WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: As a child of God you have a new identity. No longer defined by upbringing, education or failure, but by your place in God’s household (Ephesians 2:19). Once you were far away from him, but now you are on intimate terms because of Jesus. Pour out your praises on the lover of your soul.

A new nation
This story reads like the last chapter in Jacob’s life. There are two burials and a son is born just before Rachel dies. There’s a kind of genealogical table that points to the emergence of a new nation.

You wouldn’t be surprised to read that they all lived happily ever after; except this is not the end. Soon the saga of Joseph’s capture and exile will commence, along with Jacob’s long lament. But that’s another story.

A new identity
There is however a change of gear in this narrative, marked in two surprising ways. His identity slips from Jacob to Israel from one verse to the next (vs 20,21) and he alters the name of his newborn son to signify his hope rather than Rachel’s despair (v 18). New identities all around!

This is where we leave Israel, a man in the process of spiritual transformation and through whom God’s covenant promises are about to be fulfilled.

Respond: Are you living in the peace of your new identity as a child of God (John 1:12), bought for us by Jesus or are you striving to please him in your own strength? Consider this: you are now seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-07-28