Shem: The Power of Names

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22:1)

There is a value that comes with having a “good name.”

A name - “Shem” in Hebrew - is connected to what we are called, while also extending far beyond the mere letters and phonemes that make up what we are called.

Names encompass identity. They can act as blessings and curses spoken over the foundations of our lives and personhood. In Scripture, they often represent who a person is and will become, and what that person will be known for.

Names can hold ancestry and posterity, honor and shame.

In Hebrew, shem shows a connection to the related word “neshemah,” which means breath. Just as we inhale and exhale, our name is both internal self-validation as well as external emanation of who we are. Names fill us and go forth from us into the world.

Ultimately, we are the embodiment of our name and our name is our own embodiment.

It’s no surprise then that the God of the Universe has a name of such self-proclamation that it should mean “I am” or “I am who I am.”

And it is this same God who promises to “give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (Revelations 2:17).

As we walk with a God who’s name is perfectly self-attesting and self-revealing, we are gently invited to learn of and become the fullness of our truest name, with the knowledge that our preeminent Creator has already inscribed our wholly comprised name into the eternal stones of his Kingdom.

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