Monday, January 25, 2010

What's in a Name?

Who does not know the story of Daniel in the lion's den? Or who has not heard about Daniel's three friends who wouldn't bow down to the golden image Nebuchadnezzar set up on the plain of Dura? Who does not know that Babylonian mathematics were to the base "6" rather than ours to the base "10?" Who does not know the dimensions of Nebuchadnezzar's image was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits in width [Daniel 3:1]? It had to have depth, so perhaps that too was 6 cubits which would render the dimensions something like 6, 6, 60. Hmmmm. Isn't that an interesting sequence of numbers. But I digress.
The Hebrew names of these four young men were these:
Daniel God is my Judge
Hananiah God has favored
Mishael Who is what God is
Azariah Jehovah has helped
There is a sermon in here and we are going to try to find it. When these young men were put through their intensive "retraining" to render them Babylonian rather than Hebrew worshippers of the true God, they refused to eat unclean meats and pollute their bodies and minds with fermented wine. Ashpenaz, the chief of eunichs, found "...favor and goodwill..." in the young men [Daniel 1:9]. Before revealing and interpreting the king's dream Daniel said to him that "..there is a God in heaven..." [Daniel 2:28]. Daniel was delivered from the lion's den because God found him blameless and he went on to witness as an officer in the courts of Medo-Persia after the fall of Babylon. Kings Nebuchadnezzar [Daniel 4:37] and Darius [Daniel 6:25-27] gave testimony of the greatness of God. Jehovah was helping these young men throughout their lives as political trophy's of the siege on Jerusalem. He never left them or forsook them.
The stories in Daniel are found in the names of these men: God has favored. Who is what God is? God is my (our) Judge, (and) Jehovah has helped. And He who is the only One and True God continues to favor His people whose "names" give praise to Him. He daily helps us and we are longing for Him to judge us and to blot out and forget our transgressions.
What does your name (literally, or by reputation) say about God?
Blessings. e.c.

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