My Dad's Name is "The Darkness of God."

Turn to Nehemiah 1:5-11

And I said: "I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned.  We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'   Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."

Nehemiah is the son of Hachaliah.  This name is composed of two Hebrews word.  The last part of the name, Hachaliah, like Nehemiah, is “Yah” – The Lord God.  The first part of the name comes from “chakliyl” which means, “to be dark; darkly flashing (only of the eyes).” Hachaliah can literally mean “the darkness of God.”  Nehemiah was born of a father whose name meant “the darkness of God,” and Nehemiah’s name means “the comfort of God.”  

Just think on that for a while. I personally picture, whether it is historical or not, Hachaliah’s father and mother, as Hachaliah is born, weeping over the fact that they have left the City of God. All they could think of was, “We are in darkness.  We are experiencing the darkness of God.”  The Israelites literally felt that God had left them.  The Ark of the Covenant had been taken; the temple was destroyed and therefore God was also gone.  The word for this season, like the season of the Ark being captured during Eli’s time, was Ichabod. 

“Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!" because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.  And she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured" (1 Samuel 4:21-22). 

The people believed that there was nothing but darkness and godlessness in their midst.  But something must have been placed in Hachaliah’s heart for him to name his son – the comfort of God.

Check out my messages on this at www.pophop.org