What's in a name

“And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:28

My name is Myoung. Does that sound familiar? That’s right, I started my last’s week devotional message with that sentence and I said it again. I wanted talk a little bit more about my name.

Our family came to the US when I was in second grade. We lived here for about three and a half years before we moved to the Philippines. While we lived in America I kind of wanted an English name. Many Korean Americans had English names. My Korean name is difficult for many people (including some of you) to pronounce. It also seemed cool to have an English name, too. But I never got one.

I asked dad one time, “Why can’t I make an English name?” His reply was simple and clear, “Because I gave you your name.” If you recall from last week how dad made my name, you know that dad put a lot into my name. My whole identity of how I was born and who I am is all defined in my name that dad gave me. And dad was not going to let my identity be tampered by some random American name just because it looked cooler. That is how important one’s name is. And it was the case for people in the Bible, too.

Jacob lived a life of deception. After many years of running away, he finally surrendered all of himself to God. And God changed his name to Israel. Because Israel now had a new identity. It wasn’t just a simple name change. He became a new person.

Revelation 2:17 writes, “And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” God has a name for us. God has changed us and we can call Him Father!