Tag: Jacob

What’s in a Name?

Genesis 31-33

“What’s in a Name?” This famous quote from Romeo and Juliet implies that a name is simply and solely a name, that the true value lies in the person who bears the name – and, in the case of Shakespeare’s tragic play, that the person should be loved for who they are rather than hated merely for their family line. While I agree that the person who bears the name is more important than the name itself, I would also argue that names are very powerful and personal, as one thing that a person deeply owns forever. Referring to someone by name can have a profound effect on them. When we go to a restaurant, my husband makes a point to always speak to our servers by name as a way to connect with and respect them as a person rather than simply a service provider. 

What does your name mean? Mine (Rachel) means “ewe,” which seems appropriate since the biblical Rachel was a shepherdess. Rachel was the second – but favorite – wife of Jacob, who was known to be a trickster. While there is some discrepancy about the true meaning of his name, Jacob is commonly accepted to mean “supplanter,” and when you read his life story, you will see him live up to his name many times over. In today’s reading, we observed Jacob and Rachel duping her father (who had also deceived them! It must be a family trait on both sides!). Jacob gathered his family for the journey back to his homeland to reconcile with his brother Esau, from whom Jacob had swindled the birthright blessing many years before. Then Jacob found himself alone during the night, thrust into a wrestling match with God (or man or angel, as some translations indicate). Jacob persevered through a fierce fight, but before he would let his mysterious competitor raise the white flag, Jacob demanded to be blessed. 

The Wrestler’s response: “What is your name?” 

Full stop. Don’t you think this being knew Jacob’s name? Of course. But remember, Jacob had assumed a false identity when he masqueraded as Esau to hoodwink his father into giving him Esau’s birthright, and Jacob had continued in his shifty ways. Maybe Jacob needed to be reminded of who he was so he wouldn’t continue to swim aimlessly in the pool of his own deception. Perhaps the Wrestler wanted Jacob to ponder his delusive choices (which, frankly, had caused a concatenation of unfortunate events) and be a willing participant in God’s bigger, better plan despite his sketchy past – a fresh start as a new man changed by God’s grace. 

Jacob answered honestly with his given name and then was granted a new name with a new  meaning: “Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won” (Gen 32:28). The Wrestler chose to keep his own name a secret, but he did leave Jacob/Israel with the requested blessing – and a bum hip, probably so he would be sure to never forget the experience. 

The meaning of the name “Israel” is disputed; some possibilities are, “he wrestles with God,” “a man seeing God,” “God perseveres.” Whatever the meaning, Israel indicates a closeness with God and a promise for a new nation. In recent chapters, we also read about Abram and Sarai receiving name changes to Abraham and Sarah to symbolize their new relationship and covenant with God. 

God is in the business of changing lives AND names! Did you know that we, too, will be given new names in the Kingdom? Passages in Isaiah (62:2, 65:15) and Revelation (2:17, 3:12) indicate that our names will be changed when we receive our inheritance of eternal life! How awesome will it be to bear names especially chosen for us by our Creator as we live with Him forever! 

-Rachel Cain

Reflections:

When you committed to join God’s mission, your name was written in the Lamb’s book of life. Enjoy this song about God changing us and writing our names on the Kingdom roster! (or click here if you want to see some of our own youth perform the same song in ASL at Ohio’s camp!)

Think of who you used to be, and how God has changed you – and continues to change you – into who He wants you to be. What areas of your life do you need to give over to him to allow that to happen? How can you use your story to encourage others? 

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Change Your Garments

Old Testament: Genesis 35 & 36

Poetry: Psalm 15

New Testament: Matthew 13:31-35

Genesis 35 begins with God telling Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar there to “the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” God is reminding Jacob of what He has done for him in the past. Do you remember what Rachel did a few chapters back? She stole her father’s idols! Jacob’s household STILL has these foreign gods in their possession. The very first commandment in the Ten Commandments (which will be) given to Moses is “You shall have no other gods before me”. What have Jacob’s people done? They have sinned! 

I find this next part so interesting. In verses 2 and 3 Jacob gives instructions to his people. He says “put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.” This is repentance. Did Jacob say that they could keep the idols in their spare room and ignore them? NO. They took everything that was an idol or connected to paganism and buried them in the ground. They cast the items of sin out of their midst. Then, after turning away, they purified themselves and changed their clothes. 

One commentary makes an interesting point about the garments. There are multiple places in scripture where garments symbolize the character of people. How interesting is it that Jacob told his people to change their garments, almost like a physical way to visualize the heart change of repentance? This gives even more depth to the verses that say things like “put on Christ” or “put on the new self”. WOW! Let’s take a second to thank the Lord for the true gift of Jesus and what that means for our personal lives. The Old Testament is filled with people making altars to God for numerous things. We don’t have to do that anymore because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. Now, our lives are an offering to God and Christ is the one to cover all of our sins. How amazing is that?

Okay, back to Jacob. What do you notice about God in this chapter? I notice how gracious God is. These people had taken false gods! There was no reason why they deserved to have God on their side. But He is still faithful to them! He guides them, protects them, and then blesses them by giving Jacob an incredible promise at the end of the chapter. 


How amazing it is to have a God that will forgive us. I want this story to prompt us today to think about any areas in our lives where we are holding on to sin. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation, and although that doesn’t mean we are perfect yet, it does mean that we are continually being transformed. Ephesians 4 says, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” What does that look like in your life? Think about how you can “put on the new self” today.

