in Yeshua)) and a holy nation - to be a priest before God with respect to other nations (as the tribe of Levi was for Israel).

This was not to rule, however, but to serve (the Hebrew word avad also means to worship), and Israel responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said” (Ex 19:6-8). When Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh to demand that he let the Israelites go to serve (worship) their God, Aaron obeyed God's command to throw his rod (of authority) down before Pharaoh and it turned into a snake (19:10). Pharoah's magicians did the same. But then Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods (7:8-12), a clear demonstration of the authority of the God of Israel over all the Egyptian gods (12:12).

Jesus delegates His authority to believers in His Kingdom today also, if we obey the King and submit to His authority. His promise, if we will hear and obey His voice (19:5) and His Word (our shema), is that we too will be chosen, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Pet 2:9). What blessings follow that – for others too!

This first prayer request of Jesus' disciples to their Father indicates its importance, its primacy. It is a cry to God to establish His Kingdom among disciples and then out to the world. Both John the Baptist and Jesus started their ministry with this call: “The Kingdom of God has come near!” (is 'at hand' - KJV, near enough to touch; even 'within you' - Luke 17:21), and both of them prefaced this call with, “Repent!” indicating the need for cleansing in the Presence of the Holy One.

This is the doorway into God's Kingdom - acknowledging our sin and receiving forgiveness in recognition of what God has done through Jesus on the Cross to bring people into His Kingdom of light and truth.

How Do We Respond?

“Thy Kingdom come” thus expresses a desire for relationship with the King, and to be part of the domain of the King, under His authority. God's Kingdom is a Kingdom of love. Keeping His commandments, His direction, instructions and guidance (His Torah – as Jesus correctly interpreted it for believers), is our way of showing that we love Him. They are our guide to a healthy, fulfilled, productive life in relationship with Him and with other people.

His laws guard our life and relationships, and this God alone is worthy of our love and worship (worth-ship). Anything we place as our security, as first in our life apart from Him, is an idol (wealth, power, fame, work, sport etc). For His Name is 'Jealous' (Ex 20:5, 34:14, Heb. kanna – with the just indignation of one injured). Here, 'Jealous' is part of the vocabulary of love, of One who is utterly faithful, and will not countenance idolatry, unfaithfulness or rebellion in His people.

I am reminded of a children's story ('William and Cherry') which some parents may remember. William's poor father had just one cow, Cherry, whom William loved and which provided dairy products for the family. William discovered that the local butcher, Mr McCracklebone, had persuaded his father to sell Cherry for meat, and William could not accept that. So the night before the butcher came, William released Cherry from her stall and walked all the way to London to Buckingham Palace, and asked the king for help to save Cherry from the abattoir.

The king investigated, and decided to save Cherry, and pay Mr McCracklebone the value of the cow out of the Royal Funds. William returned home with Cherry rejoicing, knowing the king's compassionate heart of love for the poor people of his kingdom. This is our Father God, our Abba, who has already demonstrated the saving features of His Kingdom – a hidden treasure, a pearl beyond price, a net full of fish, and seed or leaven that produces amazing growth, with fairness and goodness (Matt 13, 18, 20, 20 and 25) so that we might be faithful, prepared, wise and worthy for the fulfilment of our prayer – O Lord our King, Thy Kingdom Come. Amen and Amen.

References

1 E.g. The Gotthard Base Tunnel opening ceremony on 1 June 2016.

2 Waggoner, RL. Organised Humanism produces a growing anti-Christian Society. 28 February 2017.

Author: Greg Stevenson

The Complete Jewish Bible that I have been using lately puts it “May your kingdom come”. This short phrase takes my mind to Nehemiah’s prayer – but I will explain why later.

Let’s start by considering what Jesus’ contemporaries would likely have understood by this prayer. The Tanakh (Old Testament) contains many references to a Messiah / Anointed One for the Israelites, together with His Kingdom. They would have been familiar with such scriptures as:

• “There is a coming king who will reign justly” (Isa 32:1-2). Rabbi Barry Rubin in his commentary about this passage notes that Isaiah was speaking at the time when the righteous King Hezekiah was already on the throne. Therefore, Isaiah must have been speaking of the future, eternal reign of the King Messiah.
  
• “Afterwards, the people of Israel will repent and seek Adonai their God and David their king…in the acharit-hayamim [literally, ‘the end of the days’]” (Hos 3:5).
  
• “Look! Your king is coming to you” (Zech 9:9).
  
