Job 22:1-16, 42:7-9, Eliphaz: "My God is strength" (04/11/22)

We're going to finish up our study on lesser-known, but usually important, people with three weeks of guys with "God" in their names. This week's name is El , which means God or god, depending on the context. Eli means "my God." Now, I'm going to give you meanings of the names, but if you look in three sources, you're likely to get at least two meanings. Nobody disagrees about the meanings of El and Eli, however. As far as I know.

Eliphaz [EL-ih-faz] is one of Job's friends, who have come to afflict him in his discomfort. His name means "My God is strength," and you'd think he could lend some strength to Job instead of haranguing him with long boring speeches. The gist of the long boring speeches from Eliphaz and the other two older friends is this: Sinners suffer; the righteous do not. You're suffering; therefore you are a sinner, and you might as well admit it. At the end of the book, God gets angry at all these people haranguing Job, who has not sinned either before or after his affliction, and who have bad theology to boot. God tells them that their only option is to get Job to pray for them.

Job 32:1-22, Elihu: "He is my God" (04/12/22)

Job's fourth friend is a younger man, Elihu [ih-LIE-who], whose name means "He is my God." He hasn't said a word for the first 32 chapters, and now he can't contain himself. He says, "I'm the youngest here, and I thought you guys would say something worth listening to. But no, you didn't, so now you can just listen to me." His speech goes on for five more chapters (he's certainly correct in saying, "I am full of words"), and boils down to "Listen to me! Listen to me! Who are you to question God?"

1 Samuel 1:1-11, 19-23, 2:18-20, Elkanah: "God has obtained" (04/13/22)

Elkanah's name [el-KAHN-ah] means "God has obtained." He fits both the "God names" and the "Who is this guy?" parts of our current study. You probably have heard of Hannah, who prayed for a son and gave birth to the prophet Samuel. Elkanah was her husband, Samuel's father. We can tell Elkanah is a devout man, since he goes up to Shiloh every year (this is back before David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem). He's also an indulgent husband, as far as Hannah was concerned, giving her a double portion of the sacrificial feast and allowing her to fulfill her vow by giving the boy to the LORD whenever she decides it's time.

Daniel 10:10-21, 11:40a, 12:1-4; Jude 1:9; Revelations 12:7-9, Michael: "Who is like God?" (04/14/22)

I'm confident that you've heard of the archangel Michael, whose name means "Who is like (micha) God (el)?" We don't actually know much about him; he makes cameo appearances in Daniel, Jude, and Revelation. Much of the book of Daniel, and of course almost all of Revelation, is apocalyptic, that is, it talks about the end times, which are revealed to the writer through visions that are interpreted by some other, normally greater, being. Michael appears to primarily a soldier angel, and he's going to lead God's forces in the great battle at the end times. The story of Michael and Satan arguing about the body of Moses apparently comes from some intertestamental source that we don't have.

Now, don't forget that apocalyptic and prophecy are two different kettles of fish. Prophecy tells us what will happen in the future if we don't change our ways and return to God. Apocalyptic tells us that things are bad right now, but we should remain faithful until God takes care of the problem. Prophecy says what we must do, and apocalyptic says what God will do. Prophecy is about historical processes; apocalyptic is about God stepping into history. If you're confused, ask Pastor Clyde. (Or me, I guess.)

Ruth 1:1-4, 2:1-4, 4:1-9, Elimelech: "My God is king" (04/15/22)

Elimelech is pronounced ih-LIMB-eh-leck, and means "My God (eli) is king (melech)." If you just channel your inner singer of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," you'll have it exactly right. Maybe they really are saying Elimelech. Anyway, he fits under both "names with 'God' in them" and "Who is this guy?" because he dies very early in the book of Ruth. We know next to nothing about him, but his influence is felt for quite some time.

When Naomi returns to Bethlehem as a childless widow, she owns Elimelech's property, but she's old, and Ruth is just one person, and they don't have the money to hire workers. Naomi is land-poor. When Ruth goes out to glean and meets Boaz, Naomi has a brainstorm: Boaz is a close kinsman of Elimelech and has the right to redeem his land, not to mention the obligation to marry Ruth and raise up a son for Elimelech's house! (See Leviticus 25:25, Deuteronomy 25:5-9.)

