Numbers 1:17-19 (KJV) 17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names: 18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. 19 As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 1:13 (KJV) 13 Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ocran.
Numbers 2:27 (KJV) 27 And those that encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran.
There are three names given in our text, in chronological order they are Asher, Ocran and Pagiel.
I. Asher
Before I deal with the meaning of his name it is important for you to get some background. His daddy was Jacob which means supplanter or heal grabber, his mom was Zilpah, a concubine of Leah whose name means dripping with myrrh. It is important to note that while this relationship should never have happened, still God can bring good out of a bad situation. From this relationship came a child whose name means “happy”. He is proof that happiness can come from bad situations.
Joseph told his brothers, what you intended for evil, God has meant for good. It took 39 years for the good to be seen but still God turned it around.
We need some Asher’s in our generation. We need some folks that won’t allow the situation they were born into to determine who they are. Too many in our society want to blame everyone in their lives for what is going on in their life. If they are an alcoholic, they want to blame their daddy. If they are depressed they want to blame their momma but I serve a God who makes all things new.
He didn’t come to help you cope with the failures of your ancestor’s, he came to make all things new.
He didn’t come to justify your excuses, Paul declares, ”Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Somebody needs to shout “ALL THINGS!”
I refuse to live my life whining and crying over the situation that I was born into. Someone once said concerning their parents, “I didn’t choose to be born to you” but I want to remind you, God used your parents as a tool to get you into this world. Stop cursing the tools that God used and get to the place that you where you come to realize it’s not about the means and method that brought you in to existence, it is that God wants to turn your past into something beautiful.
What you were born in to does not have to be how you live.
History is replete with testimonies that support this statement:
Frederick Douglass-Born into slavery, violence, and separation from his parents; taught himself to read and became leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave.
Failure is a blessing when it pushes us out of a cushioned seat of self-satisfaction and forces us to do something useful.— Napoleon Hill
Abraham Lincoln lost his job, failed in business, had his sweetheart die, had a nervous breakdown, and lost almost every political office he ever ran for before becoming elected the 16th President of the United States. With each set back, he also rebounded to greater success.
Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was three years old and failed to impress his teachers all the way through college. His instructors thought Einstein was lazy, sloppy, insubordinate, and that he would never amount to anything.
Elvis Presley was fired by the manager of the Grand Ole Opry, after his first performance, with Jimmy Denny telling him “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”
Lucille Ball began studying to be actress in 1927; she was told by the head of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, “Try any other profession” and yet she still went on to be one of Hollywood’s most talented comedic actresses.
Vincent VanGogh sold only one painting in his life time and yet completed over 800 known works, not becoming famous until after his death.
The fact that you were born poor does not mean you have to stay poor.
You may have been born with a disability but you don’t have to let what you can’t do become what you do.
I’m glad I serve a God of new beginnings!
Somebody right now needs to receive that
His name was Asher! Asher-to be straight,to be level,to go forward, be honest, prosper, blessed.
His situation wasn’t happy but he was.
Your situation may not be straight but you better be.
Everything that you were born into may be crooked and warped but you have to choose to be straight and level.
When everything in Asher’s life could have drug him backward he remembered his name means to go forward.
It’s time to go forward!
Someone needs to get this. Everything in your past is trying to drag you back but it’s time to go forward.
Someone shout, “Asher! I’m straight, level headed, honest, prosperous and blessed, I’m not going backward I was born for this hour and it’s time to move on!”
II. Ocran
He was born into happiness but he is not living up to the name. His name means muddler, troubled, one who stirs up.
Do you know anyone like that? The only thing they want to do is stir up stuff. Muddled-confuse, mix up, jumble (up), disarrange, disorganize, disorder, disturb, mess up, bewilder, confused, perplexed, puzzled, baffled, mystified.
We have no recorded history of the life of Ocran other than a few verses where he is listed as having come from Asher and was the father of Pagiel so I don’t know what led to him being given the name muddler but I can assure you, that is one name that I wouldn’t want to live up to.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV) 33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
God is not the author of confusion, the Greek word that is used there means-instability, disorder,commotion, confusion, tumult.
He is not the author of chaos but peace which means -prosperity Unity, peace, quietness, rest
Ask yourself this question, “When I walk into a room do I bring peace, quietness or rest or do I bring disorder, commotion or confusion?”
You will be a person that brings rest where ever you go or you will bring turmoil.
John 14:1 Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled…” the word troubled is “taraso” in the Old Testament there is another word that is used for it, guess what that word is. Ocran means trouble, or one who causes trouble turmoil, instability, disorder, commotion, confusion.
In effect Jesus is saying, “don’t let your heart be Ocran…”
III. Pagiel- The third person in our text whose name means, “an accident of God”
Accident-an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury
What a horrible name to give to someone, what a burden to carry that name all of your life.
Perhaps you have lived your life wondering if you were an accident.
Perhaps you have lived your life knowing you were an accident, because your parents told you over and over. Some of you sitting here today feel as if you have no value because you know that your parents never wanted you to start with.
One of the great joys that Tammy and I have had, along with many of you, was to be a part of the Foster Kid’s Christmas Party. Each year we were able to watch as hundreds of children for a little while forget their situation and just have a good time. Many of them are living what I am talking about, they feel as if it would have been better if they never would have been born.
Please listen to me today friend, You matter to God! You matter to us!
Isaiah 44:2 (KJV) 2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Psalm 139:14 (KJV) 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
The body is wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). It consists of various chemicals -- iron, sugar, salt, carbon, iodine, phosphorus, lime, calcium, and others. The body has 263 bones; 600 muscles; 970 miles of blood vessels; 400 cups on the tongue for taste; 20,000 hairs in the ears to tune in to all sounds; 40 pounds of jaw pressure; 10,000,000 nerves and branches; 3,500 sweat tubes to each square inch of skin (or 40 miles long); 20,000,000 mouths that suck food as it goes through the intestines; 600,000,000 air cells to the lungs that inhale 2,400 gallons of air daily; and a communication network that relates to the brain instantly any known sound, taste, sight, touch or smell. The heart beats 4,200 times an hour and pumps 12 tons of blood daily.
Psalm 8:4 (KJV) 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? zakar to mark or remember continually, as perpetual incense rising; to set the heart upon; to keep continually in merciful view.
Psalm 139:1-18 (GW) 1 O LORD, you have examined me, and you know me. 2 You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away. 3 You watch me when I travel and when I rest. You are familiar with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a {single} word on my tongue, you know all about it, LORD. 5 You are all around me—in front of me and in back of me. You lay your hand on me. 6 Such knowledge is beyond my grasp. It is so high I cannot reach it. 7 Where can I go {to get away} from your Spirit? Where can I run {to get away} from you? 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. 9 If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun {or} land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets, 10 even there your hand would guide me and your right hand would hold on to me. 11 If I say, “Let the darkness hide me and let the light around me turn into night,” 12 even the darkness is not too dark for you. Night is as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same {to you}. 13 You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother. 14 I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, when I was being skillfully woven in an underground workshop. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus. Every day {of my life} was recorded in your book before one of them had taken place. 17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God! How vast in number they are! 18 If I try to count them, there would be more of them than there are grains of sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Paliel the Accident of God- Can I show you what God thought of him. He made him the chief of all of the happy tribe. He blessed him with the highest position in the tribe of Asher. God can raise you and I up to a place we never dreamed we would see.
