The Promise of a Great Name

The Promise of a Great Name

A great name means great influence.

“Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” Deuteronomy 4:6

By a “great name” it seems God intended that His people should have influence for good over the nations around them. This would have been consistent with God’s original “good” plan for all the creation, and for His people as keepers and nurturers thereof (Gen. 1:26-28). The greatness of Israel’s name would be associated with their renown for wisdom and understanding, and this would be the result of their living according to the Law God had given them.

There would be no avoiding the nations around Israel, just as there is, for believers today, no avoiding frequent contact of various sorts with unbelievers. God knew that those contacts would either bring Israel—and us—down to the level of our unredeemed contemporaries, or they would provide an opportunity for elevating the way of life of those beyond the pale of faith, and even for leading some to unite with the community of believers.

Because God’s purpose for His people is that they should further His goodness, He has given us His Law. By living in obedience to God’s Law we may exert the kind of influence on outsiders which causes them to look favorably upon us, to conform their own conduct to that which honors God, even though they neither know nor love Him (Ps. 66:3; Ps. 81:15, cf. esp. NASB), and even to seek greater understanding of God’s ways for themselves (Mic. 4:1-5).

By keeping the Law Israel would show wisdom, understanding, justice, goodness, and love to the surrounding nations. These are powerful means of influence, and God has promised them to His people as part of His redemptive plan and purpose for our lives.

For more insight to the nature of God’s Covenant, order a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store. Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.