"Bearing God's Name" by Carmen Joy Imes. A Review

Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still MattersBearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What, exactly, does it mean to not take the name of YHWH your God in vain? From the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms to our grandparents and Sunday School teachers, we have heard many applications of this directive. Is it a prohibition on the flippant or irreverent expressions of the name of our Lord? Does it include being disrespectful of the elements of God's communal and public worship? Could it also comprise the debasing of the Scriptures? Carmen Joy Imes, associate professor of Old Testament at Prairie College, in Three Hills, Alberta, contributor to "Discovering the Septuagint: A Guided Reader," and recently elected member of the board of directors of the Institute for Biblical Research, addresses this commandment in her soon-to-be-released (December 2019) 240 page softback "Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Matters." This easily accessible volume is written for men and women interested in the Scriptures, whatever their background.

Imes takes on what is normally numbered as the 3rd Commandment by most Protestants (the 2nd Commandment for Catholics, Orthodox and a few others). The author is sensitive to the classic Protestant perceptions of the 10 Commandments, and this precept in particular. Rightly, I think, does she observe, show "me the inside of your sanctuary, and I'll tell you how your church counts the commandments" (47). Nevertheless she takes a bit of her own path and marches forward. For example, based on language and the structure of Exodus 20:2-7, she claims that these verses are not three injunctions but two, so that they essentially say "Worship only Yahweh" and "Represent him well" (52). And so, to represent Yahweh well is the overall focus of her analysis.

The author walks the reader through the story line of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, coming back around to rightly bearing YHWH's name. Her approach is a refreshing strategy to telling the old, old story. The way she shows the ongoing value of the Old Testament, as well as the Decalogue pleased my heart. Imes notes that the Sinai directives don't begin with the thunderous voice of God, but they spring forth from the redemptive hand of God. In other words, God first redeemed his people from their enslavement and then in essence says, "I've made you a free people; now here's how free people live." The author also keeps together what some modern day religious leaders put asunder; "God's grace coexists with his justice. They are both integral to his character" (79). The Gospel of Jesus is clearly announced in this volume as she proclaims Jesus is YHWH in the flesh and maps out the role of his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. In the end, as "believers we've been branded with his name, and that reality should change the way we do everything" (186). And this last line is the backbone of what it means to represent YHWH/Jesus well.

"Bearing God's Name" is a wonderful little volume, overall. I did take issue with a few of the author's moves (placing the command to not make images of God and worship them under the first commandment, and the Sabbath, to name a couple). But through-and-through Imes wove together a useful and valuable codex for pastors and people who want to grasp the Scriptures better, and especially for comprehending what it means to bear the name of God rightly. I highly recommend the book.

I'm ever so grateful that, upon my request, IVP Academic sent me a copy of the manuscript used for this review. And I'm just as appreciative that the publisher only asked me to put forth an honest assessment. I have dutifully and delightedly done so .


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one another, is
Read more

"Long Is the Way" by Alton Hardy (and Billy Ivey). A Review

Image
  It just showed up in our church mailbox a few weeks back. It looked interesting enough, but I put it into the stack of books I was reading, with a “I’ll get to it when I can” thought. That day came today. I picked up this 202-page softback this morning and couldn’t put it down. “Long Is the Way” is the story of Pastor Alton Hardy of Urban Hope Community Church in Birmingham Alabama. From infancy to stepping into the work of Urban Hope CC, Hardy – with the help of Bill Ivey of Small Stories Studio – draws the readers into his life, with all of the fatherlessness, darkness, racism, hope, failure, rescue and rebuilding. I just couldn’t put the book down!   Hardy’s tale begins in the heart of Jim Crow and the heat of Sardis Alabama. Dealing with life in a very large sharecropper family, the author grew up in poverty like most have never experienced, in conditions we’ve only heard about from the “Old Timers”. His story moves along the lines of domestic abuse, black magic, fatherlessne
Read more