What's in a Name?

My friend Scam Likely says nobody answers his calls anymore. 

What’s that, Pretty Boy? (My amiable nemesis Tommy Humphrey, aka Pretty Boy has a comment.)

"I said that's extremely UNlikely."

You mean, that my friend's name is Scam Likely?

"No; I mean, that you have a friend."

You have cut me to the quick, Thomas. But thankfully, my quick is surrounded by layers of fat, so ‘tis a mere flesh wound.  Now why would you think me friendless?

"Well, Rusty, you don't fish, hunt or ride a motorcycle; you don't golf, bowl or play tennis. You don't camp, kayak or shoot skeet. What would you do with a friend, sit and read together?"

 Converse; we'd converse. 

"You'd wear high-top sneakers together? 

 Not CONverse, conVERSE.  As you may know, I'm a scintillating conversationalist.

“I think you’d better double-check your Readers’ Digest vocabulary quiz, Rusty.  Scintillating does not mean sleep inducing. You know I've heard you preach."

Your dozing off in church is easily explained, Tommy. I suspect your body is programmed to nap after every meal, and you eat a hearty breakfast before church.  Maybe you should take a nap now, so I can get back to my story.

“So, you call these 'Dry Breads' stories?  I would call them Rusty Ramblings.”

 You are inadvertently making my point about names, Tommy.

 “Oh----you have a point now?”

Drink some coffee and follow along, Pretty Boy:

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare’s Juliet, lamenting the fact that Romeo was from the Montague family, her family’s rivals. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  

She was quite right of course, but how many would pause to smell a rose if the plant had been named “Stinky Prickly Bush.” 

In an age of Caller I.D., someone with the name Scam Likely is not going to get many of his calls answered.  The same goes for a fellow named Bill Collector, or a gal named Charity Call.

“Ooo, I’ve got one: Warranty Soon to Expire.”

Thank you, Tommy.  You’re right, I suppose.  Someone with the unfortunate (and extremely unlikely) name Warranty Soon to Expire would also find people avoiding his calls. Clearly, a name can be a handicap; think of a boy named Sue.  (Interestingly, having a friendly nemesis who butts into your stories at will can also be a handicap.)

As Jacob’s wife Rachel was dying in childbirth, she called her son Ben-Oni, which means “Son of My Sorrow.” (Genesis 35:18)  It would have been a heavy burden for the child to carry that name through life-----a constant reminder of the sad circumstances of his birth. 

“Who is that child?”

“That’s the Son of Sorrow, the boy who brought such sorrow to his family.”

But his father wisely changed his name to Benjamin, meaning “Son of My Right Hand” or, “My Right Hand Son.”

It’s not just proper names that can be harmful.  Someone who is regularly called Fool, Idiot, Worthless or Good-for-Nothing might have as great a handicap as one named Son of My Sorrow. 

“I just realized how hard it must have been for you, Rusty, being named after a neglected tool left out in the rain.  Rusty tools can be worthless-----good-for-nothing.” 

So, you’ve read this far, even without illustrations, good job, Pretty Boy. If you must know, Russell was my mother’s maiden name, and my dad had a brother named Rusi. My parents usually called me Russy, not Rusty.  No tools were harmed in my naming.

Hebrew names often had much more significance than those we commonly give our children today.  When Joseph learned that his betrothed was with child, we read:

Then Joseph…being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:19-21)

That’s the way the passage reads in English, but it loses something in translation.  Why would the fact that “He will save His people from their sins” be cited by the angel as the reason to call His name “Jesus?”  What’s the connection between the name Jesus and saving His people from their sins? Of course, there’s a connection in our minds over 2000 years later, but what would have been the connection for Joseph?  

Joseph and Mary were Hebrews of course, and the name they were told to give their son, in Hebrew, was JOSHUA.  It comes to us through the Greek New Testament as Yesu, and into English as JESUS. But the name that Joseph was told to call his son was JOSHUA, which means, literally, JEHOVAH SAVES. “Call His name ‘JEHOVAH SAVES’ for HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.  Even before His birth, the deity of Christ was affirmed by the name He was given.  Call Him Jehovah Saves, for He (Jehovah Saves) will save His people from their sins. Clearly then, the angel was indicating, Jesus is Jehovah, who is coming to earth.  He was also to be called Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

The most important question you will ever be asked is, has Jesus saved YOU from YOUR sins?  In other words, have you recognized your sins as acts of rebellion against your Creator, have you renounced them and laid hold upon Christ by faith? Are you resting in His sinless life and sacrificial death as the only sufficient payment to reconcile you to God? 

If instead, you are trusting in your own efforts, your own attempts to appease a holy God, then you have clearly been scammed. You’ve answered a call, not from Scam Likely, but from *SCAM CERTAINLY. 

 

*Here’s a fun activity, Tommy. See if you can find the name SATAN in the words, SCAM CERTAINLY.