Genesis 35.9-13-God Appears to Jacob and Reconfirms Name Change and Abrahamic Covenant
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 35:9-13-GodAppears to Jacob and Reconfirms Name Change and Abrahamic Covenant
Lesson # 216
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 35:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 35.
By way of review:
In Genesis 35:1, we read the account of God commanding Jacob to go up to Bethel and fulfill his vow to make an altar to worship Him there.
Then in Genesis 35:2-7, we read of Jacob obeying God’s command to return to Bethel and build an altar to Him there in fulfillment of the vow he made to God thirty years before.
Also, we read in Genesis 35:8 the account of the death of Deborah who was Rebekah’s nurse.
This evening we will study Genesis 35:9-13 where we will read of the preincarnate Christ appearing to Jacob and reconfirming the change of his name to “Israel” and reconfirming the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.
Genesis 35:1, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’”
Genesis 35:2-3, “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.’”
Genesis 35:4, “So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.”
Genesis 35:5, “As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.”
Genesis 35:6, “So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.”
Genesis 35:7, “He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother.”
Genesis 35:8, “Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.”
Genesis 35:9, “Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.”
The statement “God appeared to Jacob” is a “theophany,” which is a technical theological term used to refer to a visible or auditory manifestation of the Son of God before His incarnation in Bethlehem (Gen. 32:29-30; Ex. 3:2; 19:18-20; Josh. 5:13-15; Dan. 3:26).
This is the fifth time that the preincarnate Christ communicated with Jacob either audibly or both visibly and audibly (Genesis 28:10-22; 31:10-13; 32:24-32; 35:1).
Therefore, after Jacob obeyed the Lord’s command to return to Bethel and fulfill his vow to build an altar to worship the Lord, the Lord once again communicated with Jacob by manifesting Himself both visibly and audibly.
He did so in order to reconfirm that He had changed Jacob’s name to Israel and also to reconfirm or reiterate that Jacob was inheriting the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and carrying on the line of the Messiah.
Evidently, the Lord had to reiterate and reconfirm to Jacob that He indeed had changed his name to Israel so as to reassure Jacob that He had a plan for Jacob’s life even though Jacob had failed in his responsibility as the spiritual leader in his family at Shechem.
Jacob had not acted in a manner consistent with his new name “Israel” and so the Lord sought to reassure Jacob that He had not given up on him.
This theophany and the reconfirmation and a reaffirmation that Jacob would inherit the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant was to reassure Jacob that the Lord had not forsaken him because of his failure at Shechem.
Though Jacob had been unfaithful at Shechem and had delayed ten years before returning to Bethel and fulfilling his vow to the Lord to build an altar to worship Him there, God had remained faithful to Jacob and would continue to do so.
2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
The mention of Jacob’s return “from Paddan Aram” is to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that the Lord fulfilled His promise to Jacob to bring him back to the land of Canaan and which promise is recorded in Genesis 28:15.
The fact that the Lord fulfilled His promise to Jacob to bring him back safe and sound to his homeland demonstrates the faithfulness of God.
Psalm 33:4, “For the word of the LORD is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness.”
“Blessed” is the verb barakh (Er^B*) means, “to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, etc.”
Jacob would be “blessed” or in other words, “endued with power for success, prosperity, fecundity and longevity” by means of the Word of God since the Word of God is “alive and powerful” according to Hebrews 4:12.
Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
God would bless Jacob through six promises, which are contained in Genesis 35:10-12.
Therefore, the statement “He (God) blessed him (Jacob)” means that Jacob would be the recipient and beneficiary of the omnipotence of God, which would be manifested in time by the Lord fulfilling six promises through Jacob and his descendants (spiritual and biological), which are recorded in Genesis 35:10-12.
These six promises that are recorded in Genesis 35:10-12 echo the promises the Lord made to Jacob at Bethel, which are recorded in Genesis 28:13-14 and echo the promises given to his father Isaac, which are recorded in Genesis 26:4.
They also echo the blessing that his father Isaac pronounced upon him before he left home, which is recorded in Genesis 28:3-4.