• And “You will have sons to succeed your ancestors” (Ps 45:17) points to God’s guarantee that the royal line of David will continue.

The question that Jesus’ disciples were asking regarding this future Messianic Kingdom was not its chances of happening, but when and how it would come about.

Local and Global, Now and Not Yet

In the light of this, what was Jesus intent upon explaining about the coming Kingdom?

• “The kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).
  
• “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…is like a mustard seed which a man takes and sows in his field…is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour” (Matt 13).

With these parables Jesus turned the expectations of the Kingdom from a local battle to regain the land of Israel into a worldwide battle between the people of God’s Kingdom and the forces and followers of the Adversary.

In John 18:36, Jesus makes it clear in his conversation with Pilate that “My kingship does not derive its authority from the world’s order of things. If it did, my men would have fought to keep me from being arrested by the Judeans. But my kingship does not come from here.”

So what is Jesus actually telling us to pray for in this short phrase “May your kingdom come”? My own understanding is that He wants us to pray both in accordance with the Old Testament for the coming Messianic Kingdom, when Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem, and also as the New Testament guides, that His Kingdom will grow here and now as we take the Good News to the world.

Nehemiah’s Prayer

But why does this short phrase lead my thoughts to Nehemiah’s prayer? I believe that The Lord’s Prayer should be taken as a simple memorandum for the subject matter of our prayers. It is for each of us, through growing understanding of our God, to add the flesh of understanding to our prayers.

So consider here with me, from Nehemiah 1, part of the heart-rending prayer of a man as he longed for the revival of the kingdom of Israel. I hear in Nehemiah’s prayer a humble passion mixed with a determination that this prayer should be both heard and answered by Adonai. This is what I mean by adding the flesh of understanding to the simple phrase “Thy kingdom come”:

…I sat down and wept; I mourned for several days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, “Please Adonai! God of heaven! You great and fearsome God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot! Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes be open, so that you will listen to the prayer of your servant, which I am praying before you these days, day and night, for the people of Israel your servants – even as I confess the sins of the people of Israel that we have committed against you.

Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned. We have deeply offended you. We haven’t observed your mitzvot, laws or rulings you ordered your servant Moshe, “If you break faith, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me, observe my mitzvot and obey them, then, even if your scattered ones are in the most distant part of heaven, nevertheless, I will collect them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for bearing my name.”

Now these are your servants, your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and strong hand. Adonai, please, let your ear now be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take joy in fearing your name…

At this point in the prayer may I take liberty (as someone grafted into the olive tree of Israel) and add, knowing from the continued fulfilment of prophecy that the time of Jesus’ return is drawing close, “Heavenly Father, may your kingdom come!” My personal experiences show me that such a prayer, uttered with heartfelt determination and sincerity, will be both heard and acted upon by our Father God!

Author: John Quinlan

I don’t know about you, but often when I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I say the line “Thy Kingdom come” emphatically and with sincere devotion – but all the while the meaning of it, in my heart, remains somewhat vague. We all want God’s Kingdom to come – but what exactly does that mean? How do we move from a spiritual-sounding concept to concrete reality?

Taking Hold of Theocracy

The world is full of different attempts at government and governance, some of which evidently work better than others, but none of which are perfect (hence the multitudes of political theories critiquing that which already exists and suggesting alternatives). But God’s ideal form of government has been laid out for thousands of years in Scripture: it is a theocracy, a Kingdom where He is the one and only King, ruling in majesty and power, yet also in humility and love.

It is a Kingdom where we, as His subjects, are raised up from the ashes of sin and death to be His sons and daughters, being changed into His likeness and the likeness of His Son, Jesus Messiah, who is our perfect example, and through whom all this has been made possible.

It is this Kingdom that we must somehow grasp in this world, in the practical details of our lives.

Extension of God’s Rule

When we pray “Thy Kingdom come”, we are asking God to extend His rule and reign further and further over every part of our lives, including all those parts we hold back and consider to be ‘ours’, or which we hide out of shame. We are asking that every single part of ourselves comes under His authority and is subjected to His rule – surrendering our rights to dictate the outcome, which might be building up, tearing down, refining or simple change.

Ultimately, we are asking that every part of us comes to exist for a new purpose: the praise of His glory.

We are also asking God to extend this glorious Kingship in the lives of those around us, in the Church, in our nation and in the world…and by extension, we are agreeing to be part of this process, for Jesus Himself has chosen to make us His hands and feet in this world.

