Genesis 32.27-28-The Significance of the Lord Changing Jacob's Name to Israel
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 10, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 32:27-28-The Significance of the Lord Changing Jacob’s Name to Israel
Lesson # 202
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:24.
This morning we will study Genesis 32:27-28 and the significance of the Lord changing Jacob’s name to Israel.
Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
Genesis 32:25, “When he (the Lord) saw that he (the Lord) had not prevailed against him (Jacob), he (the Lord) touched the socket of his (Jacob’s) thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.”
Genesis 32:26, “Then he (the Lord) said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he (Jacob) said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”
Genesis 32:27, “So he (the Lord) said to him (Jacob), ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’”
The Lord did “not” ask Jacob his name to solicit information since He is omniscient, rather the Lord did so because He wanted to arouse in Jacob an awareness of his former character reflected in his name and to prepare him for a change of name, which would accurately reflect his new character.
The name given to “Jacob” means, “heel catcher” (yah-ak-ove) (bq{u&y^) implying someone who is a “deceiver” and a “supplanter,” which is a person who takes the place of another by force, scheming or strategy.
Jacob must have disliked his name since its meaning was not very complimentary but it was an accurate description of his character up to the end of his fourteen years of divine discipline under Laban.
The name “Jacob” was an accurate description of his character that was the result of being a slave to his old Adamic sin nature.
Every person born into the world without exception received the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden, thus giving everyone the nature of Adam, which is always disobedient to God and making them all physically alive but spiritually dead, having no capacity whatsoever to have a relationship with God.
Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (when Adam sinned).”
But the fact that every member of the human race possesses a sin nature does mean that the entire human race is qualified for grace, which is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.
Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
Romans 11:32, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”
In the New Testament, the old sin nature is called the “old self, the flesh,” which according to the Scriptures is being corrupted meaning that it is not getting better nor can it be rehabilitated but rather it is getting worse and worse everyday.
The old sin nature resides in the genetic structure of the human body and this is why the apostle Paul in Romans 6:6 calls it the “body of sin” and this is why we need a resurrection body.
The nature of Adam tempts the soul of every human being to sin against God and when a person obeys the sin nature’s desires, it produces personal sins-mental, verbal and overt.
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
The Father solved the problem of our old sin nature when He crucified our old sin nature with Christ at the cross and gave us the nature of Christ at the moment of salvation.
Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
Ephesians 4:24, “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
We, as believers are to accept by faith the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and raised with Him by considering ourselves dead to the sin nature but alive to God because of our union with Christ Jesus.
In order to experience victory over the sin nature, the believer must obey the teaching of the Holy Spirit that the believer has been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 5:24-25, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
The believer sins because he chooses to disobey the teaching of the Word of God that his sin nature was crucified with Christ at the Cross and thus allows the sin nature to control and influence his soul so that he produces mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.
The believer’s sin nature will not be totally eradicated until he physically dies or when the rapture of the church takes place when the believer will receive a resurrection body to replace the body he now has, which contains the old sin nature.
1 Corinthians 15:53, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Genesis 32:27, “So he (the Lord) said to him (Jacob), ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’”
Genesis 32:28, “He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’”
“Israel” is the proper noun yisra’el (la@r*c+y!) (yis-raw-ale), which means, “one who fights and overcomes with the power of God” since the Lord states the reason for the name is that Jacob has fought with both God and men and has prevailed.
The bestowal of the name “Israel” upon Jacob constituted the essence of the blessing that he requested from the Lord recorded in Genesis 32:26.
The name yisra’el, “Israel” memorializes the historical event of Jacob wrestling the preincarnate Christ, and which wrestling match symbolized Jacob’s struggles in life with men, which in reality were with God.
The statement “you have striven with God and with men” refers to Jacob’s problems with Isaac, Esau, Laban, and his wives, which were in reality problems with God since God permitted these people to come into his life to draw him closer to God.
The Lord’s statement “you…have prevailed” refers to the fact that Jacob persevered in prayer by claiming the promises of God’s protection and presence and thus praying according to will of God since the promises originated from God (See Genesis 32:9-12).
The Lord’s statement “you…have prevailed” also means that Jacob had won his battle over his fears of Esau in prayer by clinging to the promises that God made to him to protect and prosper him (See Genesis 28:10-15 and 31:3).
While in prayer, Jacob came to a point where he was fully convinced that God would protect him and by doing so, he appropriated the power of God so that he would prevail over Esau in the sense that he would reconcile with him.
Therefore, the name “Israel” would be a memorial to Jacob that during the fourteen years of divine discipline under Laban he had stopped trusting in his own power to solve his problems and depended upon the power of God.
The dislocation of Jacob’s hip and the name “Israel” would be a perpetual reminder or memorial to Jacob to not depend upon his own power and ability but rather to depend and rely upon the power of God to deal with problems with people and adversities in life.
2 Corinthians 12:9, “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults (people testing), with distresses (thought testing), with persecutions (system testing), with difficulties (disaster testing), for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
The change of name from “Jacob” to “Israel” marks a change in Jacob’s character and reorientation in his life in the sense that no longer does he solve his problems with people by means of deception as denoted by the name “Jacob” but now solves them with the power of God by claiming the promises of God in prayer.
The change of name indicates that Jacob has grown to spiritual maturity and has oriented himself to the grace of God.
Jacob oriented himself to the grace of God in the sense that he has learned that he did “not” have to deceive his father Isaac into giving him the blessing of the birthright instead of Esau but that the blessing of the birthright was based upon God’s grace meaning it was gift that he did “not” earn or deserve.
Just as the name “Jacob” reflects character produced by the function of the power of the old sin nature so the name “Israel” reflects character produced by appropriating the power of the Word of God by claiming the promises of God in prayer.