“And he called the name of that place Beth–el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. The name Bethel — house of God — replaces the previous name Luz. The place is renamed by the encounter: what was one thing before Jacob slept there is another thing afterward. The renaming of places after divine encounters is the biblical practice of making the geography carry the theology. Revelation 2:17 promises a new name to the one who overcomes — Jacob's renaming of Luz is a small picture of the larger renewal of identity that encounter with God produces. The application: some places in your life deserve new names based on what happened there. What Luz in your own journey has become Bethel?
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