The Narrow Path

This journey for which we are praying leads us on a difficult, narrow path. The ‘now’ of God’s Kingdom rule extending into our lives stands in tension with the ‘not yet’ of the full Kingdom to come (where we will live as perfect subjects of our perfect King, and when the entire world will bow before Him) and also in tension with the darkness, evil and rebellion visible in the world, out of which we are being drawn, and which is governed temporarily by “the powers of this world’s darkness” (Eph 6:12).

We exist in the midst of these tensions, as living ‘works in progress’, which at times can be an immensely frustrating and disappointing experience. But God has planned it this way for great purpose.

If we were transformed from sin to glory in one fell swoop, how could we testify to His faithfulness and His willingness to journey with us through thick and thin? How could we witness to His patience and His lovingkindness - to His grace? How could we be His children – when the fundamental meaning of childhood is a journey: from youth to maturity, from naivete to wisdom, from weakness to stature and strength? And crucially, what would keep us humble if all our weaknesses were suddenly gone?

From Glory to Glory

God, in all His sovereign wisdom, has ordained this journey “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18, KJV) – for our learning and blessing, yes, but also as part of His plan to reach the rest of the world.

We are to be living, walking, talking examples of redemption-in-progress, who know that their future is secure and who are faithfully seeking to take hold of that for which they were called (Phil 3:12-14).

The whole point of the ‘now but not yet’ aspect of the Kingdom is that others may see the treasure of the Lord shining out through imperfect jars of clay – that God Himself might get more praise. It is vital that others see normal human beings – people just like them – on that road of being transformed and filled with the things of Heaven, for that is the road God desires them to walk also.

Oaks of Righteousness

Unlike our ‘I want it now’ culture, God is a God of long-term investments (even though He is also God of instant miracles!). There is a reason why He chooses to talk of His children in terms of trees like the oak and cedar – trees which take the span of a human lifetime to reach maturity, but which then last in strength and splendour for centuries.

So, in praying “Thy Kingdom come”, we are effectively saying “Lord, take me further on the journey. Thank you for what you’ve done – but don’t leave me here. Finish what you’ve started – and use me as part of your unfolding plans to redeem others”. Whilst we are praying for the return of Jesus Messiah, when we will all be changed “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor 15:52), we are also declaring our agreement to walk the long and narrow road in this life, hand in hand with the Father. In this way, "Thy Kingdom come" should be more than just a phrase we pray fervently and with faith - it should be a devoted lifestyle and an attitude of humble surrender, in a spirit of unwavering hope. That's how it becomes reality.

I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. (Rom 8:18, 23-25)

Author: Frances Rabbitts

If we study the Bible to find the origin of the concept of ‘kingdom’, it seems to have begun as an idea of man more than of God. At the time of the Prophet Samuel, all other nations except Israel had formed kingdoms ruled by kings. Power was centralised. Men and women seemed to like to put all major responsibility for the nation into the hands of one person. In this way it saved them the trouble of taking responsibility for themselves, an attitude which has typified every generation of mankind.

Up until this point, however, Israel had not been like other nations, but come under the direct rule of God. When Israel rebelled and requested a human king like all the other nations, it caused both Samuel and God great sorrow.

A Different Kind of Rule

By contrast, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden their life was built on relationship with God. Creator God was the supreme authority - but not in the same way as the centralised control of worldly political systems, which still exists today as it has through all of history.

Thus, when we pray “Thy Kingdom come”, we must be careful to understand the intent of the prayer that Jesus had in mind, or our use of the word ‘kingdom’ may end up being a concession to the world’s way of thinking. But in heavenly terms, the word ‘kingdom’ does not have the same definition. Jesus will return and establish what is called a ‘Kingdom’, but he will not come and replace one worldly system with another of like kind. Only the antichrist will seek to do that.

The Kingdom to Come

We must wait and see, but I imagine that Jesus will establish a rule that is a perfect manifestation of Torah, such as we can hardly imagine at this time. This will also be a restoration of what was lost in Eden and be based on wonderful relationship. It will fulfil perfectly the teaching of Jesus that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He will be our supreme Head, and we will live in partnership with Him as a wife with a husband.

When we cast off these imperfect bodies and live with Him forever, not subject to the world and its temptations or to our tendency to slip into sin and lawlessness, all this will be perfectly established. It is called a ‘Kingdom’ and we will have a ‘King’ - but not in terms of the world’s understanding.

Praying for Jesus’ Return

Therefore, it is good for us to consider prayerfully what we are saying, when we pray “Thy Kingdom come”. In the short term, we are confined to live in the present world so our prayer is for the rule of the Holy Spirit in and through us.

