What do you call yourself when no one is listening? What words come to mind when you look at your own life, your failures, your patterns, the things you can’t seem to shake off? What do you see when you look in the mirror? For many of us, the names we carry are heavier than we let on.
Jacob knew something about that. God had given him a new name at the Jabbok River. He would be renamed Israel.
But God comes again and reiterates the message that he is no longer to be called Jacob but Israel.
“After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram,God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob,but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.” (Genesis 35 v 9-10)
Again.
God had renamed Jacob back in chapter 32 after the wrestling match! But sometimes we need to hear things more than once.
God, in His grace, appears again and says the same thing: You are Israel, not Jacob.
The New Testament picks up this thread in striking ways. Jesus renames Simon as Peter, the rock. Paul (formerly Saul) carries a transformed identity into his apostolic calling. Revelation promises that the one who overcomes will receive “a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Rev. 2:17).
The principle is this: God sees through any name given by some assessment of you. He speaks a greater name over you, which is based not on what you are doing but on what He is doing.
Maybe when you look at yourself, when you look over your life, then words to describe you are more destructive than life-giving.
God’s word to you is this: “That name will no longer call you.”
Missions Paul 