Scripture reading: Romans 4:13-25.

Sermon text: Genesis 17:1-7.

Have you ever considered the meaning of your name? You may not know that most names have special meanings in their original languages. In my case, the name “John” comes from the Hebrew language (“Johanan”) and means “To whom Yahweh is gracious.” Many people have researched their names online to find the true meaning of the names they received from their parents.

Today’s sermon text tells us about the first name change mentioned in Scripture. Abram’s father, Terah, had named his son to reflect his own identity. The name “Abram” means “exalted prince.” Terah had descended from Shem, Noah’s godly son. At some point, Terah’s family had journeyed from the ancestral lands northwest of Mesopotamia and settled in Ur at the base of modern Iraq. While there, the family had grown very wealthy. Terah had probably played a large role in that process. When he named his firstborn son, Terah chose a name that reflected his accomplishments and standing in the family.

Terah became a father at age 70. This may seem extreme to us, but recall that Terah lived to the age of 205, so he had yet to reach middle age at this time. Abram married Sarai at some point before he left Ur to travel to Canaan, a journey he undertook at the calling of God (Genesis 12:1-3). The family traveled to the city of Haran in the ancestral areas of modern-day Syria. Terah died there, while Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew down to the land of Canaan.

When He called Abram, God had told him, “I will make of you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). Abram saw only one problem with this promise: He and Sarai had no children. Sarai had decided over a decade before the events of today’s text to offer her slave Hagar to Abram as a surrogate to bear him children. Hagar had given Abram a son, Ishmael, but events following his birth proved that Ishmael would never fulfill God’s promises to Abram.

Now, 24 years after God called Abram to leave the cosmopolitan environment of Ur and travel to the rural areas of Canaan, God appeared again to Abram. God’s appearance would change history as well as Abram’s life. God’s previous appearances to Abram had already changed Abram’s life; now, God would enact another piece of His plan to exalt Abram and, eventually, redeem the world from sin and death.

God appeared to Abram and told him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” In His introduction, God revealed a new named for Himself: “God Almighty.” This marks the first appearance of this name of God. God revealed to Abram that He alone is omnipotent; He alone wields the power to overcome all things, to enact His sovereign will over all creation.

God then issued a command to Abram and the result of Abram’s obedience to that command. God commanded Abram to “walk before” Him, or to live in accordance to His commands. This life would require Abram to walk “blamelessly” before God. God will later use the same word to describe the purity of the sacrificial animals in the covenant He made with Israel at Mt. Sinai.

I think people often forget that God’s commands always result in blessings to those who obey them. God doesn’t command His people to do things (or avoid things) without promising blessings to the obedient. In this case, Abram would receive great blessings as a result of His obedience.

God had already made a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15), a covenant that promised blessings and great nations to Abram. Covenants always work 2 ways; they bring blessings to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient. God would keep His part of the covenant to bless Abram as Abram walked in righteousness before God. God would also “multiply” Abram, meaning He would grant Abram the privilege of fathering many nations and peoples.

Abram responded to God’s appearing as we should today: He worshiped God. As Abram worshiped, God delivered the rest of His message to Abram. “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” God had already promised Abram that he would father a nation (Genesis 12:2); now, God promised Abram would father a “multitude” of nations. God gave Abram a constant reminder of this blessing when He changed Abram’s name. Abram, or “exalted prince,” would now be known as “Abraham,” or “father of many nations.” Abraham, formerly known as the son of an exalted prince, would be the ancestor of nations and kings.

God made a new promise to the newly named Abraham. “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” God had already made a covenant with Abraham; now, He promised covenant blessings and protection to Abraham’s offspring. God would serve not only as the God of Abraham but as the God of Abraham’s descendants.

The book of Genesis tells us the rest of the story. Abraham would indeed become the father of many nations, including the modern Arabs through Ishmael. Other nations who claimed Abraham as an ancestor included the Edomites, the Midianites, and the Amalekites. However, Abraham’s wife Sarah (yes, God changed Sarai’s name, too) would bear him a son named Isaac within a year of God’s appearing to Abraham in this text. The rest of the Old Testament reveals that God fulfilled His greatest promises to Abraham through Isaac’s descendants, specifically the descendants of Jacob, Isaac’s youngest son. Jacob would also experience a divine encounter leading to a name change. We also know Jacob as Israel, the ancestor of the Jews.

God’s great covenant with Abraham would exceed even the greatest expectations of His faithful servant. Abraham believed that God would use him to father great nations, but he had no way of knowing God would reach beyond human genetics to add untold numbers to Abraham’s descendants.

Roughly 2,000 years after Abraham, his greatest descendant, Jesus, would be revealed as the divine Son of God through His resurrection. Jesus had died a gruesome death at the hand of the Romans by the instigation of the Jewish leadership, but Jesus’ suffering and death accomplished the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans in today’s Scripture reading, Abraham’s faith resulted in “righteousness,” but not only to those who believed in his faithful descendants. Look again at St. Paul’s words:

1. But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:23-25).
   

Did you notice the good news of this passage? Everyone who believes in the God who raised “Jesus our Lord” receives inclusion as Abraham’s descendants. In other words, as St. Paul will write later in this book, everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord, believing God raised Him from the dead, will be counted as Abraham’s descendant through faith.

God’s appearance to Abraham resulted in a great covenant. Today, when God appears to us and convicts us of our separation from Him, He calls us to believe in Jesus, His Son. When we believe in Jesus, we receive the blessing of salvation; He forgives our sins and adopts us into His family (Romans 8). We receive the command to live righteously before God and others as an example of those whom God blesses so they, too, will seek a living relationship with a living God.

Many people who believe in Jesus have bad reputations before their belief; they’ve given themselves a bad name or besmirched the name of their families. However, when we believe in Jesus, we receive His name when He adopts us into His family. We have the privilege of knowing God forgives us of our sins and gives us the opportunity to make a new name for ourselves within the Church, His family on earth. When someone comes into the Church through salvation and baptism, we must give that person the opportunity to make a new name for himself and to restore his reputation.

In the book of the Revelation, St. John wrote to 7 churches located in the Asian provinces of the Roman Empire. To one church, Jesus said, “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (Romans 2:17). When God adopts us into His family at our conversion, our moment of belief in Jesus, He gives us a new name. While we do not know this name now, God shall use this name to refer to us throughout eternity.

Do you have a noble name? Regardless of the meaning of your name in this life, God promises you a new name in a new heaven and new earth. Everyone who believes in Jesus, calling on His name, will receive a glorious name.