82. WHERE GOD CHOOSES TO PLACE HIS NAME

82. WHERE GOD CHOOSES TO PLACE HIS NAME 
 Revelation 3:10-12:

3:10. Word of My Patience: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”

The "word of my patience" is the word which treats of “patient waiting for me,” i.e. the word of the prophecy of His return in vengeance against the wicked nation and city that had persecuted Jesus and His Church. 
 Weymouth translates it: “Because you have kept the word for which I suffered.” The word for which Jesus suffered was that the Jewish nation and Jerusalem would be destroyed, (Matt. 26:61; 27:40; Acts 6:14). The church is encouraged to maintain this word even in the face of martyrdom. Many in the modern Church world are deceived as to the meaning of this verse and do not know that the Jewish nation and the City of Jerusalem were destroyed in 70 AD, as Jesus had foretold.

(The word earth is the same word as for “land” in Hebrew, therefore it might be translated by either term, that is: “That dwell upon the earth,” or “That dwell upon the land.”)

3:12. Where God Chooses to Place His Name:  “The name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem.”

This verse clearly establishes the identity of "The City of God." It is not the earthly city, but the heavenly, not the center of false “Judaism,” but rather the Christian Church, the Body of Christ, the New Jerusalem, not the old. This was the understanding of the early Church. Eusebius calls the Church "the City of God."[i] This verse establishes a foreshadowing for the appearing of this City in chapters 21 and 22, the glorious Bride of Christ.

Throughout the history of ancient Israel, God selected a City and a Temple where He chose to place His name. It was the fact that His Name was placed there that made it the “City of God.” The Name is now no longer resident in a city or temple made of brick and mortar but rather is in the people of God.
From the beginning it was God's desire to dwell among His people, and we see this manifested first in the Garden of Eden. Later He chose to dwell among the nation of Israel in the Tabernacle as they wandered in the wilderness. Then when they had come into Canaan they built the tabernacle at Shiloh. But the Lord forsook the Tabernacle at Shiloh because of their idolatry, (Psalm 78:60). 
After they had become a nation, Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem where God "chose to place His Name." For a time that literal city, Jerusalem, was the “City of God” and the Temple of God was in it. However, that city and temple became defiled and were destroyed because of sin when the old Israel broke the covenant, 2Chronicles 7:19-21. 
But we see here in Revelation 3:12 that God still has a chosen people and still chooses to place His Name in them. Where is God's Name now?

These people, who worship the Lord Jesus Christ, are now the dwelling place of God Himself and in them He "chooses to place His Name.” Jesus chose to place His Name in the Church: Matthew 28:19-20: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
John 16:23-24, 26: "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you. (24) Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full... (26) At that day ye shall ask in My Name: and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you (27) For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God."  
John 27:6: "I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me: and they have kept Thy word... (26) And I have declared unto them thy Name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (Underlines mine.)
See also: Mark 16:17; John 14:13-14, 26; Acts 4:12; Philippians 2:9-10; Colossians 3:17. 
Later also in the Book of Revelation 14:1 we again see the Name of God on the foreheads of His people: "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's Name written in their foreheads.".

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[i] Eusebius History, 10.4.2 – “Praise for the City of God,” (i.e., Christianity).
 This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com.
[Free downloads are available at  www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.]