And the only place it was to be found - no one saw it, because it was hidden! It was hidden in the Holiest of Holies - in the furthermost part of the Tabernacle, where the glory of God dwelt. When he says: I'll give him 'hidden manna' - everyone who was listening understood what that meant. Oh man, hidden manna! That means He will take us into the very throne room of God, and we will have fellowship, and will be fed and nourished supernaturally there. This is a promise... and it's a promise to overcomers! Notice then, he's using different pictures to describe an important promise.
Here's another promise also to Pergamon and this is the promise of a 'white stone', in Revelation 2:17. It's virtually the same verse again. He says:
"I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except him who receives it."
Again, to us that has little reality. You look at it, and it doesn't have any meaning. But the people there knew exactly what it was; we've got to ask the questions then: what does the white stone refer to; and what does it mean to have a new name written on it? "I'll give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, and no one knows it except the one who receives it". This is a secret! What he's going to get... it's got an element which is open, the white stone; and there's a part of it which is secret - the name that's written on it. It's a new name!
So what's the white stone? Well, to the people who were listening to this, they were aware that there were competitions. There were the gladiators and the competitions and so on. Anyone who won a great victory in the races, or a great victory in the competitions, or a great victory in the games or the battles - they were given a white stone. Probably the best thing you'd say is: they got an Olympic medal. You've all seen an Olympic medal - the guy gets the gold! You want to go for gold! When you go for gold, you're put up on a dais, the medal's put on, they sing the national anthem... and it's a very emotional, moving thing. Here's a thought: Why is it when, in New Zealand, our country wins a gold medal, and you see them on the dais, and our national anthem's sung... why does it stir something in our heart? What is it in our heart? I mean just a person won a gold medal, what the heck?
And yet when you watch it and hear it there's an emotion stirs in us, because deep in our spirit there is a knowledge of a day to come when you will stand on a dais and be given the white stone, that will acknowledge what you have done. It was given as an award of honour; and people who had the white stone were given privileged access to special events, and to special meals. If you had won a white stone, or won an Olympic medal - if I use that language, if you'd won your Olympic medal - then everyone knows who you are! Everyone wants to have their picture taken with you! Everyone wants to connect with you; and the access, or 'having the stone' gave them access to games. It gave them access to festivities, all kinds of things.
That word 'white stone' - the 'white' means to 'shine', or 'glisten', or to be brilliant white. Probably, the different stones will be different degrees of honour. Even if you look now at stones, you see different sized stones, and different quality of diamonds. I can tell a good diamond - You can tell it! Its colour... its sparkle... you can see it! So clearly, the stones themselves will acknowledge - they're a form of honour; and it says: He has a 'new name' written on it. What does it mean, that God's written a new name on the stone? Firstly again, you must ask: the 'new name' - what does a 'name' mean? Then when you look at what a 'name' means, then you can go back and then work what a 'new name' might mean.
Your name is the means by which you're identified. Steve, there's Steve. There's Dave. There's Josephine and so on. We call your name, Steve, you'll know who we called. Everyone knows who we called. You're identified by your name. In the Bible, names always signify the character of a person, or something to do with their destiny - both for good and for bad! There was a Nahash - that meant: 'the serpent'! He was an Ammonite, who came against the people of God - so names meant something. There was Jephthah, the one that 'breaks through'. So frequently names meant their character, what they're like - Peter, the 'rock'; or their destiny - what they were called to do. Names then, have a meaning.