Why is God going to give us a white stone with a new name (Revelation 2:17)?

But not only will He give the hidden manna, but also “I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives (it).” What is to be understood by the white stone and secret name written thereon? A “white stone” was largely employed in the social life and judicial customs of the ancients. Days of festivity were noted by a white stone; days of calamity by a black stone. A host’s appreciation of a special guest was indicated by a white stone with a name or message written on it. A white stone meant acquittal; a black stone condemnation in the courts of justice. Here the overcomer is promised a white stone and a new name written thereon, which none knows save the happy recipient. It is the expression of the Lord’s personal delight in each one of the conquering band. It is by no means a public reward. There are common and special blessings now; there will be public and individual joys then. The Lord’s approbation of, and special delight in, each one of the triumphant company will be answer enough to the rejection and scorn heaped upon the faithful witness now. The new name on the stone, alone known to the overcomer, signifies Christ, then known in a special and peculiar way to each one, and that surely is reward beyond all price and beyond all telling. It is a secret communication of love and intelligence between Christ and the overcomer, a joy which none can share, a reserved token of appreciative love. In the glory the hidden manna is the expression of our appreciation of Christ in His humiliation; while the white stone equally sets forth His appreciation in us as overcomers. His and our individual path here are the points respectively set forth in the glory by the symbols of the “manna” and the “stone.”

302 The manna signifies the Son of God become incarnate to give life to our souls, His entering in humiliation into all our circumstances, and is the provision for the daily walk through the wilderness: for we find the manna spoken of in connection with Jesus as the living bread sent down from heaven. "This is the true bread which cometh down from heaven," John 6. But what then is the hidden manna? The manna for Israel was spread around the camp; and they were to gather it daily for their food. And so likewise is Christ to be the daily provision of the soul while in this wilderness world; but this is not the hidden manna. There was to be a golden pot of manna laid up before God, and when the Israelites had got into the land, they were to have the memorial of what they had enjoyed in the wilderness. This hidden manna is the remembrance of a suffering Christ down here - the memory of what Christ has been in the wilderness, as a man, an humbled, suffering man, and who is God's eternal delight in heaven; and in our eternal state, he that has overcome, he that has been faithful in separation with Christ from the world, will have the everlasting enjoyment of fellowship with God in His delight in a once humbled Christ - the same kind of delight, although in a different measure. If we are walking faithfully with a rejected Christ, instead of letting Balaam into our hearts, we shall enjoy Christ thus down here in spirit; but we cannot enjoy Christ in our souls, if we are mixed up with ungodliness in the world: if we pretend to it, then it becomes Nicolaitanism. But in proportion as we get and apprehend the secret of what Christ was in the world, in our souls, shall we feed upon Him; but this cannot be, if we are walking in the spirit of the world. Even the presentation of Christ in the gospels we cannot enjoy, unless it is as food for the soul. A man may say that truth is very beautiful; but if it only feeds the imagination, it does him no good. God did not give His Son to suffer down here, and then to be played with, but to feed upon.

303 The "white stone" gives the general idea of a vote in favour of any one; it is the secret mark of approbation from one to another. There are public joys in heaven common to all, thousands and thousands of voices in communion and praise, echoing the song of praise. And there are joys we share in Christ together here; but He must have our individual affections as well as our common affections. My own peculiar joy in Christ you can never know, neither can I ever taste yours; and this is true of the highest affections. "A new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." That name would have no meaning for anybody else but him to whom it is given. Christ reveals Himself to the soul in such sort that a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy. Individual joy, personal communion, is distinct from, though it enhances, the universal joy; and that individual joy which we know down here will never be interrupted. This promise, as do all those to the churches, relates to the future time of heavenly blessing; but it is also the source of joy and strength now. The Spirit of God makes us anticipate the day. We may have now in spirit this "white stone" from Christ, this secret expression of His grace and love, which others cannot have for me, neither can I have it for them. How this makes this "white stone" worth everything else! What a secret source of strength it is, even though all the world think me wrong, if I have the white stone of Christ's approbation, acquired in following the word, but known in the heart! But, I say again, I must judge all by the word, that sword of His mouth that disarms and purges all the workings of Balaam. Then I do not mind - let the world talk about things as it pleases, Christ has talked to me, and in the coming day of glory will own all He has said to me.

The teachers of the doctrine of Balaam in Pergamos taught Christians to eat things sacrificed to idols, but to the overcomer of this evil the Lord promises the hidden manna for his food. This would remind us of the pot of manna that was laid up in the ark as a witness and memorial of God's faithfulness in giving Israel manna for forty years in the wilderness. The manna was Christ in His walk down here in humiliation in wilderness circumstances. The hidden manna is Christ in heaven, hidden from the eyes of men, but treasured by the Father. As we behold Him there by faith, we are reminded of what He has been down here, tempted and tried in all points as we are, but victorious over all. Recalling Him thus to mind, we feed upon Him and are sustained and strengthened in secret communion. Christ the great Overcomer is the food for the child of God, and as he feeds upon Him strength is gained for overcoming and he too becomes an overcomer.

If we think of the hidden manna as that which the overcomer will be given in heaven, it would tell us of how wilderness experiences of feeding on Christ down here will bloom afresh in glory. There we will enjoy anew all that Christ has meant to us in this wilderness life, how He sustained us as the manna for our souls.

