What's in a Name?

What’s in a Name?

“And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

Names are special and given for specific purposes!

   Take the name given to the newborn son of Mary. God told Joseph to name him Jesus. In the Hebrew it is the name YESHUA, which means “salvation.”  Jesus emphasized this purpose on more than one occasion during his earthly sojourn. He responded to Zacchaeus’s promise to give half of his wealth to the poor, and four times as much to the people he might have overcharged in taxes by saying, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. ‘And I, the son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost.” (Luke 19:10 NLT)

   The prophet Isaiah gave the newborn child another name: “All right then, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7:14 NLT).

   Immanuel is certainly a special name! The meaning behind the name Immanuel (God with us) has been a source of hope to people from ages past clear up to the present time. God with us not only signifies the eternal presence of God among us, but assures us that God is fully in control of all things including our world and our life.

   Parents down through the ages have given their children Biblical names. Names that stand for righteousness, integrity, and truth. I think it is safe to say that there is not a name in the Bible that has not been used by someone.

   The Puritans made particular use of Bible names to mark their children as differed from the godless masses. They even used strange names like “patience, desire, resolved, love, purity, joy, and praise-God.” 

   What was behind the name your parents gave to you?

Prayer: Dear Lord, there is no other name under heaven more special than JESUS.