Be You
“Naming Rights”
Genesis 35:16-19

In Bible days, only the father had naming rights to the child.

Jacob built an altar at a place he named Bethel because it had significant spiritual impact in his life. It appears that God is blessing him for his sacrifice and his wife, Rachel, is pregnant with a baby. They had wanted another child for a long time! 

Genesis 35:16-19

Things take a negative turn and she has great difficulty in labor.

Sometimes God will answer our prayer, but it will cost us more than we ever imagined.

When God gives you more, more will be required of you.

Luke 12:48

For Jacob, something was being born, but something else was dying. It wasn’t “all good” for Jacob. God never promises that things will be “all good” in our life. But what He does promise is found in…

Romans 8:28

With Rachel’s dying breath, she names her child “Ben-Oni,” which means “Son of my sorrow.” The Hebrew word for “oni” can also mean “strength.”

What if great strength comes from great sorrow?

“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” - A.W. Tozer

Genesis 35:18

Jacob renames the child “Benjamin” because only the father had naming rights.

Only our Heavenly Father has naming rights over us. If what others say about us or what we say about ourselves doesn’t line up with what the Heavenly Father sees in us, then we should ignore those names and labels.

Jacob renamed the child “Benjamin,” which means “son of my right hand.” The right hand was the hand of blessing, the very thing Jacob had spent his whole life trying to get. Jacob refused to forever view this child through the lens of what brought him into the world.

Just like Jacob, you have naming rights in your life.

The first 3 words of Genesis 35:21: “Israel moved on”

You will never be what God created you to be until you move on from some things.

“I will not dwell on what was lost; I will build on what remains!”

You are only being the way God created you to be when you are fully trusting Him.