JACOB GETS A NAME CHANGE

Genesis 32 is transformational!  

God has nudged Jacob out of Haran and away from Laban and has headed him back to his homeland.  This ought to be a joyous thing, but Jacob knows he must soon face the ire of his brother, Esau, who had - twenty years earlier - threatened his life.  He was rightly fearful!  He had abused Esau and stolen something very precious and valuable from him.  

Ever the schemer, Jacob develops a plan to placate his brother - while also recompensing him for the damage Jacob had done earlier in life.  He wisely divides his large family and many flocks into two groups, thinking:  If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape  [v.8].  

Then, this maturing man prays an eloquent prayer:

O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper,' I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant.  I had only my staff when I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two groups.  Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.  But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'  [vs.9-12]

Funny how a life-threatening situation can revitalize one's prayer life!   

After hearing that Esau is coming to meet him - along with two hundred men - Jacob prepares a magnificent gift for Esau and places it ahead of the two groups with very clear instructions:  When my brother Esau meets you and asks 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you? then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob.  They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'  

The gift:

• 200 female goats
• 20 male goats
• 200 ewes
• 20 rams
• 30 female camels with their young
• 40 cows
• 10 bulls
• 20 female donkeys
• 10 male donkeys

Then, after securing his family, Jacob crossed the ford of the Jabbok and spent the night alone.  Make no mistake about it - he is afraid!  God - in the form of a man - came that night and wrestled with Jacob.  Whether this is real or metaphorical, I do not know, but it was real to Jacob.  When the man saw that he could not overpower [Jacob], he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled...Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.'  [vs.25-26]

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."   Jacob knew he was wrestling with God!  

The man asked him, "What is your name?"  

"Jacob," he answered.'

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."  [vs.26-28]

Jacob gave this place a special name and walked with a limp for the rest of his life as a reminder of this night!  His testimony:  I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.  [v.30]

___________________________________

"God has chosen to do the impossible for those who enter the covenant.  He will literally and actually remake every person who will let Him.  This cosmic act of salvation produces a transformed individual, so different from the old person that it is awkward or impossible for him to answer to his old name."  [Webb Garrison, Reading the Entire Bible in One Year, p.23]

Revelation 2:17

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna.  I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.