This does seem to be a pattern, doesn't it? We have Abram ("exalted father") to Abraham ("father of many"), Sarai to Sarah (what's significant about that change?), and now Jacob ("he grasps the heel") to Israel ("he struggles with God"). Names meant things back then, and the changes (at least in the case of the men) signify what God is doing to bring His covenant about.
Names don't have the same meaning for us today, but this sort of seems to foreshadow 2 Cor. 5:17 ("Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"). My name didn't change when I got saved, but my identity certainly did. Now my behavior needs to follow!
Gen. 35:10 Again, why the name change?
ReplyDeleteThis does seem to be a pattern, doesn't it? We have Abram ("exalted father") to Abraham ("father of many"), Sarai to Sarah (what's significant about that change?), and now Jacob ("he grasps the heel") to Israel ("he struggles with God"). Names meant things back then, and the changes (at least in the case of the men) signify what God is doing to bring His covenant about.
Names don't have the same meaning for us today, but this sort of seems to foreshadow 2 Cor. 5:17 ("Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"). My name didn't change when I got saved, but my identity certainly did. Now my behavior needs to follow!