2014-07-04
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week at the behest of the Holy Spirit, I completed the two-devotion story of the last kings of Judah and their prophet, Jeremiah. And what a story it was! It was filled with the actions of Jehoiakim (609-598 BC) [2 K 18:25; 2 K 3: 34-35; 2 CH 35: 21], his unfortunate, short-lived son, Jehoiachin (Dec. 598- Mar. 597 BC) [2 K 31: 18], and the very last king of Judah as a divided kingdom, Zedekiah (597-586 BC) [2 K 4: 8-16,19; 2 CH 36: 9-10]. Jehoiakim and Zedekiah’s father, Josiah [2 K 21:23-23:30], had been a good king, who got rid of the idolatrous altars in Judah and ruled in a way which pleased God and made him beloved by his people. Moreover, he died in a valiant effort in the battle of Meggido, a hero in this part of the Battle of Carchemish (605 BC) [2 CH 35: 20-27]. But his son’s Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were evil and allowed idolatry, even within the walls of God’s temple in Jerusalem! [EZK 6: 9, 8: 6-10, and 10: 18-19]. It was then, that God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army to sack the temple and overtake Judah entirely in 586 BC [2 K 25: 6-7], the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity, which went on for the ensuing 70 years, just as Jeremiah had prophesied in JER 25: 11. Much was said about these kings in JER 37-44. Jeremiah had close ties with the Josiah’s family, since Zedekiah’s mother, Hamutal, was Jeremiah’s daughter [2 K 24: 13].
Today, I am led to discuss the names of the key people in this history, those that were changed, and their meanings. The meanings of Jewish names are important to people’s lives and were carefully chosen, as they are by observant Jewish parents even today. Jeremiah’s name, from the Hebrew, means “God is Exalted.” It’s spiritual connotation is “Seeker of Truth.” This is something that Jeremiah did his whole life-exalted God and sought the truth. LK 12: 31, “But seek His Kingdom, and these things [faith, truth] will be given to you as well.” Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch’s name, from the Hebrew, means “Blessed,” and its spiritual connotation is “Righteous.” JAS 1: 17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Gedaliah, the governor of Judah, who was assassinated during the time the king had ordered him to guard Jeremiah, also has a Hebrew name. It means “Yahweh is Great.” PS 77: 13-15, “Everything You do, O God, is holy. No God is as great as You, You are the God Who works miracles; You showed Your might among the nations. By Your power You saved Your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.” The prophet Daniel’s name, from the Hebrew, has an inherent meaning of “God is My Judge,” and a spiritual connotation of “Discerning.” That is so appropriate, as we know that he interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams during his service as a captive in the king’s court during the Babylonian Captivity. PS 119: 142, “Your righteousness is everlasting and Your law is true.” Remember Ishmael, who killed Gedaliah and ran away to the Ammonites. His name, in Hebrew, means “God Will Hear” with a spiritual connotation of “Blessed.” This man may have been blessed, but he chose to do evil. GN 16: 11-12, “The Angel of the Lord said to her [Hagar]: You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” A very common male name even today is John, Johanan in Hebrew. Johanan is the name of the general of the Judean army in the stories I’ve been writing about in the last two weeks. Johanan means “God is Graceous” with a spiritual connotation of “Strength of God.” It’s a great name for a general. PS 118: 14, “The Lord is my Strength and my Song; He has become my Salvation.”
Let’s recall some of the name changes that are key to covenants being made. It must be remembered that covenant partners share everything with other covenant partners, just as God’s agenda and His enemies become those of all His covenant partners. Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldies, a place where idolatry was practiced. God led him to Canaan, which became the Promised land. Abram became Abraham, which means “Father of Nations” with a spiritual connotation of “Founder,” and his wife, Sarai, became Sarah which means “Princess” and has a spiritual connotation of “Beloved Mother of Kings and Nations.” GN 12: 2, “I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous; and you will be a blessing to many others.” GN 17:15-16, “God also said to Abraham, ‘As for your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of people will come from her.’” In making these last two changes, God added the last letter of His name to the original ones, the Hebrew letter ה pronounced “hay.” Just as God made these changes, He began calling Himself, the God of Abraham, taking on Abraham’s name [GN 32: 42; EX 3: 6, 15-16; EX 4: 5; 1 K 18: 36; PS 47: 9; MT 22: 32; AC 3: 15]. Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, which, from the Greek, means “Rock” and has a spiritual connotation of “Powerful Faith.” MK 3: 16, “These are the twelve He appointed; Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter)…” MT 16: 18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the power of death shall not prevail against it.” And to think, this is the church to which we belong, and we are blessed to be under the Covenant of Grace!
PRAYER: O Lord, the richness of Your decision to call us to be Your covenant partners is beyond human imagination! You have named us and written our names where You will never forget them. IS 49: 15-16, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.” You have called us to faith in Your Son, adopting us into Your very own family. RO 8: 14-16, “Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba,’ ‘Father.’ The Spirit Himself testified with our spirit that we are God’s children.” There have been times when You changed a name at a key juncture in a servant’s rearing. This happened to Jacob, whose name originally meant “Deceiver,” when He struggled with You at Peniel, after crossing the ford at the Jabbok River [GN 32: 22-32]. You changed his name to Israel, which means “He Struggles With God.” GN 32: 30, “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’” You have Your loving hand on each life You create; You hope that each of us will believe in You and not disappoint You. Sadly many humans give in to the adversary and do leave You unhappy and disappointed. But we, Dearest Abba, offer You praise and thanks for all You are and all You do for us. We submit to You and ask for Your leadership in our lives. We aim to learn the lessons our history and You have for us. With utter love and devotion, we pray in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Such a rich relationship bestowed upon us by our Covenant Partner still has more richness in it. That’s why the Holy Spirit directs me to continue writing about it. We will look at some of the pertinent reconnaissance the Lord gives us from the NT, taking a look at analogies of the Lord’s redemptive work from Don Richardson’s book, Peace Child. In the meanwhile, I haven’t done my task if you are not like I am--in awe of the great gifts that faith in the Lord Jesus, our Covenant Partner, Yeshua, has given us. Even our very names have significance to our lives. Let me share the meaning of my own name, just to give an example. It’s Lynn, or Leah לֵאָה in Hebrew, and means “Clear Pool” with a spiritual connotation “Holy.” Sometimes you will hear a pastor tell you that Lynn means “One With Poor Eyesight,” an assertion based on the story of Jacob’s first wife, Leah, whom Laban (her father and Jacob’s uncle) fooled him into marrying [GN 29: 16-18, 23-30]. Well, the poor eyesight is physically accurate, but doesn’t get at the heart of why “Holy” was assigned to me. It was because from before I was born, the Lord had set me aside to have deep faith in Him, be a major challenge to Him in my early life, and then, to be His servant charged with the responsibility of ministry to each of you and others. The “Clear Pool” is a suggestion of my responsibility to convey God’s teaching and His attributes in accordance with 2 TIM 1: 13-14. It demands wisdom from God and understanding. PS 51: 6 and PS 119: 125 are my prayers in this matter. We can find real comfort in knowing each of our names is “engraved on the palms of His hands!” Let me end with PR 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Praise and thanks to the Lord forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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