Bible Studies

All About Names

by Terry Barlow
12/29/14
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   How fitting that the prophet Daniel's name should be a prayer (Beltshazzar= praying for protection of the king)) speaking to his destiny as prophet and prayer warrior. How beautiful too if our new names in heaven were to be prayers and praises speaking to our own destinies as worshippers of our glorious God and King.!

  It is pertinent that in Jewish law and custom the child received its name on the 8th day of its life.  Eight is the number of new beginnings, and on the 8th day the Jewish male babies were circumcised. (when the blood begins to coagulate, modern medical science learned!) True identity is all bound up with circumcision, even spiritual identity and the inner circumcision of the heart, to cut away its hardness and sensitize to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

  Part of our true identities is being known by the message we bring. Check it out and see; at least three of the so-called Old Testament "minor prophets" (no prophet of God is really "minor") located just before and including Zechariah began preaching the literal meanings of their names! (Micah whose name means "Who Is Like Yahweh" in his seventh chapter; Habakkuk, whose name means "One Who Clings" clinging to God no matter what at the end of his third chapter; and Zechariah, whose name means "Yahweh remembers," accentuating how Yahweh remembers His covenant throughout his book, to name only a few examples)

 Then, too,  there are numerous examples in Scripture of name changes that corresponded with changes in character like:  Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of multitudes), Jacob (grabber) to Israel (prince with God),  and Saul (sought after) to apostle Paul (small), and many of these changes imply the fruition of a humbling process.

  But it has been truly said that we don't find who we are by seeking who we are, we find it by forgetting ourselves and seeking God with all our hearts!