Gospel for the Day: Naming Rights

In today's Gospel, Zechariah names his son John, following the orders of the angel. His relatives are puzzled by this choice because no one in the family has that name.


I did a quick search of the internet to see who else aside from John (and Jesus) was provided a name by God. (A number of people are re-named (like Saul and Simon) but they don't count)


Apparently, only a child of Isaiah and the children of Hosea were named by God. And the names were tied up to those prophets' prophecy. 


God told Isaiah to name his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz and Wikipedia suggests that this means "Hurry to spoil!" or "He has made haste to the plunder!" suggesting that Israel would be ransacked by Assyria.


God told Hosea to marry a prostitute (!) and God provided the names of the children. The first one was named Jezreel because God intended to break the bow of Israel in Jezreel. The second one was named Lo-ruhama or no pity because God took no pity on Israel. (in fact, he abhors them utterly) The third is named Lo-ammi because Israel is no longer God's people. 


So when God asked people to give particular names to children in the Old Testament, it was bad news. 


Things get better with John and Jesus. John means God is merciful. Jesus means God saves. The other shift from the Old to the New Testament is that in the Old Testament, the prophets named their children but their children don't play key roles. John and Jesus were the prophets themselves and not their parents. It's as if the Old Testament kids were asked by their parents to wear advertisements while John and Jesus were talking advertisements themselves.