Daily Manna · Day 92 · April 2
Called by Name
“Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”
What is the difference between a label and a name?
Somebody used the wrong word for you this week. The difficult one. The one who fell apart. The divorced one. The guy from that department.
But a name is just a word too.
Not here. Look at who is speaking and what he has already done. Thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Created and formed are the words from Genesis; he is claiming manufacture. Then: I have redeemed thee. That is a purchase, a price paid to get something back. Only after those two does the naming happen. I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
So the name comes last.
The name comes last, and it rests on the two before it. A label is applied by somebody with no stake in you and no cost incurred. This name is spoken by the one who made the thing and then bought it back after it was lost. That is a different kind of speech act altogether.
And the people he says it to?
Had earned every label going. He calls them Jacob, which is the name of a man who deceived his own father, and Israel, which is the name God gave that same man afterwards. Both names are in the sentence. He does not use the second to pretend the first never happened.
Then the next verse, which is not comfortable.
No. It is water you pass through and fire you walk into. The ownership holds inside the flood, not instead of it.
So this is on the table, and nobody is going to press you about it. When the label arrives again this week, you do not have to argue with it. You could simply let the older sentence stand behind it and see which one you find you believe.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 92 is Sung in a Cave (Psalm 57:7).