In the long term, and this is more at the heart of our prayer in these current days than ever before, we are praying for the return of Jesus. We should read Psalm 2 as we reflect on this. We are approaching the time when all other kingdoms will be exposed for their errors and the time when they will all fall. We should also consider the shaking that will come upon the earth at that time, as Jesus prophesied when he taught the disciples on the Mount of Olives, shortly before His suffering on the Cross. This teaching is expanded in the Book of Revelation.

In praying “Thy Kingdom come”, we are praying for Jesus’ return and the shakings in the heavens and on the earth that will precede this.

Think on these things before you pray!

Author: Dr Clifford Denton

Jesus' disciples were watching Him praying. When he ceased, they asked Him to teach them also how to pray - maybe like He did. We may wonder what it was that they saw in Him that made them want to emulate their Master. I think it may have been His approach to such a holy God. Maybe they were reminded of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision (Isa 6).

In the phrase we are thinking of this week, Jesus focused on His Father's Name: ‘Let Thy Name be hallowed’ (made holy, venerated, sanctified). Personal names in the Bible convey the nature, character or calling of the person. So Jesus was placing as pre-eminent this aspect of His Father: His holy nature, His pure character, His Name, which should be kept holy in the lives of all His disciples.

The One True God is…Holy, Holy, Holy

God has hundreds of names in Scripture, all of which reflect aspects of His being, His character and His nature. The first name mentioned (Gen 1:1) is the plural name of the One true God - Elohim¹ - the all-powerful one, who created all things (Isa 45:21; Eph 3:9).

We see this aspect of God's nature in Isaiah's vision of the seraphim above God's throne, continually praising His thrice-holy Name – “qadosh, qadosh, qadosh” (Isa 6:3), a word derived from qadash, meaning ‘beyond, separate from, totally-other-than’. God's essence is more than and beyond description – words fail us, and we fall in worship. In modern terms, He is utterly special.

This great and awesome Name is a person – He is HOLY (Ps 99:1-3). This tells us of two central features of His Name: His total transcendence, and His perfection. He truly is infinite, awesome, and alone worthy of our worship.

We Too Are to Be Holy

Yet He desires that we take something of His Name upon ourselves. Three times He says that we too are to be holy: “Be holy, because I am holy”, and then, “Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy”; and again, “Be holy to Me, because I the Lord am holy” (Lev 11:45; 19:2; 20:26). Can you see the difference, the goal? We are to be holy to the Lord, our awesome God.

But how can we know such a holy God? Only through His self-revelation. He revealed His Name and His nature in fullness in His Son, Yeshua (Col 1:19, 2:9), so we can know His holy Name in His Son Jesus, who confirms this: “No-one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He alone is the Way to know the Father.

He Would Have Lives Set Apart from the World and to Him, for All to See His Nature

The Father desires that we partake of His holy nature to make His Name known to the world, that all may see Him in His Son, Messiah Jesus. In the same way that He set apart His chosen people Israel from other nations (Deut 7:6; Lev 20:26 - to be My own), He also calls believers in Jesus to be separated from the world's values and separated to the Lord.

We should seek to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, the divine and the ordinary, the holy and the common, and to embrace His Name in our daily lives. In the Tanakh this is shown as not wearing mixed clothing of linen (symbol of purity and separation) and wool (symbol of worldly sweat) (Deut 22:11; Lev 19:19; Ezek 44:17). Jesus encourages us through the cleansing of His Word to obey Him, both to remain humbly in the Lord Jesus (in His holy Name) and to allow Him to remain in us, bringing His holy nature into our lives. The fruit of this will be that people may see in us a reflection of the holy God, and bring the Father glory (John 15:3-5, 8). God's holy nature in Jesus was seen by His disciples, and those that we meet can know His holy Name (His nature and character) through the holy lives that we live.

But rather than blind obedience, God desires relationship. To draw near to Him, we need to know before whom we stand, and be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom 12:2), yielded to our Lord Jesus, walking His way in holiness, so that we may worship (= serve) God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:28-29).

Will We Show His Name to be Hallowed?

These are some more Names of our awesome God: He is Omniscient (He knows all things - past, present and future - and cannot be deceived), Omnipotent (He is all-powerful and cannot be overcome), Omnipresent (He is always with us and cannot be avoided) and Transcendent (He is beyond description and cannot be excelled) - all aspects of His holiness - and He is the only most holy God.

