How are we to be involved?
There, set against the rugged landscape, Moses saw a bush ablaze, but the flames did not consume. I wonder how far away he was when he saw it. It drew him by the sheer wonder of the sight. Only in his final approach did he realize the holiness of the site.
In my second pairing of a Malcolm Guite poem and a great painting, God’s name is in view. It’s the first installment in a triple reference to the priorities of the Heavenly Father – your name, your kingdom, your will. And by name, we mean all that he is, not just what we call him.
“Pray, then, in this way: Our Father in the heavens, may your name be revered as holy.” Matthew 6:9
Many translations use the word hallowed. It’s an old-fashioned word that Guite muses on:
But hallowed summons up our fear and wonder,
And summons us to stand on holy ground.
To sense the mystery that stands just under
Familiar things we’ll never understand.
It’s his reference to holy ground that sends me to look for a painting of Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3). Marc Chagall’s images of the scene stand out. This colorful version speaks to me.
To understand his painting, read it (like Hebrew) right to left. We first see Moses kneeling, with horns like rays shooting out of his head. Moses was often represented with horns in art because of a mistranslated Hebrew word. Chagall turns them into a kind of designation of honor.
Around the bush we see a rainbow representing God’s covenant dealings with his people. I’m assuming the figure is an angel of the Lord and not God himself, since Chagall, in other versions, respectfully represents the LORD with just the four Hebrew letters of his name.
Finally, on the left, Moses leaves, changed.His face is aglow. But more than that, we see the coming deliverance of God condensed into his flowing robe. At the base, Pharoah’s army thrashes in the Red Sea; and above the cloud, a great crowd of Israelites traverse the watery background toward Moses’s supernaturally bright visage.
This is the detail that moves me. And it gets to the heart of the prayer. Moses carried on him the glow of the flames.
How will God’s name be hallowed? We are not praying that somehow, out of the blue, God will change the world’s comprehension of him. We are praying that He might keep his name holy in this world below through us.
When we are commanded not to “take the name of the LORD in vain” (Ex. 20:7), it is not isolating our speech. Take is better translated bear or carry. As an ambassador of God’s kingdom, don’t represent him poorly!
That’s a sobering thought – that I carry his reputation with me. And if I want God’s name to be kept holy, I need to constantly keep his holiness in view. That, says Guite, is helped by seeing the LORD’s otherness, his beyondness, lying under even ordinary things.
Comprehending his holiness needs to be my habit.
Our good and gracious Father, we do pray that you will reveal your true identity to the nation. Be exalted in their eyes! And let us be the ones who point them toward your holiness.
Reader: How do you hallow God’s name? What practices do you have for reminding yourself of his greatness and holiness?
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