Naming the Baby

December 16, 2016

“Naming the Baby”

“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

I find it interesting to observe the changes in choosing a name for children. In my generation, family names were passed on. My first and middle names are the first and last names of a grandfather who was a Methodist preacher in the Civil War era.  This present generation seems not as concerned with choosing family names as they are in choosing names that are unique.

In the Bible, names are often chosen because they identify a unique characteristic of the person or announce the person’s mission in life, such as Abraham which means "Father of Nations" or Peter meaning "rock" and describing the disciple’s role in the church.

Joseph was instructed by an angel to name Mary’s child: "you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  Jesus is the Greek form of a familiar Jewish name, "Joshua." It literally means, "The LORD is salvation."

I suspect Joseph spent the rest of his life trying to understand exactly what the angel meant: “For he will save his people from their sins.” It is not as easy to understand as you might think. Joseph is not alone. For the last two thousand years, Christians have tried to find ways to explain Jesus’ mission. Some explanations focus on Bible passages that say Jesus ransomed or rescued us from sins, others focus on passages that say Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and still others focus on passages that proclaim Jesus conquered sin and death. All of these are helpful in understanding the magnitude of Jesus’ mission, but there is a part of the angel’s announcement to Joseph that I think is even more helpful.

In describing Joseph’s encounter with the angel, Matthew quoted the prophet Isaiah, “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23 & Isaiah 7:14). It is not coincidental that the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel affirm his title, Emmanuel: “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).

Christmas is just ten days away. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, let us prepare for our faith to be renewed as we, like Joseph, ponder the angel’s announcement of the name of the Christ Child: “Emmanuel, God is with us.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.