The question is: to know Him, how much of ourselves will we give Him? Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, so we need look no further. He says, simply, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father, for I and the Father are one” (John 14:9, 10:30); “Come to Me…and I will give you rest - learn from Me” (Matt 11:28, and thus of My Father); and, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

We hallow God's Name when we seek the Lord Jesus, when we live lives that honour Him and when we serve His desire to draw people into the Kingdom of His Son. Time is short now, for He is coming back, as He promised. Be blessed in this precious search for Life.

Author: Greg Stevenson

References

1 Hebrew nouns have a dual form for 'two' items, and a plural form for 'three or more'. The Bible progressively reveals God as a unity of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh), when the reference is to the One True God, the plural noun Elohim uses a singular verb - God is echad - one, and indicates both unity and intensification in the subject.

A great and perhaps overtly obvious tragedy of Western culture today is that nothing is sacred. In fact, one could go even further and say that the defining feature of our ‘progressive’, post-Christian society up to this point has been the systematic, deliberate dismantling of everything that was ever considered sacred or held in high esteem – whether in the name of academic criticism, political protest, philosophic exploration or artistic expression.

There is a natural and logical process at work here. When we hallow God’s Name, we are declaring as sacred – set apart, holy, worthy of special honour – His very character and person, as both Clifford Denton and John Quinlan have intimated recently on this page. This means that we naturally hallow His laws and standards. We hallow His desires and plans. We hallow His way above our own.

But when we rebel against God, the inverse process takes effect. We desire to hallow our own ways above His – and so we set about proving that nothing is sacred, that no-one is set apart, so that we do not have to answer to any higher calling or standard than our own. We find any way we can to avoid acknowledging that there is a Being higher than ourselves who might deserve our worship or obedience.

Unsurprisingly then, as the West has abandoned its Judeo-Christian heritage, rejecting the set-apartness of God, every boundary He has asked us to respect has been transgressed, and every relationship He has ordained has been twisted or polluted.

Living Counter-Culturally

For Christians trying to live obediently in this environment, holding fast to principles that are being warped and inverted by the rest of the world, things can easily get demoralising. Living out the reality of hallowing God’s Name in every area of our lives is difficult. We cannot expect to receive any help from the world around – life is now set up to encourage us away from hallowing God’s Name; we are swimming against a very strong tide, requiring both courage and strategy on our part.

The exciting thing, however, is that living to hallow God’s Name immediately makes us counter-cultural: we naturally stand out with a distinctive way of life that others will notice and envy. As we honour His Name and treat it as sacred, so the Holy Spirit imprints something of that same sacredness on our lives, for we exist in His Name. So, living in a way that hallows God’s Name requires great courage – but we should also take great courage because of the opportunities it provides for witness.

Drawing Near to God’s Name

It is here, in this call to shine our light in the midst of darkness, that God’s Name takes on new significance for us. As well as being worthy of the utmost honour and respect, Scripture tells us that His Name is our salvation (Acts 4:12), our path (Micah 4:5) and our strong tower (Pro 18:10).

In other words, as well as deserving to be set apart and honoured above all others, God’s Name is something with which we each need to engage. If His Name is our salvation, we must learn to depend upon it with our entire beings. If His Name is our path, we must learn to walk in it humbly. If His Name is our strong tower, we must learn to run into it to find safety and shelter.

This is the paradox of the Kingdom: that that which is holy and set apart is simultaneously that which we are called to draw near and know closely, intimately. We are to hallow God’s name and yet also hide ourselves in it. We are to be His devoted and humble servants – and yet also His beloved children. We are instructed to fear Him – and we are also commanded to love Him with our entire beings. His Son, Jesus Messiah, is Lord of Lords and King of Kings – and yet also our brother and friend. He is glorified over and above all Creation – yet He is also Emmanuel, God with us.

The crux of true Christianity – what the world desperately needs to see at this time - is the holding of these two perspectives together, simultaneously. If we have the former without the latter, we risk ‘religion without relationship’, so to speak. We miss something of the closeness God desires to have with His people. If we have the latter without the former, we reduce God to our level and – like the rest of the world – make what is sacred profane.

No Compromise

The only Church that will thrive in the midst of such a Godless, honourless, hopeless culture as we currently endure is the Church which will devote Herself to loving the Lord with Her whole being, without compromising on hallowing His Name as sacred and set apart, and living accordingly.

Only then will we become ambassadors of the eternal truth that there is One who is sacred, there is a Name that deserves to be hallowed - and there is Someone who is worthy of all honour and praise.

