Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
The question and what a question it is, “What’s in a name?” This question has been asked since names have been given.
The power of naming is no better described than when God brought things into existence by naming them. Genesis 1 begins “And God said ‘Let there be light” and there was light.” How did light know to be light? As far as I’m concerned it’s like Teflon; I don’t know how it sticks to the pan, I’m just glad it does. Light knew to be light because God spoke it into being. God knew what needed creating, it was named, and it was created.
The first time proper names were given was in Genesis 2. Early in the chapter, The Lord gives these names to the four rivers flowing out of
The next proper name was given to the first man created, Adam. In antiquity, names often emphasized an individual’s distinguishing characteristic. Names also memorialized the parents’ attitude toward the birth of the child named or an important political event at the time of birth.[1]
God it seems didn’t devote that much imagination to the matter of naming the first man since “Adam” means “Man” in Hebrew. Kind of disappointing, isn’t it?
Later in the second chapter of Genesis, the Lord gives the responsibility for naming to Adam saying, “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man (Adam) to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”
William Shakespeare is deservedly considered one of the greatest writers in the English language. He is renowned for both his playwriting and for his poetry, particularly his sonnets. His view on naming can be best expressed in this monologue from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name!
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.[2]
More recent cinematic arts offer other ideas about naming. In the movie “Road House,” nobody thought much of the character played by Patrick Swayze until he says his name,
On a lighter note, in the movie “Hot Shots,” Charlie Sheen’s character is named Topper Harley. Then after being drummed out of naval aviation, he lives with a Plains Indian tribe who name him “Fluffy Bunny Feet” after his choice of house shoe.
Renaming is not unusual in scripture. Many have been renamed, or renamed themselves.
The first renaming in Hebrew scripture is when Adam names the woman “Hawwah” or “Mother of All.” The Greeks called her “Eva” but only after first calling her “Zoey” which simply means “life.” Personally, I like calling the “Mother of All of the Living” “Life.” There’s a simple elegance to it. In English we call her Eve.
Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah when God made the covenant with Abraham to make him a great nation.
Some names made a statement concerning God.[3] After Jacob wrestles with God at Pineal, he is renamed
One Hebrew tradition is that the mother names the child. Jacob’s youngest son was named Ben-Oni by his dying mother Rachel. The New Living Translation defines Ben-Oni as “Son of my Sorrow.” Jacob breaks with tradition and promptly renames him Benjamin, “Son of my Right Hand.” Rachel used the ancient naming convention that memorialized her opinion of the birth; Jacob reframed that convention with an eye to the future instead of the present.
People claim authority over others by renaming them.[4] After he interprets Pharaoh’s dreams Joseph is renamed Zaphenath-paneah which means “God speaks and lives.” Pharaoh had the authority to rename Joseph since he was a slave and a prisoner in
In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon conquered
Because of an event in the book of Daniel and the song Louis Armstrong sang about it, we have come to know Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah by their Babylonian names rather than their Hebrew names. Oh, if you aren’t old enough to remember Louis Armstrong, these three were also immortalized in song by Sly and the Family Stone and again by The Beastie Boys. Their Babylonian names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
After the death of her husband and sons in the book of Ruth, Naomi renames herself Mara. The events of her life caused her to change her name from “pleasant” to “bitter.”
If you know someone’s name, or the name of a God, then you can summon it.[5] This is one of the reasons the ancients had so many different Gods, they prayed in the name of the God who influences events, hence a Sun God, a Rain God, Harvest God, and so on. In the book of Acts, Paul mentions that the Greeks took this to the extreme. The Greeks had a special statue for the God whom they do not know. So if a strange God comes to town, “Oh, that’s you down in the southwest corner of the Parthenon.”
Again the theme of having power over someone by knowing their name is found in popular culture. Knowing the name and exercising the power is the climactic event in Rumplestiltskin.
Knowing how to pronounce a God’s name so you can have power over that God is the reason why the Hebrews intentionally lost the pronunciation of the name of the Lord. You can’t swear a false oath in the Lord’s name if you don’t know how to say it. You can’t take the Lord’s name in vain if you don’t know how to say it.
An interesting fact about ancient Hebrew; while it was always spoken with vowels, but the vowels weren’t precisely written until after the year 500AD. Context was all important. The word with the consonants DBR is pronounced several ways. Depending on how the vowels are arranged, it can mean “He speaks,” or “Word,” or “pestilence.” Context was all important.
So since the earliest days of the Scribes, the four lettered name of the Lord was never spoken. Modern scholars have an idea, but no matter how well researched it may be; it is just that, an idea. Today, when the name of the Lord is written in Hebrew, the vowels which are written with it belong to the word Adonai, another one of the several Hebrew words for God. When the two are combined and spoken in English we get the word Jehovah. This is why today when Jews speak of the Name of the Lord they will often say “Hashem,” Hebrew for “The Name.”[6]
So what’s in a name? Oh so very much, even if the name is just “The Name” these handles represent us to the world.
In the case of Romeo and Juliet, the names are of two feuding families in
In the case of Adam and Eve, it is who they are in the most literal sense, a man and the mother of all.
