Names are very important to us. We don’t like it when people besmirch our names, because our names represent us. I was always embarrassed as a kid when my parents would tell my friends that they called me “Diaper Dan” when I was a baby. Nothing like being called “Diaper Dan” by all the kids in Junior High.
We also take great care in choosing the name of our children. We want the name to sound good. We say it out loud. We write down. We try all the different variations we can think of. We don’t want kids on the playground turning it into a taunt. There as a little girl named “Rhea.” It was a cute name until the kids at school stuck a “dia” in front of it.
Then there are those parents you have to wonder what they were smoking when they named their children. One person has to go through life with the name Mason Dixon, but if that’s not enough another wears the moniker Mason Jar. A Florida woman’s name declares Ima Rose Bush. However, that’s not as bad as the daughter of a former Texas governor Hogg. His daughter’s name: Ima Hogg.
Sometimes twins spells double trouble when it comes to names. There’s Nip and Tuck, A.C. and D.C. Benson and Hedges, and the worst twin names of all time: Bigamy and Larceny.
Names were also important to ancient Biblical cultures. In fact, they took names much more seriously than we do. To them a name was not just a label, but a window to their heart. A name was part of their identity. Knowing this, God often game names or changed names to reflect His purpose He had for people.
This is what we find in Genesis 17 where He gives four new names. God reveals a new name for himself, gives new names to Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) and also unveils the name of their promised son, Isaac. These names were not just new labels, but were to be reminders of God promise and His plan for their lives.
It turns out that Abraham’s new identity in God’s plan and his new understanding of who God is has a lot to teach us. Knowing who God us changes who we are.