names

I'm not a parent, but naming children sounds like fun (at least when both parents agree on the name). You have an extremely large plethora of names to choose from, and you are allowed to choose two if you decide on a middle name. You just need to make your best effort to guarantee your child won't suffer because of the name you chose.

The Bible treats naming children differently than many do today. On occasion, God gave the parents exactly what the child was to be called (Isaac, Ishmael, John the baptist and Jesus Christ for example) through special revelation. Most of the time parents named the child in response to something the Lord had done or was doing. The child was a reminder of how God was working in their lives for His glory and their good.

Joseph did the same when God blessed him with two sons born to him while he was in Egypt. His firstborn was given the name Manasseh which means "making to forget." Manasseh was chosen because God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house (Genesis 41:51). It seems as though Joseph forgot the bitterness he probably harbored towards his brothers for selling him into Egypt. Joseph saw his hardship was not in vain, but beautifully orchestrated by God.

Joseph's second son was given the name Ephraim which means "making fruitful." Joseph declared God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction (Genesis 41:52). In his second son Joseph saw how God blesses regardless of circumstance. Joseph didn't need to be on the mountain top to receive God's blessings. He found them in an empty cistern, a prison, and a devastating famine. Nothing was too severe for God to work His hand of grace through.

With these two names you can almost hear Joseph echoing what Paul would write thousands of years later in 1 Corinthians 15:10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me is not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Like Paul, Joseph declared himself to be a testament to God's grace. All his afflictions were used to mold and shape him from the arrogant loner to the humble ruler. He worked hard, most likely during that two-plus year prison sentence, as God's grace worked hard in him. And in the end, he named his sons as reminders of the wonderful grace of God.