For Such a Time as This: The Name Hezekiah

 For Such a Time as This: The Name Hezekiah

"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19, KJV)

"Pondered" is the Greek symballō, Strong's G4820: to throw together, to bring together, to lay things side by side in the mind and consider how they fit.

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26, KJV)

Preamble

This is not written for an audience. Whoever reads this or watches this, I care not. It is offered as an eternal witness and testimony to my Lord Jesus Christ, for a moment He gave me that I cannot keep silent about.

Hezekiah Hayes, this is for you.

For 51 years you have stood by me. Whenever I needed you, you were there. You know what you did, and so does the Lord.

Only now have I seen what your name means. As Mordecai said to Esther, "who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14). The Lord sent you into my life all those years ago, for such a time as this.

The Hebrew

• Hezekiah, Hebrew Chizqiyyah (also Chizqiyyahu), Strong's H2396: "strengthened of Jah," or "the LORD is my strength."

• It joins two parts: chazaq and Yah, the short form of the LORD's name.

• Chazaq, Strong's H2388 (Benner, Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, #2152): to be strong, to grow firm, and also to fasten upon, to seize, to hold fast, to cleave.

So the name means more than strength. It is strength that grips what it loves and will not let go.

The Ancient Hebrew Roots (Jeff A. Benner)

In Benner's Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, chazaq (#2152) means strength: a strong grabbing hold, to restrain or support, something strong.

It grows from the parent root Hh-Z (chet-zayin), whose meaning is to see, to perceive: the ability to see beyond what is seen in the physical present, as a light piercing the darkness; a gaze; vision, a perception beyond normal experience.

From that root of vision comes the strength to grab hold of something and not let go. A friend who holds fast is one who first sees beyond the present darkness.

King Hezekiah in Scripture

"He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses." (2 Kings 18:5–6, KJV)

He trusted, he clave, and he departed not. That is the meaning of his name, lived out.

A Faithful Friend

"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24, KJV)

We met at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in 1975. For 51 years you have held fast and never departed. Your name has been your character. Thank you, my brother.

To God be the glory.

Randy Sheets

Randy Sheets

aka Andrew Sheets

A note on my name: Randy comes from Randolph, from the old word "rand," the rim of a shield, so my name means shield. For our British friends, it has nothing to do with the slang. But the Oxford English Dictionary records an older word "randy" too, used in the 1600s and 1700s for a vagrant, an itinerant, one who wanders from place to place. I'll gladly take that one as well. Like Abraham the Hebrew, I am a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, a Third Heaven Traveler, seeking "a better country, that is, an heavenly" (Hebrews 11:16). Sadly in the 1800s the word was used as a promiscuous foul person - most likely referring to those who were drunken from what my OED research has shown me.

I used Claude Opus 5.5 to research the Hebrew and applicable scriptures for information only and then I used it to transcribe my words and I quoted and then posted.