“And the Lord brought Abram forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if you can. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:5)
Abram (Exalted Father) used his imagine-a-nation, believed God, and through son Isaac and grandson Jacob, became Abraham (the Father of Many Nations). God inserted the “ah” in his given name to mark the difference between the man he was and the man who by faith he would become.
His given name Abram was a good one, but his God-given name was much more descriptive. The inserted “ah” better extended it to match the growth in and through him, his faith would produce. His name extension would match his growth expansion. His wife Sarai, whose name means Leader, had the “i” in her name replaced by an “h”, which changed it to Princess. The “ah” is intriguing, given the similar change of Abram to Abraham.
There are other instances of name change in the Bible, not least from that of Jacob (Trickster, or Manipulator) to Israel (Prince with God). Jacob had wrestled with God (in the form of the Angel of the LORD) and had prevailed. (The nation of Israel is still wrestling — currently with its enemies — and is still prevailing. Praise God!
God’s gift of righteousness (good standing with Him) is for spiritual non-Jews as well for as the physical descendants of Abraham. Paul the Apostle writes that the promise is certain “to all the descendants, NOT ONLY to those that are of the law BUT ALSO to those that are of faith”. Abraham is the “father of us all” by faith, through which God “gives life to the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:16-17).
Abraham’s faith and imagine-a-nation enabled him to father Isaac, who fathered Jacob, who fathered the sons who collectively were called by Jacob, whose name-change was one of the most significant in the entire Bible. (When Israel the nation acted foolishly, God called it Jacob, e.g. Malachi 3:6).
So, does your name match your vision? God has a new name ready for those who overcome, “a name which no one knows except the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17 & 3:12). I wonder if that new name will sum up what you did in this life. Might it identify you by what you accomplished through the faith that God gave you? Since Abraham is the father of all who believe, then his spiritual descendants have it genetically?
May your new name in glory identify you with what God accomplished through you!