Claiming Our Inner Israelite
Jacobs return to Bethel had all sorts of significance as we've seen, and in verse 10 God repeats what he said to Jacob in chapter 32, where He changes his name. He said “Your name is Jacob, but you'll no longer be called Jacob. Your name will be Israel.”
Transformation Through God
There's a lot of significance behind this. Firstly, we see that God transforms people and then often changes their name as a result of their transformation. “Jacob” meant “deceiver”. That was his name because early in his life he really was a deceptive man and did some bad things. But now he’s come so far and God changes his name as a result of his transformed character.
Have you received a transformed character from God? It always comes when you truly meet with Him. Our old ways of sin - it may be deception, may be something else in your case - are washed away or cleansed. We spoke about that on Tuesday and we are made new by the power of this Holy Spirit.
Maybe we don't receive a new name because things are different in our culture, and yet we should receive a new heart and a new character from God the transforming One.
Struggling With God
But there's something significant in the name as well here, that God gives him. Israel means “one who struggles with God”. This calls back to mind Jacob's wrestling match with God a few chapters before - that's when God originally changed his name, where He said “You're now going to be called Israel because you've struggled with God. You've physically wrestled with Him.”
But isn't it interesting that the Jewish people were called Israelites all throughout the Bible? There were people who were defined by their struggle with God. There's a certain beauty to that in my mind. A lot of the time the faith is not easy. A lot of the time it's not just a walk in the park, but it's a struggle as we live our life with God. But it's important that we struggle along with God and not turning our backs on him.
We can also be Israelites in that sense because we struggle with God and we wrestle with God and we walk our lives day by day with God. Even through life's disappointments, even through life's difficulties and storms, It's only when we struggle through them with God that we prevail.
Maybe you need to remember that today you need to claim your inner Israelite, one who struggles with God, and hold on to God and wrestle with Him even as you go through whatever you're going through.
Christ Fulfilled It
Then a final thought about this comes from the next couple of verses where God renewed the covenant that He'd made with Abraham and Isaac, and now makes it with Israel promises a nation and a community of nations coming from his line, and a king among his descendants and land. Of course, all of this came true and supremely it all came true in Christ. All nations will come and worship Christ who came all the way down through this line. And so the wonderful thing is that even Gentiles can be Israelites -strugglers with God - because of what Christ has done.
I wonder what you're going to grab from this message today. Transformation, a new name, perhaps through the power of the Spirit? A reminder that it's OK to struggle with God because in effect, that’s our name? Or marveling at the fact that all these years later, God's promise and his covenant is true and that Jesus has brought so many of us into God's Kingdom just as predicted? Or maybe all three.
These are life-changing truths, and I hope that you worship God for them today. Thank you for listening, friends. Go well and may God bless you this weekend.
