Jeremiah 32:16-27, God Wants to Make His Name Known

In Scripture a person’s name represents what there is to know about them.  Actually, it’s not just in Scripture; it’s the way we are.  When we say or hear someone’s name we have a thought of what we know about them.  God wants to make His name known, to the nations (Isa. 64:2) and among His people (Jn. 17:6).  God wants people, when they hear His name, to associate truth with His name. 

Jeremiah knew God by name.  He called Him the LORD of hosts (32:18).  This name of God signified a God for whom nothing was too hard; he knew this because the LORD of hosts made the heavens and the earth by (His) great power and outstretched arm (32:17).  He associated other qualities with the LORD of hosts: lovingkindness and righteous judgment (v18), wisdom and omniscience (v19).  God, in His answer to Jeremiah, indicated that the prophet was correct: I am the LORD, the God of all flesh.  Is there anything too hard for Me (32:27)? God first repeats His name, the LORD (Yahweh); and then affirms His omnipotence.

The prophet notes that God made a name for Himself through the signs and wonders He performed in Egypt, as well as His work throughout Israel’s history (32:20).  Jeremiah was correct.  Go back, for example, to Exodus.  At the burning bush, when God called Moses, one of the first questions Moses asked God was for His name (Ex. 3:13).  When Moses first went to Pharaoh, the Egyptian’s first response was to ask, Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go?  I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go (Ex. 5:2).  In other words, “what significance should I associate with this God you call Yahweh, that would require me to let you go?”  The rest of the story, the plagues, the Red Sea crossing, is a record of God attaching to His name the divine qualities, so that Pharaoh and the Egyptians and even the people of Israel shall know that I am the LORD (Ex. 6:7; 7:5,17; 8:10,22; 9:14,29; 10:2; 11:7; 14:4,18). 

Once the Egyptians were left behind, God continued to work among His people for the same reason: that they might know that I am the LORD your God (Ex. 16:6,12 and so on.)  Throughout the book of Leviticus, a record of instructions for Israel’s worship, you will hear God repeatedly (50 times or more) utter the words, I am the LORD.  In Leviticus God was usually associating “holiness” to His name. Ezekiel preached about God’s judgment on Israel as well as on the nations, including the future Day of the LORD.  In Ezek. 1-39 we see over 70 times this driving phrase, then you shall know that I am the LORD.  In Ezekiel God was connecting His sovereign power and His faithfulness to His name.

For now, consider what associations you make with God when you hear Him referred to as “the LORD”?  What other names of God do you know?  He is known by names that He Himself has given in the Bible.