{"id":124,"date":"2012-01-14T06:52:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T14:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?page_id=124"},"modified":"2012-01-14T07:13:41","modified_gmt":"2012-01-14T15:13:41","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?page_id=124","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve read “The Old Testament Connection<\/a>” then you might remember that Israel was the ancestor of the Israelites. \u00a0You might also remember that his name was originally Jacob. \u00a0Also in that “Did You Know?” article we talked about Abraham. \u00a0In a post for the book of Galatians I referred to the story in Genesis 16 where Abraham has a child with a servant of his wife. \u00a0In “The Old Testament Connection<\/a>” I refer to them as Abraham and Sarah but in Genesis 16 you might have noticed that the names are Abram and Sarai. \u00a0What’s going on? \u00a0Well in Hebrew (which is the language that the Old Testament is mostly written in) name have meaning. \u00a0In this example Abram means “exalted father”. \u00a0Sarai means “princess”. \u00a0Hagar’s name is a little uncertain but may mean “flight” (like “to flee”). \u00a0Ishmael means “God hears”. \u00a0All of theses name really fit the circumstances of the story. \u00a0Make no mistake however, these are real people who lived real lives and these were there real names. \u00a0Their names did not make them who they were but they may have been inspired by God who could see the future and know where these lives were headed. \u00a0In Genesis 17, after Abram and Sarai have taken matters into their own hands to try to make a family, God comes to Abram and reminds him of the promise from Genesis 12 and\u00a0Genesis 15. \u00a0God will give Abram a child, in fact he will make a very large group of people, a nation, from the promised child. \u00a0And that child will come from Sarai. \u00a0In Genesis 17:5 God then changes Arbam’s name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude”. \u00a0His name would be a constant reminder of God’s promise and when Sarai had Isaac Abraham would see the power of God as He started to fulfill the promise. \u00a0In fact Isaac’s name would be a constant reminder of the power of God. \u00a0If you read further in the story in Genesis 17 you will see Abraham’s reaction to the fact that the promise would be fulfilled through Sarai. \u00a0God changes Sarai’s (“princess”) name to Sarah (“noble woman” or “queen”). \u00a0A very slight difference that may carry the idea of motherhood in it. \u00a0When God tells Abraham this falls on his face laughing, a real lol moment. \u00a0Then Abraham says to God, “You probably want to just use Ishmael, Sarah is 90 and I’m 100 do you really think we are going to have \u00a0a child?” \u00a0God’s response is, “Nope, it’s Sarah’s kid. \u00a0By the way you will name him Isaac.” \u00a0Isaac which means “he laughs”. \u00a0Again a reminder of the situation and God’s power. \u00a0What about Jacob\/Israel. \u00a0Jacob was a twin and when he was born he came out behind his brother, Esau, holding onto his heel. \u00a0He was given the name Jacob which means “heel grabber” or “supplanter”. \u00a0A supplanter is some one who replaces someone else, takes their place. \u00a0Maybe the connection is like tripping someone in a race to get ahead of then, you grab their heel and they fall and you pass by. \u00a0In the story Jacob steals Esau’s position as the firstborn and therefore leader of the family. \u00a0Jacob was always taking matters into his own hands, doing it his way. \u00a0In Genesis 32 he is returning from an extended time away from his home country. \u00a0He had stolen Esau’s right to be the head of the family and Esau was angry, so Jacob ran a way. \u00a0While away he married, twice, and started having children. \u00a0He also had become somewhat rich. \u00a0Now he was returning home, but he feared his brother. \u00a0The day before he is to meet his brother he make a big plan to try to make Esau \u00a0not be angry. \u00a0He will sends lots of gifts ahead of his arrival. \u00a0His servants will go first, then two servants of his wives with the children he had had by them, then his least favorite wife, Leah, and her children, and las of all his favorite wife, Rachel and her one son Joseph. \u00a0The night before Jacob is alone and an angel appears to him with whom he wrestles, all night. \u00a0At the end of the match the angel messes up his hip joint leaving him with a permanent limp. \u00a0the angel changes his name to Israel, “God wins”. \u00a0Jacob the schemer rally is under God’s control. \u00a0So what’s in a name? \u00a0Sometimes nothing, but often in the Bible names were used as reminders of the power and faithfulness of God. \u00a0Many Bibles have footnotes telling you the meaning of names. \u00a0If you see a little letter or number in the Bible by a name look around to see if there is a translation of it. \u00a0Or you might be able to Google the name for a translation. \u00a0Take the time and you might just be reminded a little better of the power and faithfulness of God too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve read “The Old Testament Connection” then you might remember that Israel was the ancestor of the Israelites. \u00a0You might also remember that his name was originally Jacob. \u00a0Also in that “Did You Know?” article we talked about Abraham. \u00a0In a post for the book of Galatians I referred to the story in Genesis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":50,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-124","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions\/130"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}