Phillip Owens
Names are important. A name is “a word or phase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing” (Webster). Names differentiate.
God has used names that distinctly designated some people from others, and some things from other things.
“Eve” means “living” or “life,” and God named her this “because she was the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). “Abram” meant “exalted father.” God changed his name to “Abraham” because its meaning distinctly designated who he was – “for I have made you a father of many nations” (Gen. 17:5). Jacob’s name was changed to Israel following his wrestling with an angel, because he had “struggled with God and with men, and…prevailed” (Gen. 32:28). When God “named” someone, that name accurately designated something about that person. This continues throughout the Old Testament.