The Generation of Messiah:

 Introduction to Spiritual Perameters of Biblical Names

Hagar’s lament has blessed us all, enslaved or free; for the answer she received implies that we, also, are seen—not just looked upon, but seen! To be seen is to be identified, acknowledged, known. To be seen is to be Named.

As milestones to Bethlehem, Matthew’s list of Names catalogs progress in the generation of the Anointed One within a man who is now called Jesus, the firstborn of many brothers. And because the Kingdom is within even the least of that great teacher’s fellows, we understand that every one of us is named; and, together, our Names comprise spiritual Y’SharAL.

To read Matthew’s Names as the civil record of a natural lineage adds little substance to an understanding of Messiah. If nothing but an esteemed family tree, Mathew’s first chapter promotes solemn respect, but its spiritual value is limited to questions of pedigree.

Biblical Names magnify the scriptures in which they appear. More than history, therefore, the Matthew genealogy is a parable that speaks to the operation of Names within each of us as we struggle to overcome the inertia of Creation: they point to developmental stages in the generation of Messiah within the individual.

Like Hagar, we’ve all been outcasts at the foot of Sinai, abandoned to the wilderness of Shur—we’ve all been frustrated by walls of closed doors that have barred progress to Kadesh—to holiness; but we who have taken up the cross are not to stumble along, blindly, on the path to perfection. We are to approach the holy mountain within ourselves boldly, knowing that—as we are, no matter our condition—we are seen upon its slopes and that our solace is assured.

The “Kingdom of Heaven” is, literally, the “Kingdom of Names.” Note that Matthew 1:1 and 1:16 differ significantly. Messiah of the first verse is a son of many generations. The connotation is “Lion.” The latter verse names a single man called the messiah, suggesting a lamb.

Jesus taught that it’s enough for the servant to be as his Lord. The two renderings of “Joshua” recall the saying, “If you had seen me, you had seen the Father, also.” Yahushua owcwhy—the Projection of Yh hy, the Word, the fullness of the Father—was seen, grasped, and understood in the physical presence of Joshua ocwhy, who is also called Ieosus, Jehu, and Jesus, the first fruit of the Sons of Man.