6674. Of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah. That this signifies the quality and state of the natural where memory-knowledges are, is evident from the signification of “name,” as being quality (see n. 144, 145, 1896, 2009), and also state (n. 1946, 2643, 3422, 4298); for all names in the Word signify things, and comprise in sum total all things that belong to the subject that is being treated of, thus its quality and state; here therefore the names “Shiphrah and Puah” signify the quality and state of the natural where true memory-knowledges are, because this is the subject treated of, as is plain from what precedes (n. 6673).
[2] He who does not know that a name denotes the quality and state of the subject being treated of, can believe that where a name is mentioned, the name merely is meant; thus when the Lord speaks of His “name,” that it is merely the name, when yet it is the quality of the worship, that is, everything of faith and charity by which He is to be worshiped, as in these passages:
Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20);
here the “name” is not meant, but worship from faith and charity.
As many as received, to them gave He power to be the sons of God, to them that believe in His name (John 1:12);
here also by “name” is meant faith and charity, whereby the Lord is worshiped.
These things have been written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in His name (John 20:31); where the sense is the same.
[3] Again:
If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13-14);
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you (John 15:16; 16:23-24).
Here it is not meant that they should ask the Father in the Lord’s name, but that they should ask the Lord Himself; for there is no way open to the Divine Good which is the “Father” (see n. 3704), except through the Lord’s Divine Human, as is also known in the churches; and therefore to ask the Lord Himself is to ask according to the truths of faith, and whatever is asked in accordance with these truths is granted, as the Lord Himself says in the previous passage from John:
If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:14).
This can be seen further from the fact that the Lord is the “name” of Jehovah, of which thus in Moses:
I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way; beware of His faces, and hear His voice, and do not provoke Him, because My name is in the midst of Him (Exodus 23:20-21).
[4] In John:
Father, glorify Thy name: there came forth a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again (John 12:28).
I have manifested Thy name to the men whom thou hast given Me out of the world. I have made known unto them Thy name, and I will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:6, 26).
From these passages it is plain that the Lord as to the Divine Human is the “name” of Jehovah, or His whole quality; hence all Divine worship is from the Divine Human, and it is this which is to be worshiped; for thus is worshiped the Divine Itself, to which no thought reaches in any other way, and if no thought, no conjunction.
[5] That the “name” of the Lord is everything of faith and love by which the Lord is to be worshiped is still more plain from the following passages, in Matthew:
Ye shall be hated of all for My name’s sake (Matthew 10:22).
Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth me (Matthew 18:5).
Everyone that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for My name’s sake; shall receive a hundredfold (Matthew 19:29).
They cried, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Matthew 21:9).
Verily I say to you, For ye shall not see Me until the time shall come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:35).
Whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in My name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward (Mark 9:41).
The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons obey us in Thy name. Jesus said to them, In this rejoice not, that the spirits obey you, but rather rejoice that your names have been written in heaven (Luke 10:17, 20);
“names written in heaven” are not names, but the quality of their faith and charity.
[6] So it is with “names written in the book of life” in the Apocalypse:
Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. He that overcometh shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before the Father and before His angels (Revelation 3:4-5).
He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. He calleth His own sheep by name (John 10:2-3).
Jehovah said unto Moses, I know thee by name (Exodus 33:12, 17).
Many believed in His name, when they saw His signs which He did (John 2:23).
He that believeth in Him is not judged, but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God (John 3:18).
They shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west (Isaiah 59:19).
All people walk everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God (Micah 4:5).
[7] In Moses:
They were to worship Jehovah God in the place which He should choose, and should put His name (Deuteronomy 21:5, 11, 14).
Also in Isaiah 18:7; Jeremiah 7:12; and in many other passages; as Isaiah 26:8, 13; 41:25; 43:7; 49:1; 50:10; 5 2:5; 62:2; Jeremiah 23:27; 26:16; Ezekiel 20:14, 44; 36:21-23; Micah 5:4; Malachi 1:11; Deuteronomy 10:8; Revelation 2:17; 3:12 13:8 14:11; 15:2; 17:8; 19:12-13, 16; 22:3-4.
[8] That the “name of Jehovah” denotes everything by which He is worshiped, thus in the supreme sense everything that proceeds from the Lord, is evident from the benediction:
Jehovah bless thee and keep thee, Jehovah make His faces to shine upon thee, and have mercy on thee; Jehovah lift up His faces upon thee, and give thee peace. So shall they put My name upon the sons of Israel (Numbers 6:23-27).
From all this it is now clear what is meant by this commandment of the Decalogue:
Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him innocent that taketh His name in vain (Exodus 20:7);
also by Hallowed be Thy name, in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9).
