“THIS IS THE WAY YOU SHALL BLESS THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL…SO THEY SHALL PUT MY NAME ON THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND I WILL BLESS THEM.” —NUMBERS 6:23, 27
God so wanted to bless His people that He personally gave Moses a special prayer for the priests to say over His children. Then He explains that by doing it, the priests “shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
While we understand something of what it means to be blessed, what does it mean for God to put His name on His children? Does it simply mean ownership or identification?
The Hebrew word for name, shem, has layers of meaning. A name is the “memorial of your character.” It represents you. Closely linked is another word, neshamah, which means breath. To the Hebrew mindset, your breath is your presence and character. It’s part of your personality. While your name represents your character, your breath is the essence of it. God’s name is in His very breath.
In creating Adam from the dust, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God breathed Himself into Adam’s nostrils, imparting His very essence and character into him.
Adam had the name and essence of God inside of him. But that all changed after he disobeyed God.
Because of sin, God no longer came into human beings. Under the system of sacrifices, the blood of animals temporarily covered sin. And with that, God came upon them. This implies the possibility of knowing something of God and a kind of closeness.
When Jesus died, rose again, and met with His disciples, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
Jesus was doing what God did when He breathed into Adam and gave Him His essence, His nature. So Jesus breathed on His disciples, and the Name of Jesus and the Lord came inside of them.
Later, in the book of Acts on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came. How did He come? Like a mighty, rushing wind. God “breathed” that day upon 120 people, and the Spirit of God, the nature of God, entered into them. What you and I have is far more precious than what the Old Testament saints possessed. The Spirit of God not only comes on us, but He comes into us! And that is about as close and personal as it gets.
