Elishama: My God will Hear

I'm reading in Num 7.48 today. I like to look up the meaning of Hebrew proper names (fortunately this is easy with the resource The Exhaustive Dictionary of Biblical Names). In this long chapter which essentially repeats the same thing 12 times! (quick truth test: Last time you read through this chapter did you read the first day and skip the next 11 and call it good? I pronounce myself guilty). So in Num 7.48, Elishama the son of Ammihud offered the offering for the tribe of Ephraim.

Elishama means "My God hears." I love that name. I'd like to think that he was named in an answer to prayer. His parents prayed that God would give them a son who could care for them in their old age. God gave them a son, so he was christened "Elishama." Of course I'm not sure that is a true story, but it sounds good doesn't it?

True or not, his parents were communicating something about God by his name. The God they worshipped and served was a God who hears (not like Baal at Mt. Carmel, by the way).

Our God hears. We worship the same God as Elishama's parents do. He hears us. He listens. He is living. He is active. He is concerned for his children. May we have the same faith that Elishama's parents did.