1. Revelation 16:9 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does the term “name” point to?

Revelation 16:9 (ESV)

9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

The term “name” does not describe the word you would use to address God (be it “God,” “Lord,” “Father,” etc.), but it refers to his reputation. His judgments are “true and just” (Revelation 16:7), and that was to say that the Lord God stood by the reputation he had acquired from the beginning so that these judgments were inevitable and fair. In fact, that same reputation had already ensured that “fallen, fallen is Babylon,” a development all nations heard (Revelation 14:8). But arrogant rebels do not want to accept what is true and just; they persist in their rebellion, refuse to repent, and instead malign God’s reputation for justice and truth.