Choosing God Instead of the World - Learning From the Lives of Jacob and JosephSýnishorn

Read: Genesis 32:22–32

SOAP: Genesis 32:28

“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Into the text

In Hebrew, Jacob’s name is pronounced Ya’aqob. It sounds like the word ‘aqab, which means “to grasp the heel” or “to deceive.” ‘Aqab literally means “to grasp the heel,” but it was used figuratively to describe deception or metaphorically to suggest tripping someone up by their heels. Jacob literally seized his twin brother’s heel at his birth, and he figuratively seized heels for much of his life.

Jacob was a deceiver. He deceived his brother, Esau, his father, Isaac, and his uncle and father-in-law, Laban. Being a deceiver had become Jacob’s identity. It was even his name. Yet, in the last few scenes that we’ve read, the author of Genesis described a change taking place in Jacob. He obeyed God and returned to the land of his fathers. Then, he prayed and asked God for deliverance from his brother Esau. His behavior was changing. But the night at the Jabbok river was the night that would ultimately change Jacob’s identity.

Jacob wrestled with a man that night. Before the sun rose, the man told Jacob to let him go. When Jacob refused to let him go without a blessing, the man asked his name. Jacob again faced the reality of who he was: a deceiver. At that moment, God changed his identity: “No longer will your name be Jacob . . . but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”

At that moment, God gave Jacob a new identity. God marked Jacob for who he would become, not who he had been. God gave him a new identity as a promise of what He would continue to do. God would continue to fulfill his promise to Jacob, blessing him as He did his father and grandfather. Jacob would receive the blessing, and God would still get the glory. Jacob was crippled the night before he would face his first enemy; he faced the man who had vowed to kill him, and he was physically impaired. Jacob could not be delivered by his own strength. God made it clear to Jacob that He alone was his source of deliverance; He alone would do it.

It is incredibly gracious of God to rid us of our self-reliance. God will accomplish His purposes by His power alone. He does not need our help to fulfill His plans or keep His promises. No matter the plans we might create, God will make it clear that it is He alone who delivers us, He alone who saves.