what's in a name?

This little news item from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter caught my eye:

Three-month-old Ilya Eyvazov has no official name. Local authorities in the town of Aliabad (Azerbaijan) at first refused to issue a birth certificate when they saw the baby's name was the Russian form of Elijah. After a month, Novruz Eyvazov, the baby's father, succeeded only in securing a birth certificate that left his son's name blank. Considered part of a "foreign" religious sect, the three Baptist congregations in Aliabad face ongoing harassment from the local government, which has refused them official church registration for the past 13 years.

I wouldn’t normally associate refusal to register a child’s name as persecution. However in this Maine-sized country of almost 8 million people, where 93% are Muslim and only 1.8% follow the religion “other” (that ‘other’ excluding Russian and Armenian Orthodox), choosing to call your child Elijah is obviously a big enough deal to withhold the very basic right of having his name / personhood acknowledged.

It would seem the Azeri officials are aware of the weight the name Elijah brings with it – both in story and meaning. The prophet Elijah in the Old Testament was the man through whom God did all kinds of signs and wonders in Israel and who shamed King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. Plus Elijah means “Yah is God.” That would certainly rankle! I love it that these people are taking a stand with something as taken-for granted as a name.

Join with me in praying for little Ilya and his family – that his name will be allowed to be registered on that certificate, and that he will have an Elijah destiny on his life.

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