Boaz likes the idea, but unfortunately there is a nearer kinsman, with a prior right to redeem Elimelech's land. For his own reasons, which aren't completely explained, the redeemer gives his right to Boaz, who redeems the land, marries Ruth, and provides an heir for Naomi (Ruth 4:17). Even though Obed was legally the grandson of Elimelech, the genealogies, e.g., Matthew 1:5, give Boaz as his father and Salmon as his grandfather.

Exodus 6:20, 2:1-10; Numbers 26:59, Jochebed: "God is glorious" (04/18/22)

Do you remember the biblical Ichabod, who was born on the day his father Phineas and grandfather Eli had died, and worse yet, that the ark of the covenant had been captured by the Philistines? (See 1 Samuel 4.) He's little enough known that I could have used him earlier in the study. Or Ichabod Crane, who's a lot more famous, but not real? I-chabod means "no-glory." Jochebed [JOE-keh-bed or YOKE-eh-bed], on the other hand, means "God is glorious." Like names that start with El-, many names that start either with Je-or Jo-have the meaning "God is something" or "God does something."

Of course we're all familiar with the story of Moses and how his mom hid him for three months. When he got too big to hide, she put him in a little ark (seriously, the same word as for Noah's ark!) and put him in the river. This story, which is really about the mom, the sister, and the Pharaoh's daughter, doesn't mention any of their names; however, we learn the names of his mom Jochebed and his sister Miriam later in Exodus and in Numbers. Jochebed could have been the actual aunt of her husband Amram, but it's just as likely that she was a younger cousin or other kinswoman of his father. Think about Jesus being the "Son of David," and you'll see that the Bible has a different view of relationships than we do.

p.s. Pharaoh's daughter calls Moses Mosheh because she drew mashah him out.

Judges 9:1-21, Jotham: "God is upright" (04/19/22)

Not every name that begins with Je-or Jo-means God-, even though it's usually a good bet. "Jerubaal" means either "Baal will contend" or "Contender with Baal." It's another name for Gideon, which he got after tearing down an alter to Baal in Judges 6. Gideon a.k.a. Jerubaal had 70 sons (and presumably a whole bunch of wives). As soon as he died, the people of Israel went back to worshiping other gods. Abimelech, the son of one of Gideon's concubines, decides that he should take over leadership, and he goes to his mother's people for support. Then he decides to kill all his brothers, but one, Jotham, [JOE-thumb or JAW-thumb] escapes. Jotham means "God is upright."

Jotham tells a fable about trees. The trees wanted a king, but the good trees said, "No, thanks." They went to the bramble, who of course was perfectly willing to rule. I guess comparing your murderous brother to a bramble isn't too far out of line. This is one of the few fables in the Bible.

Judges 11, Jephtha: "God opens " (04/20/22)

Remember Mark 7:32-35? Mark tells us something that Jesus said in Aramaic and then translates it into Greek:

And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." Jephtha [JEFF-thah] was one of the judges, and his name means "God [Je] opens [phtha]" in Hebrew. As the son of a prostitute, he was pretty unpopular in his hometown, right up until they needed a warrior leader. Jephtha says, "Seriously? You drove me out, and now I should rescue you?" But they convince him to come, promising that he will be their leader even after the crisis. That part works out fine, but in the process, Jephtha makes a rash and unfortunate vow. We learn two lessons from the story of the elders and Jephtha: Don't burn your bridges, and don't make vows without thinking them through.

2 Chronicles 17:1-13, Jehoshaphat: "God judges" (04/21/22)

You probably recognize Jehoshaphat's name from the phrase "Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!" Jehoshaphat [Je-HOSH-a-fat] means "God [Jeho] judges [shaphat]." Jehoshaphat was the sixth king of Judah. Unlike many of the kings of Judah and almost all of the kings of Israel, he gets pretty high marks. Personally, he "did what was right in the sight of the LORD" (1 Kings 22:43), made peace with Israel, and got rid of the male cult prostitutes.

