Named and Renamed

“God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’ So Jacob said to his household.., ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone…’

“And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel),.. he and all the people who were with him, and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother... God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.  God said, ‘Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name…’ God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.’  Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.  And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.” Genesis 35:1-3,6-7,9-15

Jacob returned from Paddan-aram older and wiser, a different man from the despised cheat who had fled Canaan at his mother’s insistence twenty-plus years earlier. He who’d deceived had been repeatedly deceived himself, and humbled. He’d wrestled with God, who had strived with him. He’d learned to recognize the folly of foreign gods, and directed his family to put them away. The Lord wanted his reentry to the promised land to be marked with a new direction, a new identity, a new name, a higher purpose. (Genesis 25:26; 32:22-32)

Man is identified by names that often describe a desired characteristic or prophetic role. When we come to know the Lord, we gain identity as His child, and He writes His name on our hearts. Though we continue to wrestle in the flesh, we are by faith His own. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

Do we bear His name with grace, kindness, and honesty? What attitudes and behaviors detract from Him? What identities need I be finished with, once for all, so He is recognized and honored?

“O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that’s sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me:

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
my great Redeemer’s throne;
where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Jesus reigns alone:

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can part
from him that dwells within:

A heart in every thought renewed,
and full of love divine;
perfect and right and pure and good —
a copy, Lord, of thine.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
come quickly from above;
write thy new name upon my heart,
thy new best name of Love.” ~Charles Wesley (1742)

Amen!