The Lord’s promises to both Jacob and Isaac and the blessing of his father bestowed upon him before he left home were a “reconfirmation” of the promises made to Abraham that are recorded in Genesis 12:2-3, 7, 13:14-18, 15:1-6, 18, 17:1-8 and 22:17.
In Genesis 26:3-4, Isaac received reconfirmation of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant by means of a theophany.
In Genesis 26:23-25, the Lord appeared in a theophany to Isaac at Beersheba and gave him reassurance by reconfirming to him the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant.
In Genesis 28:3-4, the blessing that Isaac bestowed upon Jacob before he left home echoes the promises of the Abrahamic covenant.
In Genesis 28:14-15, God’s reiteration of the promises to Abraham and Isaac assures Jacob of God’s faithfulness.
Genesis 35:10, “God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. Thus He called him Israel.’”
The statement “You shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel shall be your name” echoes the Lord’s statement to Jacob at Peniel after wrestling with Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis 32:28.
After Jacob wrestled with the Lord at Peniel, the Lord changed Jacob’s name to “Israel” and here the Lord reiterates and reconfirms and reaffirms to Jacob that this is still the case.
The name “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.
“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.
Therefore, the promise “You shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel shall be your name” is not only a promise but a reaffirmation to Jacob that would impress upon him the need to live his life in a manner that is consistent with the meaning of his new name.
He would live his life in a manner that is consistent with the meaning of his new name by appropriating by faith in prayer the promises that God had given to him just as he did prior to being reunited with Esau (See Genesis 32).
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His first promise to Jacob and empower him to live in a manner consistent with the meaning of his new name yisra’el (la@r*c+y!) (yis-raw-ale), “Israel,” which means, “one who fights and overcomes with the power of God” (See Genesis 35:10).
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 name “Israel” represents the character of his new divine nature whereas the name “Jacob” represents the character of his old Adamic sin nature, which will be permanently eradicated at his physical death.
Therefore, the emphasis of the name change to “Israel” implies that Jacob would experience the fulfillment of these six promises during the millennial reign of Christ when he will live permanently in his new nature that God gave him, which is signified by the name “Israel.”
Genesis 35:11, “God also said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you.”
The title El Shaddai, “God Almighty” emphasizes the omnipotence of God and describes the Lord as being able to bring to pass that which He has promised to Jacob.
Romans 4:20-21, “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he (Abraham) did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.”
The expression “God Almighty” (Hebrew: El Shaddai) was first used by God of Himself when speaking to Abraham as recorded in Genesis 17:1 and was used by Isaac when blessing Jacob as recorded in Genesis 28:3.
Therefore, the title El Shaddai, “God Almighty” signifies that the six promises contained in Genesis 35:10-12 echo Isaac’s prophecy about Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis 28:3-5 and also recalls the covenant with Abraham recorded in Genesis 17:1-8.
Genesis 35:11, “God also said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you.”
The Lord’s promise to Jacob that he would “be fruitful and multiply” echoes the prophecy of Isaac concerning Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis 28:3 and means that the Lord would give Jacob the capacity to be prolific in that he would be the progenitor of a multitude of children in both a biological and spiritual sense.
This promise means that the Lord would endue Jacob and his descendants with the ability to be prolific in terms of posterity.
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His second promise to Jacob that he would “be fruitful and multiply” and endue him with power for success, prosperity, fecundity (offspring in great numbers) and longevity (See Genesis 35:11).
The promise “a nation…shall come from you” in a “near” sense refers to the nation of Israel (saved and unsaved) and in a “far” sense it refers to saved Israel during the millennial reign of Christ.
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His third promise to Jacob that he would be the progenitor of “a nation,” and endue Jacob with power to be the progenitor of the nation of Israel (See Genesis 35:11).
The promise “a company of nations…shall come from you” was fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled in a “spiritual” sense through those individuals who exercised faith alone in Christ alone (John 3:1-7; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26-28).
The expression “a company of nations…shall come from you” refers to a community of nations that will originate from Jacob and echoes the Lord’s promise to his grandfather Abraham that he would become “the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:4-5) and “the father of nations” (Genesis 17:6).
