I will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded, outcast
Lonely or afraid

I will change your name
Your new name shall be
Confidence, joyfulness
Overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God
One who seeks My face

What strong encouragement! What scriptural encouragement!

First sung by Eden’s Bridge in 1999, these lyrics are based on Isaiah 62:2-5. They echo themes found throughout Isaiah, promises made by God to his people.

Second Corinthians tells us:

No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (1:20-21)

And this promise, the promise of a new name, Jesus himself echoed twice in his messages to the churches in Revelation. Isaiah 62:2 says it this way:

You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

You shall no longer be called…

Wounded

Isaiah didn’t start with God’s promises. He started with God’s cry to a people who were choosing their own ways.

Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil. (Isa. 1:5-6)

In Isaiah’s day, God’s people were not acting like God’s people. Though they made a big deal of gathering to worship, many had abandoned and betrayed the Lord. Many were ignoring his commands, including and especially his command to love their neighbor. Many were deeply wounded.

God called his people to face all of that.

At the same time, the Lord offered hope and healing – to his people as a body, if they would take it. And even if they did not, to each person who would turn to him in their distress and pain.

Speaking through Isaiah, God held out belonging and life – to those willing to see what their religious culture had become, willing also to examine their own hearts.

Speaking for God, Isaiah described a man who would be wounded by the people of God. Despised, rejected, stricken, afflicted, this Man would do something no one else could. His coming, his intercession, was so certain to happen that Isaiah spoke as if it already had.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isa. 53:5)

Hundreds of years later, Jesus said Yes to every bit of that.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet. 2:24)

Outcast

When whole groups of people choose their own way, rather than God’s, much woundedness results, and also much shunning and exile.

It’s devastating to be shunned. It’s particularly devastating to be shunned for following God, by others you thought were following God.

Yet Jesus warned his followers that would happen. He told them one way it would look.

They will make you outcasts from the synagogue … These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.

Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy … and no one will take away your joy. (John 16:2-3, 20, 22 NAS95)

Through Isaiah, the Lord made promises to the outcasts of Israel – and, in Christ, to us.

For the Sovereign Lord, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel. (Isa. 56:8)

“For the Lord has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. (Isa. 54:6 NASB)

Lonely

“As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain, so will you always be my people, with a name that will never disappear,” says the Lord. (Isa. 66:22 NLT)

“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. (Isa. 54:1 NET)

Then you will say in your heart, “Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these – where have they come from?”

Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed. (Isa. 49:21, 23)

Afraid

Those who convict the innocent by their false testimony will disappear. A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice and who tell lies to destroy the innocent. That is why the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel, “My people will no longer be ashamed or turn pale with fear.” (Isa. 29:21-22 NLT)

Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame. Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth; you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment.

You will be reestablished when I vindicate you. You will not experience oppression; indeed, you will not be afraid. (Isa. 54:4, 14 NET)

Your new name shall be…

Confidence

The work of righteousness is peace, and the result of righteousness is quietness and confidence forever. (Isa. 32:17 TPT)

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb. 4:16)

Joyfulness

Isaiah had much to say about this one. Here’s a taste.

To all who mourn in Israel he will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory. (Isa. 61:3 TLB)

Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of deliverance. (Isa. 12:3 NET)

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. (Isa. 55:12)

Because you received a double dose of shame and dishonor, you will inherit a double portion of endless joy and everlasting bliss! (Isa. 61:7 TPT)

Again and again, the New Testament says Amen. Perhaps most simply:

The fruit of the Spirit is … joy. (Gal. 5:22)

Overcoming one

Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, and clothe yourselves with strength from God. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Zion, Holy City; for [those who tormented you and trampled your souls to the dust and walked upon your backs] will no longer enter your gates.

Rise from the dust, Jerusalem; take off the slave bands from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

Go now, leave your bonds and slavery. You are the holy people of the Lord. (Isa. 51:23; 52:1-2, 11 TLB)

What a stunning picture Isaiah painted of overcoming in Christ!

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. (1 John 5:4 RSV)

Faithfulness

The fruit of the Spirit is … faithfulness. (Gal. 5:22)

Isaiah’s life bore this fruit:

Morning by morning [God] wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Lord God has spoken to me, and I have listened; I do not rebel nor turn away.

I do not hide from shame [when] they spit in my face. Because the Lord God helps me, I will not be dismayed; therefore, I have set my face like flint to do his will, and I know that I will triumph. (Isa. 50:4-7)

Friend of God

Jesus said:

You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:14-15)

Isaiah wrote:

“Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you. (Isa. 54:10 NET)

One who seeks My face

In Isaiah’s day, the Lord lamented:

Day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.” (Isa. 58:2)

Isaiah lamented too. He called the people to accept their new name, to walk in their true, God-given identity.

Isaiah practiced what he preached. His heartcry was that of a true God-seeker:

My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. (Isa. 26:9)

The Lord delights in you

When God changes your name, it happens instantly. And it happens progressively.

You become new, by his grace, through his Spirit. And the becoming requires your cooperation. It takes faith and time.

Yielding to Christ as Lord, you commit to him, and receive his commitment to you. The new begins to challenge the old whenever the old reappears.

Learning to live in two worlds, you begin to see from God’s perspective what is happening here and now.

Crying out when you’re wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid, you learn to wait and watch for your Lord to show you the truth as to why, and the way to overcome.

For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name. (Isa. 54:5)

He is Faithful and True. Even when you cannot for the life of you see it happening, he is accomplishing what he has said in Isaiah 62:2-5.

You will be called by a new name,
which the Lord’s own mouth will determine.
You will be a splendid garland in the Lord’s hand.
You will no longer be called Abandoned.
Instead, you will be called My Delight Is in Her,
because the Lord delights in you.
With the joy of a bridegroom because of his bride,
so your God will rejoice because of you. (CEB)

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“I will change your name,” our Lord says. Overcoming in Christ, we say, Amen.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

See also

• Leah no more
• Shunning in the church
• To the exiles scattered (by abuse in the church)
• Treachery and divorce: When God sees betrayal
• Living by the Spirit
• Living in two worlds
• The blessing of mourning