A NEW NAME 

ISAIAH 62:1-7 

          The title of this morning’s message is “A New Name.”  Throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament as God dealt with individual people and with the Children of Israel as a nation He would often give them a new name.  The name they were given was often associated with some event that they were experiencing or the purpose of God in their lives.

GENESIS 17:1-5

          Abraham’s original name Abram means exalted father which probably up to that point only served to remind Abraham that he had no children.  He had worn that name Abram for 99 years being an exalted father to no-one.  In a civilization and culture where being childless was unheard of, the name exalted father to one with no children was a bad taste in the mouth.  But God, having a great purpose for Abram changed his name to Abraham, which means father of a multitude.  Receiving this name required faith for a childless man.  Faith that God would bring the name to reality, which of course God did.  Abraham is cited as the ancestor of the Israelites, the Ishmaelites, the Midianites, the Edomites and many other Arab races.  God changed his name to one that fit the purpose of God in his live.  (In Genesis 17:15 - He changed Sarah’s name for Sarai meaning princely to Sarah mean mother of princes.  He took her focus off of herself and put it on those she would nurture.) Ask God if He has a new name for you; one that is centered on His divine purpose for you.

           Many times we will find that the name given by the parents seemed to follow the character of the person.  But that name would no longer suit the person who had a life changing experience with God.  Thus God gave them a new name more suited to His purpose for them.

GENESIS 32:24-28

          The name Jacob means supplanter, underminer, heel, deceiver and cheater.  Jacob got his name because of the way he enter the world; holding on to his brothers heel.  He even cheated his way into life.  He held on for the ride and let his brother do all of the fight through the birth channel dragging him along.  His cheating and deceiving ways followed him way into adulthood.  But here God changes his name to Israel which means Prince or soldier of God, God wrestler.  He is told that he has wrestled with man and with God and come through the battle.  As the Father of the Children of Israel, the people who are to carry the name and power of God throughout the Earth, Jacob is to plant in them that spirit of survival, the warrior spirit that will not allow them to give up, but will seek to overcome every obstacle as they war for God.

MATTHEW 16:17-18

          The name Simon means ‘He that hears and obeys’ or ‘flat nosed’.  Peter is often described as hard headed, stubborn and impulsive and reckless.  That does not sound like some one who hears and obeys.  So maybe Simon had a flat nose.  Whatever the case Jesus renamed him Peter which means rock or a fragment of rock.  Peter was to remind the other disciples that the foundation on which the Church was to be built is that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.  He is no longer to be just a fisherman, but now he is to be a fisher of men.

          The name Saul meant demanding, lent, ditch and death.  This Saul is the arrogant one who requested permission to track down the Christians and kill them, demanding to know under what authority they preached this Jesus.  This same Saul is later called Paul which means small or little one.  God took one who thought himself to be great and powerful and made him to understand that he is just a small, minute part in the big scheme of things.  When many have turned to God, he gives them a new name to symbolize the new relationship that they enter into with him.

ISAIAH 62:1-5

          God says here that He himself will give Israel a new name.  What makes getting a new name so important sometimes is an understanding of the old name.  God says in verse 4 that they will no longer be called forsaken and their land would no longer be called desolate.  This is how the people of Israel saw themselves and how they saw their land. They were the ones who had been forsaken by their God, living in a land once flowing with milk and honey but now desolate.  We might be tempted to think that Israel is just having a pity party.  That they are not really a forsaken people nor is their land really desolate.  We might be tempted to think that maybe things for them were bad but they could not have been that bad; after all they are the people of God.

ISAIAH 1:2-15

          Israel was not having a pity party.  They had pushed God too far and he had left them to their own ways and at the mercy of their enemies surrounding them.  They had rebelled against God and had slid back into idolatry.  God had chastised them but they had refused to respond to His discipline and chose to rebel even more.  So He says to them bring me no more sacrifices.  I am weary of your ritual days.  Even when you lift your hands to me I will refuse to see them and when you pray I will not hear.  Israel was in bad shape with God.  Sometimes we toy with God so much and for so long that He decides to leave us to our own devises.  If you do not believe that God will release you Go back and read Romans Chapter 1:21-31 where it talks of God releasing those who knew enough to turn to him but refused to do, choosing not to glorify him. 