1 Kings 22:43 goes on to say that he didn't eliminate worship at the high places, which got him a couple of demerits, but 2 Chronicles 17:6 says he did. There's no way to know for sure what happened, but I can tell you that the kings of Judah have an all-round holier glow in Chronicles than in Kings. If he left any at all, Kings would say the high places weren't taken away, and if he got rid of some of them, Chronicles would say that he took them out of Judah. This isn't so much a contradiction as spin doctoring.

Isaiah 7:10-17; Matthew 1:18-25, Greek Jesus = Hebrew Joshua: "God saves"; Emmanuel: "God with us" (04/22/22)

Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, which means "God [Jo-] saves [shua]." Emmanuel or Immanuel (depending on your translator) is the Greek form of the Hebrew Emmanuel or Immanuel (ditto), which means "God with us."

Fellow-reader Dennis S. and I don't think that think Matthew is completely clear here. I think Matthew is mostly talking about the first part of the verse, "a virgin will conceive and bear a son," and throwing in the second part because "God Saves" has a lot in common with "God With Us," or maybe because they're both about names, or maybe because he wanted to use the whole sentence, or maybe because... we're just not sure.

The thing you need to remember about Matthew is that he takes as prophecy a lot of passages that most Jews, I think, would not, e.g., "Out of Egypt I called my son" in Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15. Matthew does two things. First, he establishes the royal Davidic lineage of Jesus at every opportunity: "Joseph, son of David." Second, he establishes the fulfillment of prophecy at every opportunity: "All this happened to make clear the full meaning of what the Lord said through the prophet." Some of these opportunities wouldn't have occurred to most people, but then, most people aren't Matthew. What he's doing is a fairly standard rabbinical method, though – taking an OT passage and thinking a lot about it, and expanding, explaining, or applying it in a new way.

1 Kings 22:1-25, Zedekiah: "God is justice" vs. Micaiah: "Who is like God?" (04/25/22)

Hallelujah! Praise [hallelu] God [jah]! Like names ending in -el, biblical names ending in "-iah," or "-jah," or sometime even just "-ah," very often mean "-God." These endings represent one of the sacred names, YAH, that we studied back in 2009. Zedekiah [ze-dih-KIE-yah] means "God is justice," and Micaiah [mih-KYE-yah] means "Who is like God?" (just like Michael).

After the death of Solomon, there was civil war between the northern and southern tribes of the children of Israel for about 40 years. King Jehoshaphat of Judah made peace with King Ahab's father, King Omri, by marrying his own son Jehoram to Omri's daughter Athaliah, Ahab's sister (2 Kings 8:26). Ahab married a Philistine princess, Jezebel, who introduced the worship of Baal into the northern kingdom (whence it bled into the southern kingdom of Judah in the next generation). Ahab gets pretty bad marks as a king, doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse than all who went before him."

Now we get to today's reading. Ahab wants to know whether he should go war, and all his house prophets are saying, "Yes! Go for it, Abe!" Jehoshaphat isn't so sure, and he wants to know if there's an actual prophet of the LORD available. Ahab says, "Yeah, I got one, but he never says anything good about me." Zedekiah was one of the false house prophets, and Micaiah was a prophet of the LORD. How do you tell a false prophet from a true prophet? Look at their short-term prophecies. Zedekiah says Ahab will defeat the Aramaeans, but Micaiah predicts that if Ahab goes to war, he'll be killed. Sure enough, Ahab goes out and is killed (1 Kings 22:34-35). This is what comes of having a bunch of yes-men as your house prophets.

Micah 2:1-13, Micah: "Who is like God?" (04/26/22)

By this time, you should be able to recognize for yourself that Micah means "Who is like [micha-] God [-ah]?," just like Michael and Micaiah. I usually associate the prophet Micah with two brief passages that we all know. "What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). And "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days" (Micah 5:2).

It turns out that Micah is just like all the other prophets in delivering primarily bad news about what we are doing wrong and what God is going to do about it. In this passage, Micah takes special aim at powerful people who take advantage of the powerless (vss. 1-10), and he promises that God will avenge these wrongs (vss. 3 and 10). We saw yesterday that good news from a prophet should often be regarded with skepticism, and Micah makes exactly this point in vs. 11. Finally, in vss. 12-13, he promises that God will rescue the remnant who survive and will tend them and lead them as his own flock.

