So, my grand thoughts on this blog are still, as many grand things, up in the air. Perhaps the upcoming quiet weekend will provide time for contemplation. In the meantime, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I offer this thought.
In the Old Testament, names are very significant things. In even a casual reading, it seems like the people named everything. Sometimes they got so into it they gave the same thing two names, as in Exodus 17:7. And they weren't random names – they were names with meaning, meant as a way to remember and proclaim an important message or event. This emphasis on naming even applied to people. Sometimes, as in Genesis 29 and 30, the names are human-given, with typical human motives. Other times, as in Isaiah 7:14, the name is God-given, and comes with a message (this is also the case with John the Baptist and Jesus in the New Testament).
This thinking relates back to the poor prophet who sparked this thought, Hosea. If you're not familiar with him, he's got his own short book in the Old Testament. The book's theme is a metaphor of marriage and adultery for the relationship between God and Israel. And, to make it clear, God gave them an object lesson in poor Hosea's family life. That part of the story isn't the point here, although if you're not familiar with it you might want to take a look. Rather, the part of interest is in chapter 1, from verse 3 to verse 9.
In the passage, after Hosea has gone and found his God-ordained wife (those who believe God has one perfect person out there for you, beware!), they start having children. As parts of his prophecy, God gives Hosea the name each child should have. Surprisingly, they aren't found in most baby name books. The first child, a son, was named Jezreel, which means “God scatters”, and is also the name of a town where the king of Israel was assassinated in a bid for power (see 2 Kings 9). The second, a daughter, was named Lo-Ruhamah, “not loved”. And the third, another son, was dubbed Lo-Ammi, “not my people”.
The names were meant as a message to Israel, but, at the same time, it was three real people who got stuck with them - they of all people had good cause for low self-esteem! And that's usually, in fact, where our thinking about them stops, or at least mine had. But there is another possibility. You see, giving a name creates the opportunity for proclamation, but it doesn't actually do the proclaiming. The fact that some kid has a silly name doesn't directly imply that everyone knows it, or, more importantly, what it means. Rather, it is up to those who know to explain it.
Which means, I think, that Hosea's children were really offered a choice, as opposed to being left to suffer. They certainly had the option, and perhaps even the right, to become victims, innocent people stuck with a hardship in God's bigger plan. But, they also had the option to embrace the message, to view it as an invitation to join their father's mission to their countrymen, warning them of what God was saying through what they had been given.
The book doesn't really say what happened to the children, so it's left to our imagination. But I wonder if all of us may be given similar choices. It's easy to take the good things we're given and be thankful for them and use them with gusto in the service of the Kingdom. But what do we do with the bad things, the troublesome things, the tough things? We have the option of becoming victims, which is something our culture today is really good at. Or, we have the option of being thankful and using them as gifts in the service of the Kingdom. Which one will you do?
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