Micaiah Harrison Traylor

"As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak." - 1 Kings 22:14

Those words were said many years ago in Israel during the reign of Ahab, by God's prophet, Micaiah. At this point in Israel's history, the kingdom is split and we have Israel and Judah. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, comes to Ahab and pretty much says Syria has some of our land, join with us to go get this land back. Ahab agrees, but before going out to battle they inquire from prophets to see if they should go do this. I Kings 22 says they gathered about 400 prophets to hear from God as to whether or not they should go fight, and the 400 prophets are unanimous, saying "Go and fight. God will give you victory." However, Jehoshaphat says, "Is there not another prophet of the Lord whom we can inquire?" Ahab says there is another prophet, Micaiah, but he hates Micaiah, because he always prophesies evil concerning him. But Jehoshaphat insists, so they go get the prophet Micaiah. The messenger that summons Micaiah tells him that the other 400 prophets were unanimous in their decision, and encourages Micaiah to speak favorably. But Micaiah's response is, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak." Well, in a nutshell what happens is that Micaiah stands before the two kings and the 400 prophets and ticks EVERYONE off. He mocks the two kings and then tells them that God says if they go to battle they will be scattered and Ahab will be killed. And then, he tells the 400 prophets that the reason they have falsely prophesied is because God says they have been enticed by a lying spirit. As we all could probably guess what happens next is that Micaiah gets beaten and thrown in prison. Isreal and Judah go off to war where Ahab is killed and the rest of them are scattered.

Vanessa and I have known for a while now the name for our baby boy. At first we were keeping it a secret because we weren't 100% sure yet. But I think part of that uncertainty was because of insecurity. Initially we were sligthly concerned if people might think Micaiah to be a strange name. But over time we have come to realize the name Micaiah is the name that we believe God wants this child to go by. From the moment we found out the Lord was entrusting us with a child, we immediately started thinking about names. Vanessa and I really believe a name is important. We live in an age and culture where people really don't put much thought into the name they give their child. Unlike many years ago when people chose names because there was a hope that the child would grow up to be like that person, or embody that characteristic, nowadays, people pick names because it sounds pretty. But in Scripture, we see that a name is important. Think about all the times God through His Word makes an emphasis on people's names. And think about the times God Himself actually changes people's names (I can think of 5 off the top of my head: Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, and Saul to Paul. Two other examples I also thought of, though they don't involve an actual name change, but rather involve God saying what the babies' name should be, are John the Baptist and Jesus).

Anyways, as you can see, we believe someone's name is something important to God, and so therefore, we wanted to take this process very seriously. At first we were thinking of carrying on my name. My dad is Hartwell Harrison Traylor, Sr. and I'm Jr. And so I've always thought it'd be cool to carry on the name, and perhaps many years from now there would be a Hartwell Harrison Traylor the 100th somewhere here on this earth. But after talking it over a lot, we finally decided against continuing the name. The main reason we decided that was because we have some friends who are Jr. and the 3rd. And I've heard the 3rd say before how it actually is very frustrating because when his grandfather (Sr.) was alive, mail was always getting screwed up, pharmacies were mixing up medicines, etc. So these friends of ours decided not to continue the name simply to spare their son from all those hassels. That made sense to us, so we decided there must be another name out there.

We came upon the name Micaiah by "chance". While teaching at Heritage, the first thing the teachers did every morning was lead their class in a Bible study. The school just so happened to be going through the book of 1 Kings. So one day, Vanessa and her students were in chapter 22 of 1 Kings. That morning Vanessa sent me a text asking me what I thought of the name Micaiah, and said to go read 1 Kings 22. I read it, and immediately thought this is our boy's name.

Now, do we want the same outcome of the prophet Micaiah to happen to our little boy? Of course not. We hope he gets to enjoy a long, fruitful life, with God's face shining upon him and the wind always at his back, and that he can enjoy many, many, many blessings of God. There's a shortage of men in America today. And rather than speak the things of God (which WILL cause division), they keep their mouths shut so they can fill their pockets with money. Our prayer is that God will use Micaiah and his peers to cause this country to return to God. Our prayer is that instead of being a coward and taking the easy way out by not speaking the words of God, Micaiah will stand up for God in the boardroom, or in the marketplace, or in the schools, and all the other places God takes him.

So there you have it! Vanessa has been asking me to write this post explaining how the Lord led us to this name. I'm sure she will be quick to follow up with other things that I forgot to mention!