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📖 What’s in a name?
When Abram became Abraham
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What’s in a name?
In Genesis 12, we read the story Abram, a 75 year old, childless would-be family man that God calls to start a nation.
The following chapters detail Abram on this journey and all the changes that happen along the way.
One such change comes in chapter 17 when Abram is rebranded as “Abraham,” the name many of us know him by today.
The Name Game
God changes Abram’s name to Abraham.
This change came 24 years after God called Abram when he was 99. A little late in the game, don’t you think?
So why does God do it?
God’s covenant with Abram (Genesis 15).
The change concerns the covenant (promise) that God made with Abram.
As part of His plan to redeem humanity, God promises the elderly, childless Abram that he will become “the ancestor of a multitude of nations.”
The irony of referring to Abram like this isn't lost on the reader, nor Abram himself. How could a 99-year-old man possibly produce such a vast lineage?
Well, as is the case with most of the Bible, the answer comes not in what man is capable of but what God is capable of.
God will make Abram this father of many nations; all Abram has to do is be faithful to the covenant and follow the Leader…
…he’s also gotta do some other stuff we’re not getting into today (Genesis 17v9-14)...
Ancestor of Multitudes
To remind Abram of his calling, God changes his name.
Abram the exalted ancestor becomes Abraham, the ancestor of a multitude.
That change was huge, as names in the Bible had an intimate bearing on an individual’s identity.
You might just be Brian, Fred, or Jessica but for Abram, this was a matter of identity, who God was calling him to be.
In the Bible, names communicate important aspects of an individual’s identity.
Such changes are characteristic of God because it’s not only Abraham’s identity He seeks to switch.
Becoming a follower of God requires adopting a new identity. With that new identity inevitably comes change, change to who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we live.
So this week we’re looking at how God intersects with our universal human ache for identity.
And believe me, it’s quite the ache.
That’s all for now.
Be blessed.
Jon,
Theophilus Newsletter
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