Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 31:1 (Apr 2021)
Article: Book Review: Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters By Carme J. Imes
Author: Paul Cookey

Conspectus 31:1 (April 2021) p. 97

Book Review: Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters By Carme J. Imes

Paul Cookey

Imes, Carmen J. 2019. Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 226 pp. ISBN 978–0-8308–52697–7 (print); 978- 0–8308–4836–2 (digital). R242 ($16.14).

1. About The Author

Carmen Joy Imes is an erudite scholar and professor. She serves as Associate Professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta. She is married to Danny and they have three children, Eliana, Emma, and Easton.

2. Book Summary

What does it mean to “bear God’s name?” What does it mean to “take or bear or carry the name of the Lord in vain?” This is the concern of Imes’s book. The book takes its title from Exodus 20:7 which states that the name of Yahweh should not be taken in vain. The author regards this as the second of the Ten Commandments, which she links with Exodus 28 where the high priest bears the names of all the twelve tribes of Israel in his service before Yahweh (48–50).

The book begins with a captivating and encouraging introduction for both the reader and sceptic who may find or think reading the Old Testament is boring and unnecessary because it does not express the grace of God the way the New Testament does. Imes (2019, 1–9) impresses upon her readers that the Old Testament is exciting and contains the grace of God when properly guided, beginning with the exodus of God’s people, Israel, and their constitution as the people of Yahweh at Sinai.

Starting from Israel’s departure from Egypt to their convergence at Sinai, where they all come under Yahweh through the Covenant mediated by Moses, to their sojourning to the Promised Land of Canaan, Imes examines the kind of identity Israel exhibits as a people which bears the name of Yahweh. This is captured in chapters 1 to 7. Uniquely, between chapters 5 and 6, there is an “Intermission” (94–97) where the author pauses and reflects on the entire picture painted from the biblical account and reminds her readers that the story of Israel is an artistic sketch that has more to it than is painted. Chapters 8 to 10 show how in Christ Jesus through the Gospel of grace, Gentile Christians bear God’s identity and name with the goal to truly represent God here on earth and fulfil God’s mission. Often, non-Jewish (Gentile) Christians are confused about their identity as God’s people who bear the name of God. Imes traces this indelible identity all the way from Israel as Yahweh’s “chosen people” in the Old Testament to Christians “chosen in Christ Jesus” to bear God’s holy name in the New...