Springs Church of Christ

One of the things that fascinated me as a child about the Bible stories I was learning at home and in bible class was all the name-changing.  We had the obvious ones:  Abram and Sarai changed to Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 17).  Jacob changed to Israel (Gen. 32).  We also read about someone who changed their own name: Naomi, meaning pleasant, changed her name to Mara, meaning bitter, returning home after losing her husband and sons (Ruth 1).  Solomon was still referred to as Solomon even though the Lord through Nathan gave him the name Jedediah, meaning beloved of the Lord, (2 Sam. 12).  I sometimes forget that Joshua, meaning Yahweh saves, was originally Hoshea, meaning salvation (Num. 13).  I always had trouble remembering that Daniel spent much of his life being called Belteshazzar and that Shadrach, Meshach, & Abed-nego were the Babylonian names of Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah (Daniel 1).    Even Joseph received a new name from Pharaoh after being promoted to run the country (Zaphenath-paneah, Gen. 41:45).

If you will notice, all of these name changes were associated with a special blessing, a change in language and culture, or a new role and status.  When God changed a name there was special significance because God’s infinite wisdom had determined a new name was appropriate.  The people following the wise, brave, and righteous Joshua needed to remember that Yahweh saved, not the flesh and blood leader before them.  Sometimes it was significantly prophetic like in the case of Abraham.  God changed his name to mean “father of a multitude” 25 years before the son of promise Isaac was born. 

What about you and me?  I know that the practice of name change still exists in some forms today.  Usually, a woman changes her surname to match her husband’s when she gets married, signifying the attachment to her new family.  An adopted child oftentimes receives a new name. Some religious groups, notably nuns and Franciscan friars in the Catholic faith, change their names when they take vows to their prospective orders.  A new Pope will choose a new name when elected to the papacy.

God has not given you or me a new name as individuals, but as a group we are called something new.  The Lord has changed our name.  In Isaiah 62:4, it says “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate;

But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married.”  The Lord through Isaiah had spent much of the preceding chapters passing judgment on the wicked people of Israel, calling them forsaken and their land barren and desolate.  But with the spiritual blessings to come through Christ, God’s people will go from “Forsaken” to “Hephzibah”, a name which means “My delight is in her”.  Just as a “bridegroom rejoices over the bride” according to the next verse, “So shall God rejoice over you.”  God also changes the name of the land in verse 4, from “Desolate” to “Beulah” (this is where we get the words for the song by that name).  Beulah means married.  This prophecy does not describe a miraculous change in the terrain of the same land today occupied by the modern nation of Israel.  Even with the advancement of agricultural technology and irrigation practices, the climate is much the same, much of the terrain is the same rocky, dusty place that David walked, then Jesus and the Apostles, the crusaders of the Middle Ages, and on through today.  It is not, as so many today believe, a miraculous claim on a piece of land believed to be ruled for 1,000 years by Jesus upon His return.  The “Hephzibah” is not the children of Abraham, just as the “Beulah land” is not the rocks and dirt of old Palestine.

We are children of God, heirs of salvation, forgiven and sanctified children of the living God.  We are no longer the forsaken, but the church sanctified in His blood, the Hephzibah (1 Cor. 6:11)

Romans 8:16-17 – “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Acts 26:17-18 – “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

2 Cor. 11:2 – “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

As so many in the world today fight to hold on to that dusty piece of land full of history and sentimental value, the scriptures teach that the Beulah land we seek, and the one promised to us, is not a physical place at all.

Heb. 11:13-16 - These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”