Christ gives us new names

Numbers 32:34-38 (KJV)
And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, [35] And Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah, [36] And Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fenced cities: and folds for sheep. [37] And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, [38] And Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other names unto the cities which they builded.

Gave other names unto the cities which they builded. Cities like Nebo and Baal-meon were cities dedicated to the idols of the Canaanites, Nebo being the name of a god, and Baal-meon meaning 'habitation of Baal'. But the tribe of Reuben being noble men, decide to change their names for the glory of God.

Nebo was a high mountain, and men probably thought that their god Nebo resided there, or that their god was as high as the mountain. But how different is our God from Nebo? The God who has created the heavens and the earth does not reside on top of mountains. As it is written:
2 Chronicles 6:18 (KJV)
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
It is impossible then that such a great God would reside in mountains. God fills every corner of the whole universe, and more. Neither is the mountain comparable to the height of our God:
Psalm 113:4-6 (KJV)
The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. [5] Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, [6] Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!
God's glory is above the heavens and all nations, and He needs to bend lower to behold the heaven itself. Our God is therefore called the Most High God. But how they exchanged such high glory of God, to compare Him to a mere mountain which He made with His own hands!

Nebo was nothing but a picture of the Canaanites' pride. They saw themselves high and mighty as the mountain, and exalted themselves above God. Yet they were brought low to destruction. Why does God hate pride? Because it is looking, exalting and worshiping of oneself, in neglect of God who is higher than all things. It is a stealing of God's glory. God is the one who is due the most praise, worship and glory, for He is higher, bigger and more important than anything in the entire universe. But we steal all the praise and give it to our own selves. It is like living next to the Mount Everest, yet saying to a small hill next to it 'How high, mighty and glorious is this hill?' This is the foolishness of our pride, and it is great offense to God. Nebuchadnezzar thought that he was great, until he lifted up his eyes to heaven and understood that God was in heaven and that he on earth:
Daniel 4:34-37 (KJV)
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: [35] And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? [36] At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. [37] Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
Nebuchadnezzar became a man from a beast when he finally understood that God is the Most High. He became honorable again as He honored God. He became excellent again as He began to extol and praise the King of kings. He became something again when he regarded himself and the rest of mankind as nothing. He became glorious again when he realized God's glory in His sovereignty. This is how a high mountain is cut down, and the valley filled:
Luke 3:5-6 (KJV)
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; [6] And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Every Nebos and high mountains will be made low. All who humbles himself shall be exalted, but only to the level of the plain. All places shall be made smooth plains. Why? So that all men shall see the only One who is lifted up. And who is this only exalted one? It is Jesus Christ, the Salvation of God. Read this:
Isaiah 2:2 (KJV)
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
This Mountain is the Church, but it is also Christ Himself. Jesus Christ is the only Mountain that God is pleased to dwell in. Salvation cannot be found in any other mountains for God is not in them. And by the preaching of the Gospel, Christ crucified shall be lifted up above the nations for all mankind can see. As the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, and all who only saw were healed, all nations shall see Him through the proclamation of the message, and be saved. What idols or gods would be sacrificed instead for their own worshippers? There is no God like this. Other gods or idols demand and force offerings from its people, but our Christ gives us everything we can offer Him. Our God carries us all the way through our journey as a Father, but idols need to be carried by us. They cannot save:
Isaiah 46:1-4 (ESV)
Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock;these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts. [2] They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. [3] "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; [4] even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Neither can our selves and our pride carry nor save us. We are all wounded with and dead in sin, and we need Another to carry us. It must be Jesus Christ. And trusting in Him means to throw all our weight into His arms, that He may carry us as a baby all the way to His kingdom. Let us stop being proud, become little children, and trust in Him.

Baal-Meon was a city devoted to the worship of Baal. It was probably where the statues and figures were made and sold, or where there was the main temple to which idolators gathered to indulge in their sin. Whatever it was, it had enough reputation as the head quarters of Baalism to be named the Habitation of Baal. Remember when Paul went to Athens:
Acts 17:16 (KJV)
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
A 'city wholly given to idolatry' is also a good description of Baal-meon was like. Thus it was a habitation of demons, which were behind these idols:
Deuteronomy 32:17 (KJV)
They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
Idolatry is not just bowing down to pieces of wood, stone and gold, but is worshipping of Satan who devised these things. There is a real, spiritual and personal power behind idolatry which seduces and draws the idolator to sin. This is why idolatry is not a light sin, and also why people are so drawn and held captive by it. It is hearing, believing, obeying and worshipping Satan instead of God the Creator. But what is it that the Devil is wanting the man to do through idolatry? Devil tempts man to worship and serve one self:
Matthew 4:8-9 (KJV)
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; [9] And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
To worship self is to worship the devil, and to worship the devil is to worship self. The two can't be divided. The man who lives for himself and lives for his own pleasure is a worshipper of the devil. The selfish and self-centered man is the enemy of God, since he is obeying the one who opposes God. The man who is full of self is the man who is full of unclean, demonic spirits. Man was created to live for God, to think about God, to serve God and to worship God. But the devil's plan is that the world does what he does, and live for self-glory, and so defy God. Therefore the bible says the whole world has become a habitation of devils. The world has a become habitation of self-worship:
Revelation 18:2 (KJV)
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

