Jedidiah Beloved

Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and slept with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan the prophet that they should name him Jedidiah (which means “beloved of the Lord”), as the Lord had commanded. 
--2 Samuel 12:24-25 NLT

This little nugget of scripture is curious to me.  God sent word through Nathan that they should name the child Jedidiah, but the child continues to be called Solomon.  The name Jedidiah is never mentioned again.  God said to call the baby Jedidiah, but they kept calling him Solomon.

Solomon means "peaceable."  When Solomon was king, he was known for reigning over a time of peace, particularly notable because his father David was the great warrior.  It's likely that David's wars paved the way for Solomon's peace.

Solomon was also known for his wisdom and wealth.  In 1 Kings 10, the Queen of Sheba comes to see Solomon's wealth and test his wisdom.  She says, "Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:9 NIV).  The Queen sees that Solomon is Jedidiah, and through Solomon all of Israel is beloved of the Lord.  Solomon's success was seen as a sign of God's love and favor.

We do not all have the wisdom and wealth of Solomon, but even he didn't use the name Jedidiah. Though we can only speculate about why we never see Solomon use the name, I wonder whether we also do not accept that we are beloved by God.  When things don't go well, when life is hard, when there is pain, we wonder if maybe God doesn't really love us.

God does love us.  The Bible tells us over and over again that God loves us. (Examples)  One of the reasons we need to keep reading the Bible and rereading it, and doing this every morning, is to keep reminding ourselves that God loves us.

1 John 4:19 says that we love because God loves us.  Romans 5 says that it's God's love that has been poured into our hearts.  If we don't accept  that we are loved by God, how can we love anyone else?  Or maybe it is through loving others that we find we have the capacity to accept love and believe that we are loved.

John 3:16 tells us that God loves us ALL so much that he sent us Jesus.  We are all beloved of the Lord.  We are all Jedidiah.

Thank you, God, for loving me.  Forgive me for all the times I doubt your love, and all the ways I live as if you don't love me.  Especially forgive me for not living as if you love everyone.  Help me to grow in my understanding of your love, and in the ways I live it out.  Thank you for all the ways you have shown me your love in your Word, through your son Jesus, and through the people around me.  Help me to see and act on opportunities to help others know that they are Jedidiah too.

Beloved

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. –Ephesians 5:1

If you could only put one word on your gravestone, what would it be?

One word that shows up on headstones a lot is “beloved.”  This is the word that God uses to describe Jesus when Jesus is being baptized in the Jordan River (Mark 1:4-11).  God’s voice comes from heaven as Jesus is being baptized and says, “This is my beloved son.” 

There is a book entitled Beloved by Toni Morrison which is set just after the Civil War ended.  Beloved is the only word on a headstone in that story, and also the name of a character who shows up about halfway through the book.  Morrison tells an intense story about the horrors of slavery that makes us consider what it really means to be beloved.

Words affect how we think of ourselves, just as much as they affect how we think of each other.  Words form our identities. 

We might not always act like people God loves, but we are. 

“The word beloved means 'dear, favorite, worthy of love.' It’s a word that implies an action on the part of the one doing the loving. The God of the universe, the same God who paints a sunset, shapes a mountain and plans the waves at the beach, has chosen to love us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is. Our role in this is to BE-LOVED.“[1]

So if we really were to need just one word to put on our gravestones, to sum up our lives, to tell the world and ourselves who we are, I think maybe the best word is “beloved.”

Last Sunday I gave the congregation a business card with that word on it.  Business cards are what we leave behind so people will remember who we are.  This card says who we are:  Beloved.

And I challenged them to make this their word for 2015…a word to ponder.  What does it mean to be beloved?  How does that word affect how you see yourself?  How you see the world?  How you see the people around you?  How you see God?  How you relate to God?

We are beloved.

We don’t have to earn that.  We don’t have to boast about it to make it real.  We just have to accept it...accept that Jesus died for us, for our forgiveness, even if we don't fully understand it. 

The reality is that words can be just words, or they can be words we take to heart….words we truly believe…words that affect how we live.

When life isn’t going well, we might think maybe God doesn’t love us, but remember that Jesus was God’s beloved son and yet he was beaten and crucified.

We are still beloved even if we do the wrong things.  We are still beloved even if someone treats us badly.  We are still beloved no matter what anyone else says.

We are beloved.  What will that word mean to you?

 

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[1] https://awakenedbride.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/its-about-unconditional-love-3-beloved3/