Christmas Moments - #8 Christmas Names

Christmas names today on this bonus feature podcast for my wonderful, loyal—I'm so grateful for you for listening to these Christian moment podcasts I'm putting out this Christmas.

And this one's special because it never went on the air. It was just something God gave me recently, and I thought this would make a really cool bonus Christmas moments podcast. Christmas names. Like, I just started to think about all the names of the characters of Christmas and how God, you know, chose those, enabled those, how it worked in each individual case, and why that was so significant. So, the characters that we're going to talk about that are obviously in this play, if you were to look at Luke chapter 1 and chapter 2, are John, obviously being John the Baptist, who was named specifically, and Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Zachariah, Elizabeth, Gabriel.

So, if we just go into those names for a minute—I had some really fun. I looked at them not only from a standpoint of, you know, what it sounds like in English, but what it is in Hebrew, and what that meant in Hebrew originally. And also, who were those characters that God was remembering as he remembered—very put his signature on this event. So, to begin with, we have John, and I think if you pronounce that in Hebrew, it would be Yachten. And I originally thought, you know, why did John the Baptist get the name John? And I thought perhaps it would be because David's best friend was John, or, you know, I know that the word means God is gracious in Hebrew, but why did he do that kind of specifically? It's interesting that it's not Jonathan, like would be David's friend, but it's Yaconan, you know, it's got a different set of letters to it than Jonathan, and there's a really neat version of the Bible called the Hebrew Names Version, where you get that.

And so, you know, when you look at that, from a standpoint of 2 Kings 25, 1, where you find another character in the Bible with that same name, he was a warrior. But he was also gracious. And when you think about, you know, when you think of somebody gracious, I don't naturally just think of John the Baptist like you brood of vipers. But in a way, how gracious could it be that God gives us information that we can get on the right path, and that he would use John to bring the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

I mean, wouldn't that be one of my most favorite things to do this Christmas? And of course, the next and obviously focal name of the entire story is Jesus, which you may have heard many times people refer to in Hebrew as Yeshua. And interestingly, the word is almost synonymous with salvation, and so as I dived into that particular name, I expect it to be, you know, essentially the version of Joshua, but Joshua's not spelled like Yeshua.

And so there's an extra letter in there that would be significant. So Yeshua, actually, you'll find him in the Bible in a different couple places, but the main Yeshua was yet to come. And when I look at those letters in Hebrew, it's like a many-faceted diamond. And really, where you kind of see it is at the burning bush. And you might go check that out in Exodus, where what Moses saw was not just a burning bush, but he saw, right, the angel of the Lord in that burning bush. And the angel of the Lord, you may know in Hebrew, is often, you know, a picture of Jesus. So when you look at those letters that mean Yeshua, you find this little spark of God and then fire.

And so when you see this burning bush and you see fire, it's kind of a neat thing that so often fire is used to make things pure, and Jesus does that in so many ways. Well, moving down, we have Mary, which you may know in Hebrew as Miriam, which actually means rebellion or a storm of water. It was clearly taken from Moses' sister. And you may know that Moses' sister had what they considered to be Miriam's well, which was the stone that followed them in the desert that she would sing to, according to Hebrew tradition, in order to bring water. Well, do you think it was any accident that here was this prophetess that would sing to God and he remembered by making Mary, you know, that name, which, by the way, is today the most popular name in all the world and has been for generations and generations, as God certainly was remembering his prophetess, but also the Mary that would be the first to see Jesus and his resurrection. And there are so many cool things that have to do with Mary. But when you look at the letters in Hebrew, it clearly is a picture of water, because water is Miriam. I believe it's pronounced in Hebrew, but it's essentially just all that would be water is in that picture. And as you know, she would bring forth the living water.

So it's a beautiful thing and just a devotion all its own. Next we have Joseph, which I hadn't really ever thought about the fact that Joseph was named Joseph as a remembrance of the Joseph that was, you know, the eleventh son of Jacob. And you might remember that his mother, Rachel, named him Joseph because she wanted another son, and so his name actually means to give. And she was asking God, as she named Joseph, to give her another son, which, you know, we got Benjamin, you know, God answered that prayer. But then, you know, Joseph would be such a giver. When you think about all the people that just were able to survive during the horrible famine of the original Joseph's life, well, how much did this Joseph bring to all of us through his protection and what he gave to Jesus?

