What's in a Name

What does your name mean?  Where you named after a relative or Biblical character?  Maybe your name is a combination of the two.  The way we go about choosing names for our children is very different from what we see in the Old Testament.  When we name our children, we tend to name them after another person we know or give them a name we think sounds good.  In the Old Testament, names were given based on circumstances and meaning.

This past Sunday we looked at 1 Samuel 1, specifically at the story of Hannah.  She was a woman who was unable to have children because of God.  That is correct, God was the reason she was unable to conceive.  God didn’t do this as an act of punishment, rather He had a plan and in His timing, He would be glorified by Hannah becoming pregnant.  Hannah’s son played a pivotal role in leading the people of God as well as transition the Israelites out of the “Judges” and into a monarchy. 

One thing that I mentioned in the sermon was that Hannah named her son “Samuel,” which means, “Heard by God.”  She named him this in response to God answering her greatest prayer and giving her hope.  I then asked “What are some of the Samuel moments in your life?”  I would love to hear some of your responses to this.  If you are able to post your answer to this on Facebook for others to benefit from, that would be great.  If not, I would still like to hear from you sometime this next week.

If you would like to do a little more Bible study on this, check out 1 Samuel 7.  After driving off the Philistine army, once and for all, Samuel set up stone and gave it a name.  I would challenge you to check that out and see if this reflects anything in your life!