I must
confess. When growing up, I wasn't too crazy about my first name, Marcie. It
wasn't the most common name and it seemed like most people I interacted with
had a hard time saying it (at least at first). And forget about anyone spelling
it right.
I use to
imagine myself with a few other names I thought were more fitting. It wasn't a
huge issue for me. I just would have preferred being called something else.
That is until as a young Christian, I found out what my name meant… Warrior!
How
awesome, I thought. All of a sudden, I liked my name; was proud of it. Even to
this day when it seems like life is knocking me
around just a bit too much, I try to remember the name I've been given
and remind myself that I can't get stuck being timid and fearful. I have to act
more like my name. I have to put up a better fight.
Now I
don't think that my parents intentionally picked a name for me that meant
warrior. But over and over again in the Bible, we definitely see this happen.
And with the opening chapter of the New Testament, we see God setting the stage
for Christ's life and work on earth by telling Joseph what His name was to be
before He was born.
"You shall call His name Jesus"
(Matthew 1:21). That's powerful in and of itself.
But what made this stand out even more to me was the phrase used in
the Italian language Bible, "gli porrai nome Gesù." The
literal translation of this is more like, you shall put or set upon him the name Jesus.
The
Italian language is known for being a very expressive and colorful language
that often describes things differently than many others. This is one of the
reasons I've come to love reading the Bible in Italian. After being both a
student and teacher of God's Word for more than 20 years, phrases and wording
like this allow me to see the Scriptures in a whole new light. The phrase
"tu gli porrai nome…" is a perfect example of this.
To say
that a name is placed or set upon a
newborn child implies so much more than just something to identify him by. It's
more like assigning a role, a calling or
even a destiny to someone. It reflects what or who he is to be.
The name set upon King David meant Beloved of God and we know that God thought of
David as a man after his own heart. Before the birth of David's son who was to
be the next king, God said his name was to be Solomon which means peace. And during King Solomon's reign, he
indeed had a great time of peace.