For
The name of the Lord is who God is, the Great I AM and the great unpronounceable, irreproachable, unimpeachable Lord of all that is, all that was, and all that ever will be. The Lord whose name will not be used to do our will but “thy will be done.”
For Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Benjamin, Daniel, and Ruth their names are about not only who they are, but who they were or will become.
Names contain power. Speaking them invokes power.[7] In our baptism, we only use our first names, not our family names. In baptism, our family name becomes “Child of God” sharing life together as the family of God, sharing the blessing of God’s power.
Isaiah 7:10-16 is in the midst of a section where the Isaiah and King Ahaz discuss proper response to a political crisis. Isaiah tells the king to ask for a sign. The prophet invites the king to test the Lord. Ahaz either doesn’t want to play Isaiah’s game or he knows better than that, even if he is invited by the prophet.
Isaiah doesn’t press the issue; instead he shows the king the sign. Isaiah says that the Lord himself will give the king a sign. He declares a young woman (per the Hebrew Scriptures) who is a virgin (per the Greek version of the Old Testament); she will give birth to a child and name him “Immanuel[8], God with us.” He declares that he will eat curd and honey.
What’s odd about this passage is that it has been translated into English in two different verb forms. In the New International Version and most other translations, the way the verb is rendered says that the woman will be with child. In the New Revised Standard Version it is rendered she is with child. One says “will be” and the other says “is.” One says this will happen in the future and the other says it is happening now.
What is at stake here is very important to King Ahaz. If the child is coming in the future, especially a distant future described in verse 16, Ahaz doesn’t have to worry about this much. If it’s in the distant future, that’s someone else’s problem.
On the other hand, if the woman is with child and if he is born in the near future and he is called Immanuel, this is his problem. The child will be one from the poorest in the society; this is reflected in his diet of curds and honey. He will be poor and without power. His mother will be young and if a virgin there will be no father in the picture so he will be condemned to a life of misery. Still, with all of these disadvantages, he will be called “Immanuel.” He will be called “God is with us.”
The New Interpreter’s Bible says that the identity of the child in Isaiah is less important than the meaning of his name.[9] The young mother has the faith to call her son Immanuel even given the crisis of living under the thumb of King Ahaz. This makes the woman courageous and defiant. She does not wait for a distant future to declare God is with us, she makes that claim during the most pitiful of days for the nation of
Our reading from Matthew takes this reference and turbo charges it. Joseph has just discovered that his betrothed Mary was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. (Which man here would not follow this with the words “likely story”?) But just as he is about to dismiss her from his life quietly, the angel of the Lord appeared and said, “Fear not, and take her as your wife because the word of her pending birth is true.” This unlikely story is the God’s truth.
Then they are told they will name their son Jesus. Actually, Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua[10] which means “He is salvation.” As lofty a name as this is, in our Lord’s time the name Joshua or Jesus was as common as Michael or Jacob[11] or, well, Jesus. It wasn’t such an uncommon name in its time. But then, when the son is born he will be named Jesus the people will call him “God with us.”
It is the people who will see that he is salvation. It is the people who will say that God is truly with us today. God is with us not in some transcendent new agey way. He will physically be in the muck with his people. God will be around us in a very real and very personal way. He is salvation and He is with us. God is salvation and God walks among us. He is God and he is with us.
The generalization of Isaiah is transformed into the specific presence of God at the birth of a son. He is salvation and he is with us. What’s in a name? The Lord our God, Jesus of Nazareth, he is salvation and he is with us.
The woman in Isaiah calls her son Immanuel because even in the horrors of her time, even in the conquest of the nation because God is with God’s own people. While Joseph will call the Son “Savior” we will also call him “God with us” because of his physical presence. In our time, we say that Jesus is the Emmanuel as we wait for his coming on Christmas Day and his ultimate coming in victory.
But let’s not wait; let us now be as bold as the young virgin woman of Isaiah’s time. Let us see and show God is with us. Let us find God with us and God around us. Let us be the light that God speaks and shine the light of Christ in a world that is so very dark. This way, regardless of our age we too become like the child of Isaiah’s prophecy. We can never be the Emmanuel, but knowing God is with us, we share the blessing of God’s power in the life of the world.
[1] Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Volume 3, Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann Editors. Translated by Mark E. Biddle.
[2] Shakespeare, William, Romeo and Juliet, Act II Scene 2.
[3] Ibid.
[4] New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Volume 4, page 218
[5] Theological Lexicon, Ibid. 1351
[6] New Interpreter’s Dictionary, Ibid., page 219
[7] Ibid, page 219
[8] Note on using the spelling of Immanuel or Emmanuel: When referring to the Isaiah passage I used the Old Testament spelling of “Immanuel.” When referring to Jesus or the Matthew passage, I used the New Testament spelling “Emmanuel.”
[9] New Inerpreter’s Dictionary, page 218
[10] Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon of the Old Testament, page 221. Strong’s Concordance numbers 3091 and 3442
[11] These names were taken from the list of Most Common Male Baby Names as of May 2010, http://baby-names.familyeducation.com/topnames/boys/, retrieved December 18, 2010.
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