Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters

InterVarsity Press, 2019. $25 (e-book $15, audio $20). Preview at Amazon.ca and Books.Google.ca

can you recall watching a child unwrap a gift at Christmas? That’s how I felt reading this book – surprise and wonder.

Carmen Imes speaks not only to those with a less polished education (such as my own), but also to those with more extensive training. Her students at Prairie College in Alberta, where she is an associate professor of Old Testament, must love her.

Half this book focuses on the Old Testament and half links it to the New Testament. The book centres around revisiting the commandment of “not taking the Lord’s name in vain.” Imes seeks to reposition our lens to better view this commandment with its original intent and language in mind.

She suggests this commandment could be better translated “to bear His name and live life so as it’s not lived in vain.” Not only does Imes do an excellent job of unwrapping this, she pulls into clarity how Israel’s calling, from the beginning, was to live as a nation set apart, for God only. That calling was continually highlighted and emphasized through the disciples and Jesus into the New Testament.

Having journeyed through her pages, I have new tools I can pull from my tool belt as I continue feeding on God’s Word.

I readily recommend this book, especially to those who love learning. I read the first few chapters so voraciously, I had to slow down and digest. It was water to my thirsty soul.