Reflections on a name change. By Registrar and Director of Student Life, John Golling.
Every day I am reminded that walking with Christ means inviting the humbling and sometimes painful experiences that are included in the process of spiritual transformation (1 Pet. 1:6-7). When walking with God, at times it feels like the Spirit is inviting us into a sacred dance and other times it feels like we are wrestling with God.
To learn to walk means to risk falling down.
To learn to dance means to risk the pain of a sprained ankle.
To wrestle with God and pursue His blessing means to risk damage to your hip (Gen. 32:22-32). But when Jacob wrestled with God, he not only received God’s blessing, but also met with God face to face, and received a new name. He was transformed. He walked away with a limp, and a new name, a new identity.
When Rebekah gave birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.
Names have meanings. Rebekah and Isaac’s second born son was grasping at the heel of their firstborn from the time they came out of the womb. When we think someone is telling us something that’s not true, we might say, “you’re pulling my leg,” and the people of the Ancient Near East had a similar figure of speech. To “grasp the heel” of someone was to supplant or usurp them, and the first half of Jacob’s life fit this description perfectly.
Jacob supplanted his brother by taking advantage of Esau when he was hungry and vulnerable. Esau had been out hunting for- who knows how long (my neighbor hunts for a week or two at a time!). And perhaps not making a kill, Esau comes straggling home, and stumbles into the family tribal camp- not just hungry, but famished, and on top of that, he is feeling the weight of failure. Jacob seizes on his brother’s weakness and cuts a deal that supplants his brother’s rights as firstborn.
Later, Jacob disguises himself, impersonates his brother, and lies to his blind father to secure the special family blessing. Now look carefully at what Esau says about Jacob’s name:
Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!”
Years later, Jacob is still trying to wrestle his way into the blessing of God. And while doing so, God says, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
When Jacob is renamed Israel, and this is significant because names have meanings.
Covenant Bible Seminary is becoming Covenant Bible Institute, and this is significant because these names have meanings.
A seminary is usually associated with training those who will go into full-time ministry as pastors or missionaries.
As a Bible Institute, we will have a broader scope, and the freedom to offer programs that equip every follower of Jesus for the ministry they are called to. We seek to gather for classes, conferences, and special celebrations to encourage and challenge each other, and to remind one another that we are not alone in this journey of faith.
So, perhaps you are wrestling with God right now. Seeking His direction, seeking His blessing, striving, straining, struggling. What will your new name be? What will be the outcome of your wrestling match? What “limp” will God give you as a reminder of your time of transformation? What will be the new identity that God will give you as you move forward into the next season of your life?
Is God calling you to make Covenant Bible Institute part of your spiritual and educational journey? We invite you to consider the Spring quarter classes as a possible next step in your quest to discover what God has in store for you!