Author: Frances Rabbitts

“…hallowed by Thy Name.” That’s the way as a young boy I learnt to recite this part of The Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9 of the King James Bible, but I never thought it more than a statement that my Father God’s name is hallowed or holy.

However, I have recently been using David Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible, which translates the phrase as “May Your Name be kept holy”. It also translates word for word the same in Luke 11:2. This starts to sound to me more a prayer and less like the recitation I have often made it.

David Stern, in his New Testament commentary, notes that the first words of the prayer “Our Father in Heaven” open many Hebrew prayers. “May your Name be kept holy” recalls the first portion of the synagogue prayer known as Kaddish, which says “Magnified and sanctified be his great name throughout the world…”. This prayer guide that Jesus gave his disciples would therefore probably have contained much that was already familiar to them.

God’s Name/Names

So what does it mean to keep “holy” in contemporary English? A quick look at my dictionary… “Keep morally and spiritually perfect; of high moral excellence; set apart; sacred; pure; free from sin.”

The Old Testament is where I look to understand the holiness of God’s name. In Exodus 3:13-15, when Moses wanted to be able to explain to the Israelites the God who had sent him, God gave His unique name: “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" (I am / will be what I am / will be). Also Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh (as Clifford Denton intimated last week, this is generally spoken by Jews as Adonai, ‘My Lord’, or Hashem, ‘The Name’, because Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh or YHWH is considered too holy to be spoken by sinful lips).

Other names of God appear when humans give God a name reflecting an aspect of His character, such as in Genesis 16:13, where Hagar named Adonai, El Ro’i (‘God who sees’). This and others tend to be man’s best attempts at naming God - through personal experience of his attributes.

Throughout the scriptures names are rarely just a random combination of sounds. A name conveys the nature and essence of who or what is named. The story of David with Nabal and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25 springs to mind. Nabal means ‘fool’ and Abigail looks to mean ‘father's joy’ / ‘gives joy’ / ‘intelligent, beautiful’. Both become clearly evident as the story unfolds.

Keeping God’s Name Holy

All this is very interesting but how does it lead me to a heartfelt prayer of understanding?

Let’s consider that everything I do, ever, will either honour or dishonour God. When I am walking yoked with our Lord Jesus, yoked to him and learning of him, I will more likely keep God’s name holy. When I stray from our Lord, ignore or re-interpret parts of his teachings that don’t suit me, this shows that I don’t really believe that God is Adonai or El Ro’i ('God of seeing').

Just last night, I read a passage from a novel that shows - in an extreme measure - what happens when we Christians don’t ourselves become the answer to this prayer. It’s from The Auschwitz Escape, a well-researched novel by Joel C Rosenberg. Two young Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz, Jacob and Max, together with most of the camp, are given the day off on Sunday:

This particular Sunday – April 25, 1943 – was no ordinary Sunday. It was Easter, and to Jacob’s astonishment, he watched as no small number of guards and officers and block seniors went to church. In fact, at just before ten that morning, while he and Max were out for a long walk, Jacob was flabbergasted to see Gehard Gruder, Fat Louie, and several others heading to the camp chapel, dressed in their Sunday finest. Soon he could actually hear an organ playing and their torturers singing hymns and reading Scriptures and then ringing the bells when the service was over.

Who were these people? What God were they praying to? How could they beat and slaughter and burn human beings six days a week and then read the Bible and pray on Sundays? Though Jacob hadn’t been raised religious, he certainly hadn’t been raised to hate religious people either. He’d always thought of himself as tolerant not only of Orthodox Jews but also of Catholic and protestant Christians. He’d been taught to respect every man and every faith, but how could he do so now? If this was what it meant to be a Christian, Jacob hoped all Christians would rot in hell, and the sooner the better.

Just like an ambassador to a foreign country whose actions will give his nation either a good or a bad name, so it is with me. If I call myself a Christian and identify with all of Christianity’s good ideals, but when it really matters I live in just the same way as unbelievers, I can add hypocrisy to my misdemeanours and I become just as bad as those who do not believe – in fact, even worse. What sort of God would condone that behaviour?

Therefore, this simple prayer – “Hallowed be Thy Name”, “May your Name be kept holy” - becomes for me a personal prayer that my life today in thought, word and deed will, in every way, convey to all who are watching the excellent, holy, good Name of my Heavenly Father.

Author: John Quinlan

Jesus taught us to pray to our Father in Heaven - not to a foreign god of any nation. There were many such gods in Jesus' day, and there are still many today in the nations where Christians find themselves.