The Lord also promises the overcomer a white stone with a new name written thereon. A white stone was used in the social life and judicial customs of the ancients. Days of festivity were noted by a white stone and a host's appreciation of a special guest was indicated by a white stone with a name or message written on it. A white stone meant acquittal in the courts and a black stone, condemnation. Voters would also indicate on a white stone the name of the candidate they approved of and put it into an urn. This promise of the Lord thus indicates His personal delight and approbation of each individual overcomer. It is a precious, secret token of His approval, a secret between Himself and the faithful heart, for no one knows the name written on the stone but the recipient. What an encouragement for the overcomer who incurs the disfavour and opposition of those who tolerate evil. May we seek to be overcomers for Christ in every evil day.

There is another promise here, the promise of the white stone, and it speaks to us clearly also of the time when we shall be with Him, and of that which speaks of the intimacy in which we shall be with Him also. The white stone was that which was put into the voter's urn with the name of the candidate approved upon it; and the white stone here speaks of such approval, but the approval is on His part. In the manna we see the appreciation of Christ by the saint, but in the white stone the appreciation of the saint by Christ. It is His approbation of the overcomer that is emphasized here, and the new name written on the stone is something between Him and the individual alone. "No one knoweth it but he that receiveth it." A "name" is in Scripture not the mere distinguishing of one individual from another. It is always significant. How significant is Christ's own name! He, too, has a new name which He speaks of later on. But if names are thus significant, they are so as really characterizing the person who is named. Here, therefore, the name must characterize that which Christ recognizes in the overcomer, recognizes and appreciates, recognizes as a tie between the overcomer and Himself; as a secret, as it were, of love which can be enjoyed together. What an enjoyment to have His approbation thus! And how brightly the individuality comes out here, forced, one may say, upon His people in a day of departure such as we have before us now, but none the less dear to Him when in faith we accept it, and learn day by day better to walk our individual path under His eye, as if there were no other. How clearly we see in all this that that expression with which His word to Pergamos begins, and which some think is such a hopeless enigma to discover meaning in it, is indeed the very thing that gives character to all here. It is the Church dwelling where Satan's throne is — an evil which we may not realize by becoming so familiar with it; which opens wide the door for the followers of Balaam; with seekers of their own things instead of the things of Christ; with the idolatry which the spirit of covetousness itself is and leads to, and with all else as laxity connected with this. Yet God's way is ever a way of peace and encouragement, and the hidden manna and white stone face thus the overcomer in just such a scene as this.

There will be found some who overcome in this state of things, and the promise to them makes reference first, to the Old Testament, and then to a custom common in those days. The hidden manna was that deposited in the ark and so hidden from human eyes. It was typical of the graces of the humbled Christ, so beautiful in the Divine estimation but hidden from the eyes of men. The overcomer should feed upon, and thus have communion in, that which is the very delight of God, whereas communion with the world was becoming characteristic of the church in Pergamos. The white stone was given in those days as a token of acquittal. The overcomer should have not only this, but in it a new name, known only to himself and the One who gave it; a token therefore that the Lord owned them as His, in view of communion with Himself. So we may say that the overcomer is promised communion with both the Father and the Son.

Further, the Lord can say, "I will give him a white stone." This appears to be a figure drawn from the voter's urn, in which a white stone was put when approving a candidate, or a black stone when disapproving. As a figure it carries the thought of the Lord giving the overcomer the sweet sense of His approval. The overcomer may indeed meet the disapproval of man as he stands against the unholy alliance of the Church and the world; nevertheless, he will be cheered with the thought of the Lord's approval as set forth in the white stone.

Moreover, in the stone there is a new name written. Names in Scripture are not used simply to distinguish one person from another, but to set forth the individual character of a person. Does not the new name indicate the character which Christ sees and appreciates in the individual to whom He gives a new name. The world may defame, and seek to impute evil motives to the overcomer who refuses to go with the crowd to do evil. The Lord, however, gives the overcomer the secret joy of realizing that his true character is known and valued by Himself.

Briefly to consider now, however, the second part of the promise — the "white stone": —

The two parts of the promise are inseparably connected with one another. The appreciation of Christ by the soul is the necessary basis of His answering approbation. The white stone speaks, as has been said, of this approbation. It was the token of approval, dropped by voters into the urn of old, with the name of the candidate approved upon it. But the name here is a new name, known only by Him who gives and by him who receives it.

The name, in Scripture, is always significant and descriptive of the one who bears it. To know God's name is just to know what He is, to know His character; and the new name here speaks of the character for Christ of him upon whom it is conferred, some character which He approves. It is a peculiar link between the Lord and the one approved, a peculiar something that we are for Him.

Another testimony gives what is more personal. For all we have spoken of is common to all saints. We shall have a white stone; that is, the perfectly approving testimony of the Lord; and on it a name written, which no man knew but he who received it. That is a joy and communion and personal knowledge of the Lord, which was for him alone who had it, between his soul and Christ.

The "white stone" seems to mark the individual approbation of Christ; the "new name," peculiar intercourse between Christ and the individual, different from that which all shall share alike, different from the public joy. There is a public joy. All saints will together enjoy the comforts of Christ's love, will enter into the "joy of their Lord," and with one heart and one voice sound His praise. There will also be joy in seeing the fruit of our labours; as it is said, "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" And again, there will be another joy in seeing the company of the redeemed, all according to Christ's heart, in holiness and glory. But besides this public joy there will be Christ's peculiar, private, individual recognition and approval - the "white stone," and the "new name, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it."

The overcomer is promised to feast on "the hidden manna;" this may be the unrevealed glory and beauty of Christ, the Sustainer of His people. The "white stone" may teach us that he is to be publicly and specially honoured before men. He is also to have a "new name, which no one knoweth saving he which receiveth it." Jacob had a new name — "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Whoever knew the depth and meaning of this new name like Jacob, the supplanter, who received it?