How does our God save us from being this habitation of self? He saves us firstly by making us to despise ourselves. As it is written:
Luke 14:26 (KJV)
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
How does He make us to hate even our own life? He does this by showing us how wicked, evil and sinful we are. His Holy Spirit comes upon us and convicts us of sin through the word of God. By the word of God we see ourselves as in a mirror, and see how filthy, ugly and deformed we really are. And God's mirror is a clear mirror with no smudges or scratches, and is lightened by the Spirit that we may see our every little defect. Through it we see the hereditary disease of the soul that has been handed down from our Adam, that which has caused this deformity in us. We see that we are criminals before God's judgment throne. We see that we deserve nothing but death, having committed hateful crimes. We begin to hate our own lives, and wish that the mountains would fall on us to cover us from our shame and from the curse of God. We see our nakedness and our own lack and try to cover ourselves with leaves, but how vain are our attempts! We see what a failure you really are in the sight of God. We begin denying any association with self, and desire nothing to do with self-pleasure. This is repentance.

God casts out self from us, and replaces us with Jesus Christ. How much more lovely is Jesus Christ our Lord than our poor selves! We begin to worship Him, realizing that there is Someone so much deserving of it than our own pitiful, filthy selves. What is amazing is this Jesus loves us, who are like filthy rags and broken twigs and broken jars of clay! It is amazing love. And this drives us to not love ourselves more, but to wonder at the heart of God who dared to love us, though we were His enemies. We begin to think about this love of God, and we want to serve Him, and worship Him, because of what He did for us. Our minds are changed to think about things of God, and no longer the things of man. We begin to want to please God and begin to hate flatteries and pleasing of man. Our minds become a spiritual mind, that submits to the will of God.

And this is not our doing, but the Holy Spirit who came to dwell within us forever. We have become the habitation of God, our bodies becoming the temple of God from the temple of Self. We become as Bethel, which means the 'House of God'. What was Bethel? It was place named when Jacob escaped from the presence of his brother Esau to the desert. Jacob was a man only focussed on himself up to this point. He cunningly stole his brother's birthright and blessing for his own gain, and had lived only for himself. But at Bethel, Jacob met God for the first time:
Genesis 28:13-19 (KJV)
And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; [14] And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [15] And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. [16] And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. [17] And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. [18] And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. [19] And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
God's Spirit came to him and was with him from that moment, and never left him. Jacob had himself become Bethel, the house of God. He began to think about not only his own self, but about the Almighty God of his fathers. He began to serve and live for Him and His glory.

Jacob's name itself changed to Israel, from a name of sin to the name for the glory of God. Saul the Christian killer become Paul. Simon become Peter. What does the changing of the names signify? It means that God changes our identity. Have we ever wished that we were someone else great, someone better than we are? God grants this for us by His grace. God not only makes us to despise our sinful selves, but He gives us completely a new self for us. We are no longer the child of the Adam, the child of the devil and the child of wrath, but through faith in Jesus Christ we have forever become the people of Christ, children of God and children of faith. Therefore this is why the bible commands us believers:
Ephesians 4:22-24 (KJV)
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; [23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; [24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Paul after his conversion could not live like Saul any more. He was given new, glorious clothing to wear instead of the filthy and decomposing rags that he was wearing. This is what God gives for us to wear. God tells us to put off self, that we may put on Jesus Christ. We don't need to be anyone great, for our identity is in Christ the Name above all names. We are satisfied being called Christians, and just to be associated with the name of the Son of God. Yet we know that, when our sanctification progress is over in this world, and when we receive our glorious bodies, Christ will grant each of us new names:
Revelation 2:17 (KJV)
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
How special does Christ want make each of us to feel, though we are not deserving. It's not that there is something great in us, but it is because of His love for each of us. Let us thank Christ who makes us to go from glory to glory. Like Nebo and Baal-Meon was changed to be places for God, one day we will be completely changed to be wholly His. Change us Lord, into Your image. Conquer and occupy our minds and our hearts, that we may be humble and our lives be centered around you. Amen.