Session 7
the result of the wrestling match.
25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket
as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.
26 Then he said to Jacob,
“Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he replied.
28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said.
“It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”29 Then Jacob asked him,
“Please tell me your name.”
But he answered, “Why do you ask my name?”
And he blessed him there.
Believers have a new identity after they encounter God.
Jacob had spent his life trying to get the upper hand in every situation,
but this was not a battle he was going to win by his wits or through deception.
New name and Israel
Note that in Genesis 17 Abraham also received a new name.
here Jacob was renamed “Israel,” which means “strives with God.”
Israel
Jacob’s divine opponent may have allowed him to win the wrestling match,
but He still had authority over Jacob’s life.
Demonstrating this power, He changed the patriarch’s name from Jacob to Israel.
As noted, Jacob’s name carried the idea of being a “deceiver.”
By changing Jacob’s name, God indicated a transformation in Jacob’s character.
Suggested meanings of “Israel” include
“God strives,” “God heals,”
“God rules,” or “he strives against God.”
After his encounter with God, Jacob limped physically as a reminder of his struggle with God.
But, more importantly, God gradually began to transform the way Jacob lived.
Jacob’s struggle with God created a new moral strength and loyalty to God that guided the rest of His life.