Sunday, April 27, 2008

[OT] Naming prophet's kids

I found the names of Hosea and Gomer's children interesting:
  • Lo-ruhamah: '"not loved, not forgiven," because God will no longer love or forgive or pardon the House of Israel'
  •  Lo-ammi: '"not my people," a sign that God has dissolved the covenant bond. He's rejected Israel as his people--divorced Israel.'
  • Jezreel:  "because God plans to punish Jehu for his slaughter of the house of Ahab. Even though Ahab was no favorite of God, you still should not raise your hand against the Lord's anointed. And so Jehu will have to be--Ahab will have to be avenged. Jehu will have to be punished at Jezreel, which is where the murder happened. "
These children are born through Gomer -- a promiscuous woman that God commands Hosea to marry in order to allude to the children of Israel's unfaithfulness to Him -- and their promiscuousness with other gods.

I also found the names of Isaiah's children interesting, which mean:
  • "only a remnant will survive,"
  • "hasten for spoil, hurry for plunder"
I've noticed a similar phenomena in Genesis -- where most names foreshadow that person's life, or events in their life.  

In westerns, apparently the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black hats.  In the bible, the good guys have good names, and the bad guys have bad names.  Or, sometimes, they name their kids about  things going on in the surrounding environment.  For example the kings of Sodom and Gomorra (the bad guys) mean "in evil" and "in wickedness."  The good guys in the story are Melkesedek (king of righteousness) and Abraham (exalted father).





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