Genesis 17

At some point in your education, you may have read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and you discovered in act 2 that famous quotation: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Juliet spoke those words as she talked to herself on her balcony, unaware that Romeo was listening below. She was pondering the fact that she belonged to the Capulet family and he to the rival Montagues, and that this accident of birth hindered them from getting married. What difference did two names make? No matter what his name was, Romeo was still her love!

Shakespeare notwithstanding, if you had asked a biblical character the question, “What’s in a name?” that person would have replied: “Everything! Our names are very important!” Names might record something significant about one’s birth (Gen. 29:31–30:24) or about some life-changing experience. Jacob was renamed Israel after a night of wrestling with God (32:24-32), and Simon received the name Peter (rock) when he met Jesus Christ (John 1:40-42). The names assigned to unborn babies even carried messages (Gen. 16:11; Matt. 1:18-25).

In this chapter, you will discover four new names and a name that will always be old because it cannot be changed.