The Lord’s promise to Abraham to make him “the father of a multitude of nations” and Isaac’s desire that the Lord would make Jacob a “company of peoples” and the Lord’s promise to Jacob that “a company of nations…shall come from you” would be fulfilled in both a “biological” and “spiritual” sense.
In a “biological” or “racial” sense, the “company of nations” that would originate from Jacob would be the nation of Israel.
In a “spiritual” sense the “company of nations” that would originate from Jacob be all those who exercise faith alone in Christ alone who would be composed of all nations and races, both male and female, slave and freeman (John 3:1-7; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26-28).
This is how the Lord’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that in him “all the families of the earth would be blessed” would be accomplished.
In the same way, that Abraham became a father in a “spiritual” sense to those individuals who exercised faith in Christ so also Jacob would become the father in a “spiritual” sense to all those who exercised faith in Christ.
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His fourth promise to Jacob and endue him with power to be the progenitor of “a company of nations” in a “spiritual” sense through all those who exercise faith alone in Christ alone.
The promise that “kings shall come forth from you” echoes the Lord’s promise to Abraham, which is recorded in Genesis 17:6, 16 and is a reference to primarily to the kings of Israel (Gen. 35:11; 49:10; 2 Sam. 7:8-16) and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Since the promise that “kings shall come forth from you” is a reference to the Kings of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is therefore related to the “Davidic” Covenant, which like the “Abrahamic” Covenant, was an unconditional covenant meaning its fulfillment was totally dependent upon God’s faithfulness.
The “Davidic” covenant deals with the dynasty that will rule the nation of Israel as indicated in 2 Samuel 7:16 where God promised David that a descendant of his would sit on his throne forever.
2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”
The “Davidic” covenant is reconfirmed throughout the Old Testament (Isa. 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-6; 30:8-9; 33:14-17, 20-21; Ezek. 37:24-25; Dan. 7:13-14; Hos. 3:4-5; Amos 9:11; Zech. 14:4, 9).
Psalm 89:34-37, “My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful. Selah.”
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, will literally fulfill this covenant during His millennial reign.
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His fifth promise to Jacob and endue him with power to be the progenitor of the kings of Israel and the greatest King of them all, the Lord Jesus Christ (See Genesis 35:11).
Genesis 35:12, “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.”
The promise of “land” is a reference to the “Palestinian Covenant,” which was a confirmation and enlargement of the original “Abrahamic” covenant and amplified the land features of the “Abrahamic” covenant (Gen. 13:14-15; 15:18).
The “Palestinian” Covenant stipulated that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who exercise faith alone in Christ alone would not only come into permanent possession of the land of Canaan but also most of the land in Turkey, East Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and Red Sea, Syria, Iraq, Jordan.
The boundaries of this land grant are on the Mediterranean, Aegean Sea, Euphrates River and the Nile River (See Genesis 15:18).
The Lord promises that this land would be given to Abraham’s descendants and this promise was fulfilled to a certain extent by Israel under Joshua (Josh. 21:43-45; cf. 13:1-7) and David and Solomon (1 Kgs. 4:20-25; Neh. 9:8).
The “Palestinian” covenant will have its literal and ultimate fulfillment during the millennial reign of Christ (Isa. 11:11-12; Jer. 31-37; Ezek. 34:11-16; Hos. 1:10-11; Joel 3:17-21; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 4:6-7; Zeph. 3:14-20; Zech. 8:4-8).
“Your descendants” refers to Jacob’s “biological” descendants, which would be the nation of Israel and it refers to his “spiritual” descendants, which would be anyone, Jew or Gentile who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
In a “near” sense “Your descendants” refers to the nation of Israel (saved and unsaved) and in a “far” sense it refers to saved Israel during the millennial reign of Christ.
By means of His Word, the Lord would fulfill His sixth and final promise to Jacob and endue him and his descendants (spiritual and biological) with power to possess the land of Canaan (See Genesis 35:12).
Though Jacob was still a resident alien in the land of Canaan, it was really his according to God’s promise and would be possessed by him and his descendants through faith in Christ during the millennial reign of Christ.
Genesis 35:13, “Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.”
The fact that God ascended from Jacob at Bethel where He had spoken to Jacob indicates that this revelation was not in the form of a dream or vision but an actual face to face visit from the preincarnate Christ.