ISAIAH 2:6-9

          When God had chastised the people allowing their enemies to bring war against them, rather than turning to God they turned to their neighbors, made treaties with them which they were forbidden to do.  They used their riches to purchase horses and chariots thinking that building a great army would save them.  Their new friends plunged them even deeper into idolatry.  When we are down and out, feeling alone and in need of friends and assistance it is important who you turn to.  The enemy will certainly use every opportunity to draw you back to his side to his way of approaching life, promising you the fulfillment of your needs.  No matter what we are going through in life we must learn to always turn to God first.

ISAIAH 3:8-9

          The people had gotten so bad that they spoke against God and did not even bother to hide their sins.  Jerusalem had become another Sodom.

JEREMIAH 7:29-34

          This again explains why God was no longer in the midst of these people.  It is not so much that He left them but they left Him. They had filled his house with idols to worship and even built more place of idol worship.  Basically they evicted Him from his own house and chose to invite another to occupy his house.  Don’t be upset with Israel because we often do likewise.  We know that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We know that God though his spirit lives in us and we know that his desire is to live in a holy temple.  Yet we by continuing to sin and surrender to our own fleshly desires, crowd God out of our lives and invite his enemy to rule over his house. We like Israel set up idols in his house and worship them.  What Idols?  Anything that you allow to separate you from filling the will of God for your life is your idol.  That think is more important to you than God.  By yielding to sin, you serve sin.  Romans 6:16 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”  Anything or anyone who is more important to you than God and what God wants is an idol.

          For all of its rebellion and sin Jerusalem had earned the name of the desolate land and the people were had been forsaken by God.  So here in Isaiah 62 when the prophesy comes that there will be a time when Jerusalem and its people would be called by a new name, this is exciting news to the people.  The name that God will give them, Hephzibah, means the people in whom is my delight and Beulah means married or the place to which I am married or committed.  These new name signify a new relationship with God and a new commitment on His part towards the Children of Israel.  They will again be the people in whom God takes pleasure.  The fact that God would again delight in them tells us something about the people.

PROVERBS 11:20

          God will not just take delight in any and every thing.  Sometimes we humans find ourselves settling for just any old thing.  We get desperate for attention, friendship, companionship, and even feel desperate for love and we just settle for whatever we can get.  But God is not like that.  He is never willing to just settle for only what we care to give Him.  He always wants the best that we have.  Those who are upright or holy in their ways are a delight to him.  So for Him to call Israel his delight means that the people have again turned back to God and living uprightly.

JEREMIAH 9:23-24

          God says here that he delights in loving kindness, judgment and righteousness.  Thus when God says that Israel will again be his delight that indicates to me that not only are the people living righteously towards God but that they are again sharing right relationships among one another.  They are showing kindness to one another and are dealing fairly with each other.  We talked in Bible study of the importance of acting in love towards one another.  In fact John 13:34-35 says, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.   By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  God delights in seeing us have right relationships with one another.

PROVERBS 15:8

          When the people were forsaken and the land desolate God said that he would not hear their prayers, nor would he accept their sacrifices.  However, now that they were again living upright and in right relationship with God, He took pleasure in hearing their prayers.  God wants to hear from us when we live like we want to hear from him.  For Israel, being the delight of God again meant that the lines of communication were again open.

          To Israel again being the delight of God came with several benefits.

NUMBERS 14:8

          God guides those in whom he has delight and God makes provision for them.

          As in times past when God changed the name of someone or some group it marked a change in relationship or purpose.  Likewise giving Israel the name Hephzibah or the one in whom God delights marked a change in relationship between God and Israel. 

          As we enter this New Year ask God if he has a new name for you this year.  Your new name may not be Hephzibah – the one in whom God takes delight.  But might choose to call your new name Mahalalel – the one who gives or brings God praise.  He may give you the new name of Zabdiel – the one to whom God bountifully gives.  Or maybe your new name will be Zechariah – The one in which God remembers. Or maybe God wants to call you Elioenai – the one whose eyes are towards Jehovah.  Ask God if he has a new name for you but in doing so remember that a new name normally comes with a new relationship and a new purpose.