ISRAEL - A New Name
Golda Myerson, David Grün, Yitzhak Yezernitsky and Szymon Perski are famous people you have definitely heard of. And they have something in common.
Do you know who David Grün is? That was the name of Israel’s famous first prime minister, who proclaimed the modern State of Israel on May 14, 1948, before he changed his name to David Ben-Gurion. The country’s first female prime minister also changed her name from Golda Myerson to Golda Meir after immigrating in 1921. Yitzhak Yezernitsky made a career as Yitzhak Shamir and the former president of Israel, born Szymon Perski, became known as Shimon Peres.
It is common for immigrants to Hebraicize their name after arriving in Israel. In addition to the symbolic meaning of a new beginning in the Promised Land, changing one’s name also has practical applications.
-www.israeltoday.co.il, 30 June 2024
Arno's Commentary
Those in colonial countries (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) are familiar with name changes by choice and sometimes necessity. Take the famous Polish example, Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz: no problem for Polish schoolchildren, but a tongue twister for the rest of the world. A change may be considered essential.
In Israel, a name change was practical—from their birth name to Hebrew. They literally received a new identity … no longer speaking the language of their mother tongue, but Hebrew.
This is a prophetic foreshadowing for the Church—those who are born-again of the Spirit of God. The early example is in the Old Testament; to Abraham, God said, “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:5). That was followed by the name change of his wife: “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be” (verse 15). A very significant and dramatic name change took place with Jacob; we read in Genesis 32:24a: “And Jacob was left alone.” It is noteworthy that it was not Jacob who wrestled with God, but “and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.”
Then follows something strange: The “man,” representing divinity, asked the question: “What is thy name? And he said, Jacob” (verse 27).
Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines Jacob as “heel-catcher, supplanter by popular etymology; but perhaps ‘he whom God protects’ from S. Arab. and Ethiopic ‘akaba, guard, keep.’” Yet from that point on, the name Jacob was still used, even by God. Why? Because Jacob in the flesh was a supplanter—in plain words, a sinner. However, his total reliance on the living, invisible God caused his name to be changed to Israel: “having power with God, or God’s fighter.”
But there is more to Israel. The prophet Isaiah proclaims: “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name” (Isaiah 62:2). Another name change. This, of course, is referring to the Jewish Messiah, whom we call the Lord Jesus Christ.
For each one of us, there will also be a new name. Even more, our nationality, race, heritage, culture, and family lineage will be done away with. In relationship to the Church in Pergamos, the mysterious, secret name would be reserved to “him that overcometh”: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2:17).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
