Names are significant. We see time and again in the word of God that names are so important that the unchanging God does change the names of those he has made. He gives new names. He does this for many reasons but there seems to be a recreating of creation that is at the heart of the new name. In Isaiah 62 God renames Zion to Hephzibah. This name change is the result of God changing the way He feels about Zion and He now relates to the people in a new way and so they need a new name. The act of naming is one that God gives to us in Genesis. He actually allows Adam to get all crazy and start naming stuff. God literally brings all the stuff He made and He shows the stuff to Adam and lets Adam name the stuff. Again, I say who is this God?
So I am rambling and all this is to set up the whole point which is naming stuff is pretty serious. For me naming stuff is so critical that I sit in fear before the Lord whenever I undertake the activity. And so the series of names that I went through before naming Noah Grace was daunting. She is His after all, and not just in a flippant "God owns all things" kind of way but in the for real she is His and I need to hear Him and get this right so He won't need to change her name kind of way. I want to make sure I name His girl the name He wants to call her.
So as I sat in prayer the night before she was born I was calling out to the Father in just the desperate I need to know the name kind of way, I sat with the Word and flipped through page after page and name after name.
He spoke to me so clearly on Tuesday night. There had been several prophetic words that God was changing her name and so I wanted to hear the new name. There was the dream that she would be named Grace and that weighed heavy on my heart. I prayed long about whether or not that was supposed to be the first name. Then there was a word that spoke of my confusion on the name and that perhaps there was a new name to come forth. And so this one stirred me. So should she be named Maranatha, I asked. That went nowhere and I love the meaning of the name, but name meanings have not been important since I was saved, only before. Then I was asking if Hephzibah was the name. Again the meaning moves me but what a crazy name.
And so I was sitting on Noah but that was her name all along so I was troubled because there was nothing new happening with the name So I began to read everything I had read when I chose the name seven months ago.
Noah means rest. Not really all that impressive. But Noah, wow, what a man of faith. He did exactly what God asked. He did not add or take away. He just did exactly as God asked. God told him to build and Ark so he did. Think about it. God told him it would rain. We always waltz right on past that. God had not even created rain at that point. There was no such thing and yet Noah never even asked for an explanation. Ah such a follower, such a disciple. Add to that the truth that everyone on earth was so fouled that God was hitting the reset button and the only one found worthy was Noah. God looked at Noah and declared him the only righteous man on earth. That is something. This is God we are talking about. God does not lower His standards and function in a culture of relativism. That is what man does. God says this is righteousness, end of story. Be it or be dead with the rest of this world.
But where does this new name come in because all this I already knew when I named her in the summer. And then I read 2nd Peter 2:5, "if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly". It goes on and makes a cool sentence about the standards of the Father but what matters here is that Peter calls Noah the "herald of righteousness." Now that is something I did not know. The name is new. Noah is the herald of righteousness, the one who cries out, the one who continues to teach the truth of the Father without compromise.(so much like JTB. And we all know where I am on that topic) He teaches righteousness. And so Noah Grace it is. Because there is no compromise in the message. His grace is sufficient. It is sufficient enough to see us walk out His righteousness. In Noah there was no compromise. This is the one man who God chose to start again with after He killed the rest of creation. We would do well to understand this. We would do well to know what Noah knew.
