«He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels»
(Revelation 3:5).
WITH CHISEL and hammer, the priests of Thutmose III began the damnation memoriae, a ritual that literally sentenced a person to having never existed. Female pharaoh Hatshepsut (considered by many to have been the pharaoh’s daughter who adopted Moses), regarded as an excellent queen, had ordered the building of a mortuary temple in the Valley of the Kings, in Thebes, to perpetuate her name in her nation’s memory and monuments. However, Thutmose Ill condemned her name and image to be erased from every Egyptian monument.
The same sentence was pronounced against Djehuty, Hatshepsut’s royal scribe. But the ritual went beyond the damage caused by chisels; the intent of such a strange practice was to eliminate every trace of their earthly existence and block that individual’s path to eternal life. If their name and image were erased on earth, there wouldn’t be a glorious eternity for them. That was the belief in ancient Egyptian culture.
While Egyptian monarchs made efforts to preserve their name and image on magnificent funerary monuments, we, ordinary people, whose names will not be engraved in bronze or marble slabs on any important building, can cling to a marvelous promise: «He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels» (Revelation 3:5).
We will highlight two elements in this passage. First, our names are written in the book of life. Jesus said we should rejoice that our names «are written in heaven» (Luke 10:20). Second, no human chisel or hammer can erase a believer’s name from the heavenly book. The only One who can delete our name from it is Jesus, and He willingly gave His life for us, so that we could have eternal life.
The promise of God for you and for me this morning is unchanging: «I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life.» In the Greek text of Revelation 3:5, John used two adverbs of negation; what Jesus is literally saying is that «by no means will He delete our name.»
May we rejoice this day that we are part of the «church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven» (Hebrews 12:23, NIV).
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Angelica Cuate
