When Yahweh Is King

When I read the story of the changing of the name of Joseph a Levite from Cyprus, I can’t help but wonder about my own life. If the people who know me best and saw my faith being worked out on a daily basis decided to change my name, what would it be? In the case of Joseph the Levite from Cyprus, his name was changed to Barnabas, and Luke adds in his Acts 4 :36 record, “which means ‘son of encouragement.’” For me, that’s a pretty sobering question – and one that often causes me to think about how I am “working out my salvation,” to borrow language from Philippians 2:12, 13.

Those kinds of questions lead me to think about all the names mentioned in the Bible. Had I lived during the days Scripture was being written, would my name be there? There are some remarkable people whose names play an important role – people like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Sarah, Deborah, David, Solomon, Peter, James, John, Paul, Phoebe, the Mary list, Timothy, John Mark, Titus, . . . Those are people whose lives and ministries we remember because of their greatness.

But – do you remember Malchijah, son of Rechab? If you do, you must have an incredible knowledge of biblical names! I don’t ever remember a Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Sunday Night Youth Group, or even summer camp lesson about Malchijah! If he were mentioned in my college and graduate school Old Testament classes, I must have been absent or not paying attention. But . . . he is mentioned in Scripture and in a positive way.

I’m not trying to start another “Prayer of Jabez like cottage industry” here, but I’m pretty impressed with Malchijah. According to Nehemiah 3:14 – he “repaired the Dung Gate; he rebuilt it and set up its doors, its bolds and its bars.” (NRSV) Just a sentence is used by Nehemiah, a sentence in the midst of some pretty impressive accomplishments (the next person mentioned repaired the Fountain Gate!) to tell me that Malchijah repaired the Dung Gate. Think how his kids might have felt at elementary school “tell me what your Dad does” day.

If his culture were like ours – even in the church – they likely associated value with function. And while we all want the local sewer system to work well, we tend to see being a sewer worker with less than positive acclaim. Yet he did what God called him to do – and his name is in Scripture. Not a glamorous job by any means – but an answer to God’s call in his life.

There probably were no signs with flashing lights out front announcing that Malchijah successfully completed his task. But in God’s economy, value and function are never linked. What gave him value is simply that he responded to God’s call in his life. It wasn’t what he did, but who he was. His name, by the way, means “Yahweh is King.” Apparently when “Yahweh is King,” even building a Dung Gate is a noble task!