So there's some thoughts on Joseph. Zechariah was John the Baptist's father, and not coincidentally at all, you know, his name came from the Zechariah, the prophet that that was. But I love what his name means, and it does through the letters, and it just means God remembers. And so he remembered that this particular Zechariah was very much anxious to have a child, and he was remembering the Zechariah, that there's several Zechariahs in the Bible, and so he's remembering all those people as he brings us together.

And there's so much about what he did here at Christmas that was showing that God remembered Miriam, God remembered, you know, all these different characters as he brings us all together. Now, one of my favorite names, I discovered this, that I wonder if you've ever heard this, it's just absolutely beautiful, is Elizabeth. Well, Elizabeth, actually in Hebrew, might be Elisheva. She, her name means God has sworn, isn't that cool?

Like, that, you know, the spirit of Elijah will come to, you know, turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. In other words, what a cool thing that her name goes so well with Zechariah, which means God remembers. But then the other really, really beautiful thing that just blows me away is that she was, you know, very much listed in the genealogy as one of, you know, the tribe of Aaron. Well, not only was she of the tribe of Aaron, she had Aaron's wife's name. That name, in Hebrew, Elizabeth, was the name of Aaron's wife. And you may know that in Hebrew tradition, Aaron was super-duper, I mean, of all his gifts, he was so good at helping people through their marriages, and because of that, Aaron was one of the most common names, as God was remembering.

So in Aaron's time, because after he would straighten out their marriages, or help them help God straighten them out their marriages, he was a light in that, and then his name means light, then they would name their first child Aaron. Well, think what a role that Elizabeth played in that, or the Elisheva of, that was actually Aaron's wife, with Aaron's name being bringer of the light, and Elisheva means God has sworn, and so it's just a beautiful picture of how God remembered all that. And just to show you the validity of the book of Daniel, which I've heard people question at times, the next character, and the last one we'll talk about today, is Gabriel. Now Gabriel, of course, that name means mighty warrior, and you might know that Gabriel is the same name of Daniel's angel, you know, in Daniel chapter 7, and I was thinking about that as a Christmas devotional, that when Daniel saw Gabriel, who must be bad to the bone, you know, he like passed out, fell down, he was, you know, like, oh my gosh, and of course you see Gabriel tell Mary not to be afraid, but at least Mary didn't go down for the count, you know, so when Mary was getting this message, she didn't get it from a little, you know, cherub-like guy that was, hey, good news, Mary, you're gonna have a bit, uh-uh, uh-uh, no. I mean, Gabriel himself, this mighty, mighty warrior that would probably be fighting out phenomenal, you know, evil spirits in order to get down there to give Mary this message, he shows up, and wow. I mean, it was like a double wow, and it really gives validity to really the whole story, as we think that, you know, God remembered all these different characters, like if you see, there's stuff there from Genesis, there's stuff there from Exodus, there's stuff from Kings, there's stuff from Chronicles, there's stuff from the Book of Daniel, Zachariah, and even Malachi. Right to the end of the Old Testament is all remembered in all these characters that make for a very rich Christmas for me as I ponder those. I think this is so phenomenal in this particular season where we're dealing with COVID and politics and all this different stuff. God remembers all of our names, and he remembers all the things that are involved in our life, and he is painting a picture that is beyond magnificent, and that magnificence of magnifying God to all he is is one of the neat things we get to do at Christmas. I'm so grateful I get to share all this with you, my faithful Christian Car Guy podcast listeners, which I would ask you to consider, you know, rating the podcast and sharing it with other people, as clearly I'm so grateful that God gives me this stuff to share, and now he's given it to you to also share, whether that's by sharing this podcast or sharing it in your own words as a part of your normal conversation. Hit Christmas dinner or whenever you're by a friend that you see could use some hope. God bless and have a merry Christmas.