2 Chronicles 15:1-18, Azariah: "God has helped" (04/27/22)

Azariah son of Oded is a good example of a prophet we don't know much about, and Oded is a good example of a prophet we know essentially nothing about. Azariah [a-za-RYE-yah] has that -iah/YAH ending again, and it means "God has helped."

Azariah the son of Oded doesn't seem to be mentioned in the account of King Asa's reign in Kings, but Asa gets pretty good marks in both Kings and Chronicles. Kings says Asa "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father [i.e., ancestor] had done," and Chronicles says he "was wholly true to the LORD all his days." He got rid of some idolatrous practices, cleaned up the Temple, and removed his idolatrous mother from the position of Queen Mother. (I was reading somewhere the other day that Queen Mother was an influential position in the court, and we surely saw that recently when Adonijah came to Bathsheba to ask for her intercession on his behalf with Solomon.) Chronicles attributes Asa's reforms and good behavior to the influence of Azariah.

I personally think that putting other people to death because they don't believe in your religion is an absolutely sure sign of bad theology, but maybe Asa wasn't completely responsible for what the people decided. But then, I also think schism is a sign of bad theology, so maybe I'm just a reactionary.

1 Kings 1:1-14, 28-30, 2:13-21, Adonijah: "The Lord is my God" (04/28/22)

Remember that when you see italics in the King James Version, it means that the translators have put in words that are not in the Hebrew or Greek but are (usually) necessary in English. In modern translations, italics have various meanings; check the introductory material in your paper Bible.

Adonai means my lord, my Lord, or my master. Jah is one of the names of God. So Adonijah's name means "The Lord is my God." After the death of David's son Absalom, Adonijah is the oldest surviving son, so he figures he's going to be the next king. Unfortunately, he doesn't bother to wait until David dies before he starts acting on this assumption. When Bathsheba and Nathan find out about it, they tag-team David with questions about the succession, and David enthrones Solomon right away. Adonijah apparently accepts that, but then he decides to ask for David's virgin concubine, Abishag. He asks Bathsheba to put his request to Solomon, which she does. If you read on, you discover that Solomon took serious exception to Adonijah's presumptuous and arrogant request and had him executed.

Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-14, Theophilus: "One who loves God." (04/29/22)

A few New Testament names also have "God" in them, such as the Greek Timothy (either "God [-thy] honors [timo-]" or "He honors God") or the Hebrew Zechariah ("God [-iah] has remembered" [zechar]). Some of them require a little digging: John is the Greek form of the Hebrew Johanan; in Greek it doesn't mean anything particular, but in Hebrew it means "God-favored."

Today is the last day of our study on lesser-known but mostly important people in the Bible, and it's also the first day of our study of the book of Luke. We've read lots of bits and pieces from Luke over the years, but we've apparently never read it from start to finish. Mark starts with action, Matthew starts with genealogy, and John starts with the Word. Luke starts with a dedication to Theophilus [thee-OFF-ih-luss]. Theophilus is probably the best-known New Testament name with "God" in it. It means "One who loves [philos] God [Theo-]." Luke is Vol. 1, and Acts is Vol. 2, of Luke's work. Both are dedicated to Theophilus.

We actually don't know who Theophilus is. Some scholars think he is a real person who sponsored Luke's work. Some think he is a real person who was very new to the faith and whom Luke was trying to educate or convince. Other scholars think it is you, dear reader of Luke, who loves God. God loves you, too. Love God. Love your neighbor.

More of Who Is This Guy?
Introduction
Three guys named Ananias, Two Prophets, and Several Foreign Kings
Foreign gods and goddesses, Caleb, the Sons of Aaron, and Two Jehus
Gehazi, Four or five guys named James, Three Important Wives, Children with Ominous Names, and Ten Simeons and Simons
Biblical guys who are gals, Several queens, and who is this guy really?
Guys, and one Gal, with God in their Name

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