Taking on a name.

Heard an interesting sermon today on the ancient practice of a blood covenant:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pastormikebranch#p/u/0/Q2zYZ6SB2FI
It is a great listen. In it, Pastor Mike speaks of 9 aspects of a blood covenant and how in Christ, He fulfilled it for us.

But there is one aspect that really caught my attention- the taking on of each others names. When two people would take on a blood covenant, they also took on part of each others names.

In Genesis 15 God is declaring the promise He made with Abram back in chapter 12. This time he is using the blood covenant ritual. He continues it in Chapter 17 by commanding Abram to be circumcised.

He then changed Abrams name by inserting his name, "yah", to Abram's name. Yah is a breath sound, it is one of the names of God from which we get Jehovah and others:

Abr-"ah"-am

God also changes Sarai to Sar-"ah".

I knew about the name change, but never the "ah" being a name for God, a derivative of "Yah".
Now, when I see the name Abraham, I now can see God in Abrams life.

It does not stop there either…

Have you ever noticed how God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In a sense, He added them to His name too.

Over 50 times in the Bible God refers to Himself as their God.

The deeper I dive into the word, the more beautiful it is.