-Katelyn Salyers

Reflection Questions

  1. What will it look like to take off your old self? What do you need to get out of your house, your heart, your life? Are you hiding any foreign gods?
  2. What will it look like to put on your new self today? How can you put on a clean set of clothes?
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The End of the Patriarchs (Genesis 48-50)

At the end of their lives the patriarchs bless their children.  The ancients believed words matter.  If you asked them, “What’s wrong with the world?”  or “Why is the world broken?” they would answer, “The curse.”  What’s wrong with the world is that God cursed it–using words.  So, how should we expect the world to find healing and redemption?  How does God plan to undo the consequences of our first parent’s rebellion?  He blesses.  First he calls Abraham and blesses him.  Abraham calls Isaac and blesses him.  Isaac calls Esau, but Jacob impersonates him to receive the blessing.  Even so, now Jacob has come to die and he wants to pass on the  blessing to his twelve sons who will become the twelve tribes of Israel.  Somehow or other, God is going to use this dysfunctional Abrahamic family to initiate his master plan of redemption that will one day culminate with making everything wrong with the world right.  Jacob is here playing his part in God’s agenda.

What’s interesting about how he blesses his children is that for several of them, the blessing sounds more like a curse.  For example, to Levi and Simeon he says, “Cursed be their anger…I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.”  Through Jacob’s words, God is prophesying about the future.  Indeed Levi was scattered throughout the tribes and Simeon was absorbed into Judah.  What’s so fascinating about the blessing is that Israel passes over his first born, Reuben, as well as his second and third born, Simeon and Levi, and he jumps to boy number four–Judah.  He compares Judah to a lion and then says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet” (Genesis 49.10).  This prophesy is rather staggering as we look forward to the rest of the bible.  The great king David and his successors were from Judah.  Ultimately, Jesus, himself, descended from Judah.  So, how did Jacob know which of his children would hold the scepter?  The odds of guessing it right are only one in twelve–about 8%.  God was working with this man of faith to know what to say and whom to say it to.  Jacob might be old, be he is still walking with God, right up until his last breath.

After Jacob dies, we learn about how Joseph forgives his brothers rather than taking vengeance into his own hands.  Ultimately, Joseph himself arrives at death’s door.  We read in the New Testament hall of faith the following about Joseph:

Hebrews 11.22
By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Out of everything that Joseph went through, his heroic perseverance and faith in God, this is what he is remembered for.  When he came near to death, that same Abrahamic promise that had burned in Israel’s heart, blazed in Joseph’s as well, even while he came to the end of his life.  He expressed his faith by this last request:

Genesis 50.24-25
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”  25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

Look at the faith of this man!  He’s suffered so much in the course of his life and yet he never gave up on God.  He had been elevated to the highest office in the land, next to Pharaoh, and he still retained his faith.  In the end, God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not die.  One day he would return to the land of his childhood.  It would be centuries, but eventually, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, they carried Joseph’s sarcophagus with them through the desert and laid him to rest in the promised land.  Whether you experience hardship or prosperity, be like Jacob and Joseph and keep faith your in God’s promises to bring the kingdom.

Faith to the End (Genesis 46-47)

In these chapters Israel and his children and grandchildren migrate to Egypt, totaling seventy people.  They left the parched promised land behind and came to live under the care of Joseph.  I can understand why Israel was reticent to move down.  He remembered the stories of his grandfather, Abraham, about how God had promised to give him the land of their sojourning.  He was now 130 years old and had lived in Canaan most of his life.  Imagine living through over a century of nomadic shepherding, seeing bounty and famine, ups and downs, good times and bad ones.  Should he just ride this one out or should he uproot his entire extended family and move them to Egypt.  What would this mean about the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and him?  If he leaves, does that mean he is giving up on God?  This is probably why God came to Israel in the night.  He spoke to him and told him not to be afraid to go down to Egypt and that he would go down with him.  After God assured him, Israel packed up the family and went to Egypt.  There, this group of nomads would incubate, growing from seventy to well over a million souls.

When Israel finally came face to face with Pharaoh he said, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years.  Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning” (Genesis 47.9).  Israel had suffered greatly throughout the course of his life.  He duped his blind father under his mother’s advice to steal his brother’s blessing and then ran away to hide out in a foreign land.  While living with his uncle, he got duped himself repeatedly.  Laban constantly changed his wages and performed a switcheroo on his wedding night, substituting Leah for Rachel.  After twenty years of toiling under Laban’s greedy gaze, he finally broke free.  Terrified of meeting his angry brother Esau, Israel journeyed back home.  Fortunately his brother was no longer out for blood and the two established peace.  However, his overt favoritism of his one wife over the other three led to severe relational pain.  So jealous were his sons of the way Israel treated Joseph that they resolved to murder the lad and tell their father a beast tore him to pieces.  Although they sold Joseph into slavery, they still told their father his favorite son was dead.  Israel grieved for Joseph for days, months, years, and decades.  Indeed, his life was full of suffering: some self-inflicting and some just happenstance.

Yet, this is not the end of the story.  Israel may not have unlocked the secret to “Your Best Life Now,” but he did retain the faith of Abraham.  He may have poisoned his family relationships with favoritism, but he remembered the promise of God.  At the end of 147 years, he found himself on his deathbed in a foreign land, far from the land of God’s covenant.  As a result, his last request was simple.  He had Joseph swear to him, “Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers.  Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place” (Genesis 47.29-30).  This seemingly insignificant and inconvenient request, is actually the indication of Israel’s tenacious faith.  He has seen a lot in his century and a half, but in the end he stayed true to the covenant.  He believed in his bones that God would give him and his descendants that land, and his last request was to receive a proper burial in the promised land.  Although he had suffered more than most in his life, he never gave up on God.  As a result, he will participate in the resurrection of the just and one day he will inherit that land as God promised.  I wonder, how deep is your faith?