What’s in a name?
When I first decided that God was real and that he was the God of the Bible, I decided I was going to read the Bible - cover to cover. The Bible I had didn’t have any notes and I had no idea what it was all about. I remember getting to what I call the begats and just throwing up my hands, not knowing what I was supposed to learn from that. I can remember giving up on that part in frustration.
Fast forward a few years and when I saw “ 2Ti 3:16 All scriptures is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. “ I remembered wondering about the begats & what on earth was I supposed to get out of that…
Fast forward a few years and I got interested in the Hebrew language and how interesting it was that each of the letters didn’t just have a sound, but also had meanings and ideas behind them. I picked up a book that went through letter by letter. And it turns out the letter “hei‘ or “hey“ in the paleo Hebrew looked like a window and meant to reveal. Its sound is “heh” like a breath of air, and it also can mean spirit and the creative force. When God breathed into Adam, he gave him the “hey“. So God called changed Abram to Abraham. Sari he changed to Sarah. Both of these names have the “hey” added to them. He changed their names adding the breath of God, or revealed himself to them by giving them the covenant and it changed their lives. How cool is that?
I read somewhere that if you are stumped by Gods word, you should write it all down and pray about it and God will bring an answer, and when you get that answer write it down too, and it will be a record of your walk and of God’s faithfulness.
So back to the begats. Adam begat Seth, Seth begat Enosh… If you take the first ten generations and look up the Hebrew roots of those names, you find an amazing thing… Take a look.
Here are the names in order: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalal’el, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, Lamech, Noah. Here are the meanings: Man, appointed, mortal, sorrow, the Blessed God, shall come down, teaching, his death shall bring , despairing, rest. God is amazing! So there you have a golden nugget tucked into the begats.
I wish I could take credit for finding that, but I found it in a book called “Through the Bible in 24 hours” by Chuck Missler. The skeptic in me did run to esword and check out all the Hebrew roots with a Strongs concordance though.
So I am trying to design my new jewelry line to incorporate some of these amazing golden nuggets I have found over the years, and this is the “What’s in a name?” bracelet because “Begats” just didn’t sound to good… Each of the tags has the name and root meaning stamped into it. I loved adding the polymer gears to symbolize the inner workings of God’s plan from the beginning.
In the Beginning...
This bracelet is the result of trying to figure out what my spiritual gifts might be. I definitely have been blessed by God with the need to create things, but to use that “gift” to serve God has escaped me for years. I also have the gift of an enquiring mind, but it has been accompanied by a mind like a sieve. I have read so many amazing things about the word, but I would have a hard time remembering enough to be able to explain any of them coherently. Now I have a way to remember some of the amazing golden nuggets I have come across in my studies. Praise God!
In a small group a few weeks back, we were discussing what heaven might be like and I thought everyone would have a job that would be suited perfectly for them. What would my job be… Making jewelry -- amazingly beautiful and meaningful jewelry without regard for cost of materials - now that would be heaven!
I must have been still mulling that over when I went to bed because I woke up in the wee morning hours and got up to write down the idea for this bracelet before going back to sleep.
At least a year ago I got interested in the Hebrew language and how interesting it was that each of the letters didn’t just have a sound, but also had meanings and ideas behind them. After reading a book that went through letter by letter, an internet search turned up a blog post from BeautyoftheBible.com about the first words of the Bible - “In the beginning” and I was just floored by another of those “God” moments.
“In the beginning” in Hebrew is “barasheet” or biet, resh, aleph, shin, yod, tav.
Biet in the paleo Hebrew means house and looked like a tent.
Resh means head and looked like the side profile of a head.
Together those spell “bar” which means son. (The head of the house)
Aleph means strength, or first and looked like an ox. Aleph is letter used to symbolize God.
Shin looked like jagged teeth and means to consume or destroy
Yod looked like an arm and hand and means works, or hand
Tav looked like a cross and means mark or covenant.
So within the first word of God’s word you have the promise of the gospel - that the son of God would be destroyed with his hands on the cross. Or, the son of God would be destroyed by his work of the covenant. The promise of our redemption was right there at the beginning. Isn’t God’s word amazing!
I looked for the perfect lampwork beads to make this creation story bracelet and think they look like the galaxy with there purple and green swirls. They also have silver traces that look like stars. Each of the Hebrew letters is a tag with the Hebrew name and the meaning stamped below.
I went to the Bead Fest Wire show near Philadelphia with a friend and saw some fun beads in Fall colors. I tried to pass by them because it was barely Spring here, but the pull was too great. I also picked up a fun circle cutter and used them both to make this fun bracelet. It is a "Fruit of the Spirit" bracelet. The fruits from Gal 5:22 are stamped on the various tags. This was a real labor of love because my Bible study group has been working through a Beth Moore study on this verse all year. It is really cool to combine the two passions.