Ours is a privileged access to this most holy God above all gods. But our knowledge of God is not to be kept private. Our desire, in line with our Father's will, is that He be known in the entire world. First we must know Him for ourselves. Then, we must witness to His true character and purpose. His Name is to be hallowed in our lives, so that others will have clear revelation of His wonderful character.

What's in a Name?

Names, biblically, convey insights into character and calling. Jacob was re-named Israel, meaning prevails with God. This name typifies the promise and character of Israel and all his descendants. Abram was re-named Abraham, because he was to be the father of many nations. Name implies character and calling.

What of God's personal name? God chose His own name, consisting of the four Hebrew consonants, yud, hay, vav, hay. No-one in our day knows precisely how to say this Name. It is traditionally thought to be Yahweh, but since we don't know the original vowel sounds to go with these consonants, even Yahweh may not be the exact way to say the name of God.

When Hebrew vowels were invented by the Masorites in Tiberius after 6 AD, the name of God was considered so sacred that it could not be spoken. As a prompt to this, the vowels for Adonai ('Lord') were attached to the four consonants denoting the name of God so that a reader would say "Adonai" or "Lord" when they came to it in their reading of Scripture.

This gave rise to the mistake by Christians, who began to read the Hebrew Bible, to think that what they read (namely 'Jehovah'), was the way to say the name of God. Jehovah is not the name of God known to Moses. Jehovah is yud, hay, vav, hay, but with the vowels associated with Adonai. So we don't really know the exact name of God.

To Hallow

Many Jews have now gone a step further to keep the name of God pure. They refer to God as HaShem – 'the Name'. One might ask: is this really what Jesus meant when he encouraged us to pray "hallowed be thy Name"? Surely the emphasis is not on the actual name of God, but on his character and purposes. After all, we are encouraged to address Him intimately as "Abba, Father". When we come to God in prayer, it is right to approach Him in humble respect and reverence, but not in fear of addressing Him directly, even as Father.

'Hallowed' means 'holy, set apart, pure, altogether other than this tarnished world, perfect'. Our Father is holy and wants to be known to the world in this way. Yet as well as the holiness of His actual name, God Himself is to be known as holy. Indeed, the implication of "hallowed be thy Name" is that this is an ongoing process, to be fulfilled – God's name is to become holy in the entire world.

How is This to Be?

How is God's name to become holy in the entire world? He is to be known for who He is, what He has covenanted and what His true character is - not just what His literal name is.

He is known fully through His Son. The angel gave His name to Joseph; before modification to Jesus it was Yeshua, meaning 'salvation'. Gabriel said to Joseph, "you shall call his name Yeshua (i.e. Salvation) because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). His name is His calling and ministry and this is what the Father wants the world to know – He is calling all people to salvation through His Son – a most holy task.

Our Commission: To Make His Name Known

In all holiness, the character and purposes of God are to be made known through the entire world. This is what we are to mean by our prayer "hallowed be thy name". This is to be through His Son, but also through us. It is our commission to make His name known through the entire world, through our lives and our words. We are ambassadors of the One to whom we pray "hallowed be Thy Name" – honoured to be bearers of the answer to the prayer we ourselves make.

As we stand before the Father, we are acknowledging who He is in all holiness - seeking to know Him better so that His true nature will also be known through us. And through this most holy ministry, we are hoping that whenever our God and Father is talked about, He will be honoured everywhere by all people.

Author: Dr Clifford Denton

When Jesus' disciples asked Him, "Teach us to pray", He told them: "This is how you should pray: Our Father, who art in Heaven..." (Matt 6:9 RSV). Jesus' use of the personal pronoun ('who') and the present tense of the verb 'to be' ('art') indicates, first, that we are to pray to a Person (to speak and to listen); second, that this Person exists ('who art' - modern English 'who is') and third, where our Father is (in Heaven). So - what or where is 'Heaven'?

God Spoke the Heavens into Being

It's interesting that the Bible records 'the heavens' as the first thing that God created: B'reshit bara Elohim et ha shamayim v'et ha eretz – "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Note the order. We might think, since the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (alef) represents God, that the Word that He gave us would start with the alef. But it starts with the second letter, beit. This implies that there was a moment (the start of time?) when God created the physical universe ex nihilo (out of nothing).

He alone stretched out the heavens (ha shamayim, the expanse) and did so by Himself (Isa 44:24). God spoke this expanse into being and separated the waters (Heb. mayim) that were under the expanse from those that were above it.

