Hope in Egypt – Ram and Amminadab

We have been processing through how Jesus’ ancestors produced an incredible prediction of Jesus’ actions and meaning, and in the last post we got through to the last names recorded in the book of Genesis: Judah, Perez and Hezron.

In this post we are going to look at the two generations born in Egypt and into slavery, we could have looked at three generations, but the last name in that list Nahshon plays an important part in the Exodus and besides his Grandfather and Father, Ram and Aminadab complete the prophetic thought started by Judah, while Nahshon starts a new revelationary thread.

So lets start with Ram.

Ram

We don’t know a lot about Ram, he is only mentioned in 1 Chronicles and the book of Ruth, but he is part of Jesus family tree. Now we have already encountered the name  “Ram”/”רם” as part of the name “Abram”/”אנרם” where we saw it meant to “raise up” or be “raised up” which is why “Abram” is often translated “Exalted Father” but we translated as “Raised by Father”. So “Ram” means “raise up” or “rise up” or “be raised up”.

Perhaps because he was disappointed in have such a short name, Ram calls his son Aminadab.

Amminadab

Aminadab is a bit more famous, as well as appearing in the lists of  Ruth and 1 Chronicles, he is refered to in Exodus and Numbers with a special mention for fathering Nahshon, who led the Tribe of Judah, and Elisheba who married Aaron.

“Amminadab”/”עמינךב” is made up of two parts. The first part “Ammi”/”” you might recognise from the name  “Lo-Ammi” the name Hosea names his child doubting that he is the Father because “you are not ‘my people’” – Hosea 1:9. “Ammi” can mean either “My People” or “People of…”. So the “nadab”/”נךב” part tells us what kind of people we are dealing with.

Funnily enough a form of the the word “nadab” has survived into English, through the British empires involvement in the near East. So in Disney’s version of Aladdin, the Geni sings: “I’m on the job, you dig, NABOB! you ain’t never had a friend like me.” The word nabob came into English for a person of independent means in the region of nations that end with -istan. Because “Nadab” means a free, wealthy or noble person.

So “Amminadab” means “A People of Liberty” (which is how Jones’ Dictionary of OT Names translates it) or  “My Noble People”.

So if you put the names Ram and Amminadab together you find a very apt prayer or encouragement for a people being subjugated by the Egyptians.

“Rise up my free people”

But letting Ram take the passive role, the two names complete the prophetic clause started with the name Judah. Remember Judah, Perez and Hezron told us that …

“Confess him/his quality breaks out of the stronghold”

Now adding Ram and Amminadab we get:

“Confess him/his quality breaks out of the stronghold, and raises up a free people!”

Now we saw previously how the names from Shem to Israel created a list of qualities that Jesus would be famous for. As we get hold of the truth of Him we are both released from all debts to sin and transformed into His freedom.

As Peter told we should: “live as free people“, 1 Peter 2:16,

Because as Paul put it: “even creation will be set free from bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of the children of God“, Romans 8:21

In the next post we will explore the remarkable man who led the crossing of the Red Sea… Nahshon, Amminadab’s son and Aaron’s brother-in-law.