Blotted Out; When a Name Is Removed from the Book of Life

I have a thing for words; words are fun, they are creative outlets. I use words in my everyday vocabulary that make people look twice at me all the time. 

I truly believe words and names are important, otherwise why were we given speech by God in the first place? And when a word from the Bible gets stuck in my head for days, I must investigate why.

Hebrew to Greek.

Machah: To wipe, blot out, obliterate (Hebrew)

“But now, please forgive their sin — but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” Exodus 32:32–33

Exaleiphó: To wipe out, to blot out, to erase, to obliterate (Greek)

“The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” Revelation 3:5

“Blot” Wasn’t Chosen Casually.

One thing I noticed right away, and want to convey, is that this word, in Hebrew or Greek, has many individual meanings. But put together, these meanings reveal a more profound and painful final action.

We know the Holy Spirit was heavily involved in the Bible being written, but I also believe, despite glitches, personal choices, and knowledge unknown at the time, that the Holy Spirit also had a hand in corralling humanity as they translated it, hence why we have such good translations.

“Blot” was chosen to make us see, literally, the act of our name being erased, wiped out, poof, obliterated. It calls up an image of ink on paper being smeared, but ink still left to remind our Father that a name was once there.

That is a conscious choice to make that ☝️happen. 

So, I’m still sitting here contemplating that word, the finality of it, the seriousness of it, and the fact that there is only one Book of Life at the end.

And then something occurred to me: all our names were already written in that book from the moment we were a mere twinkle, and that means something. A big something.

Look again at Exodus closely:

“But now, please forgive their sin — but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” 

We were written in the Book of Life from the moment He knew us. He didn’t decide who was worthy or loved later on; we are already there.

He excluded no one. 

We are the only ones capable of doing that.

We force His hand.

And when that happens, He has to open that book and blot out a name that was once lovingly written there.

Jesus wept. Do you really think God doesn’t when that happens?

© Jane Isley

Thank you for taking the time to read, and please consider supporting my work. Your gift helps keep this work going.

You can visit me at Faithful Writers on Medium, where other Christian writers have joined me in sharing the word of God. You can also find me on Tumblr and Facebook.