Many Heavens, One God

God is the Creator of all things: of space, of matter and of time. But He exists outside of the space, matter, and time that He created, because He is omni-present, He is a Spirit, and He is eternal. Thus He existed before the moment He created the space-matter-time continuum.¹

Because He is the Creator of all things (Isa 44:24; Eph 3:9), the physical heavens (and the earth) belong to Him (Deut 10:14), and also the highest Heaven (Heb. the heaven of heavens). Paul talks of the 'third heaven' (a place beyond both the immediate heaven (the sky) and beyond the heaven of outer space. It represents the very Presence of God, to where Jesus ascended after His resurrection (higher than all of heaven, Eph 4:10).

The second heaven may thus be the place of demonic rulers, principalities, authorities and powers; the wicked spiritual forces arrayed against God and His purposes of redemption. Importantly, heaven is the source of rain and snow (Isa 55:10) and frost, fire and dew, released or withheld under God's sovereign control.

From heaven, He reaches out in both judgment and salvation (Gen 19:24; Psa 57:3). Although heaven is His throne (Isa 66:1), from where He exercises His sovereign rule, the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll when God makes a new Heaven and a new Earth not marred by sin, and the joy and glory of the completion of His plan of redemption will be reflected in all His creation.

Heaven is God's Kingdom – Where the Most High Dwells and Reigns

Secondly, ha shamayim is the abode of God ("Look down from heaven, Your holy dwelling place", Deut 26:15). Yet Solomon recognised that even all the heavens cannot contain God (1 Kings 8:27).

He lives (Heb. inhabits, dwells) in a high and holy place, but He also dwells with the one who is contrite (who recognises their wrong-doing) and lowly in spirit (having a modest estimate of their importance) in order to revive both the heart and the spirit (Isa 57:15). Jesus began His teaching by saying "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near" (at hand - close enough to touch, a present reality, Matt 3:2).

So 'heaven', God's abode, is also where His Kingdom is - not so much a specific place or time, but a condition where the rulership of God is acknowledged by mankind.² It is into this condition that the King reaches down to Man with the restoring gift of His holy Presence and the promise of a restored universe. The Kingdom of Heaven (a synonym for the Kingdom of God) is thus here, but is also to come (peace in hearts, but not yet in the world).

But He bought this about at the cost of His only Son, whose birth we have been celebrating at this time, who came to do His Father's will upon the Cross, once for all - to shed His Blood in order to cleanse and forgive us. Only in this way can we be made holy to approach and dwell with God, as He desires (Heb 9:22; John 15:4).

The Heavens Declare His Glory

Thirdly, the heavens declare in a wonderful way that leaves us speechless in awe, the Glory of God; and they proclaim His righteousness (Psa 19:1; Psa 50:6). As the sun and moon were created as signs and to mark seasons (Gen 1:14), the heavens too point us to their Creator, who is the only One to whom worship is due. Paul tells us that His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen and understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Rom 1:20). When we stand and look up at the heavens on a clear night, we are filled with awe and reverence for the God who tells us that His Name is Holy and Awesome (Psa 111:9, Heb. yirah, to hold in awe, in reverent fear).

We need to know how to enter the Presence of that Holy and Awesome God. At Sinai, the Israelites would not even dare to approach the mountain when His glory and majesty were shown (Deut 5:24). He is not our 'buddy', our 'mate', as liberal Christian songs would have us believe.³

Our Holy and Awesome God

Our Father who is in heaven, even before the world was created, is the One who loved us; who existed in Glory with His Son Yeshua (Jesus); who chose us in the Lord Jesus; who chose Jesus to be revealed (in due time for our sakes); who promised eternal life through God the Father and Jesus our Saviour and who called us to a holy life though the grace given us in Christ Jesus (John 17:23; 17:5; Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:20; Titus 1:2-4; 2 Tim 1:9).

His Name is I AM WHO I AM, the One who was, who is and who will be (Ex 3:14). He is the Holy and Awesome One. He surely is worthy of our reverence, our fear and our worship. In our prayer to the King, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:28-29).

Author: Greg Stevenson

References

1 Morris, H. The Genesis Record, quoted in: Powell, J. Hebrew Treasures. Lamp & Light, Jan/Feb 2017 edition, Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures.

2 Stern, DH. Jewish New Testament Commentary, p16.

3 Dr Clifford Hill, Issachar Ministries, State of the Nation update, December 2016.