He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
The other day, my husband accused me of yelling. I assure you, I wasn’t yelling.
It was all in good fun. It was a play argument about something neither of us really cared about. Just an opportunity to poke a bit of fun at each other, and I became slightly animated in the process.
As we walked in the door fresh off running a couple of errands, he hit me with it: “Oh my word. Why do you have to yell?”
It was another playful jab. Just a joke, but it made me think. Not about my propensity for letting my natural teacher voice slip into everyday situations. But about how different it was to hear something like that as a joke.
The Difference Being Fully Known Makes
Growing up, I often got in trouble for being too loud, especially in public or in the car. But when my husband mentioned how loud I had gotten, I wasn’t in trouble. He’d known how loud I could get from years of dating me. He knew what he was getting into and took the leap anyway.
What a truly beautiful thing—to be known and still be chosen. It’s an absolutely miraculous feeling. And by some miracle, that’s exactly what happens with Jesus. He knows us more deeply than anyone else can ever know us, and He still wants a relationship with us.
Jacob Wrestling with God: What Genesis 32:28 Reveals
We get a snapshot in this passage. Jacob has spent the entire night wrestling with who I believe is the preincarnate Jesus. Toward dawn, Jesus says they need to break up the party, but Jacob holds on and says he will not let Him go until Jesus blesses him. In response to this, Jesus changes his name to Israel. The biblical meaning of the name Israel is “One who strives with God.”
I think that choice is so interesting and exciting. It may not seem very creative of Jesus to have chosen that name in that moment. He literally says that Jacob had “striven with God” when He gave him the new name. But if we zoom out a bit, we get a clearer picture of the name’s significance.
The Biblical Meaning of Israel: God Chose Imperfect People
If we remember that God is omniscient, we are reminded that God knew exactly whose name would come to define His people. They were never known as the people of Abraham or the people of Isaac. They were known as the people of Israel.
This means that when He decided to become their God generations before and then changed Jacob’s name to Israel, well before his sons married and began creating the twelve tribes, God knew. He knew that He would forever be known as the God of Israel. The God of “the one who strives with God.”
Being Completely Known by God Changes Everything
I don’t know if that hit you as it did me. I’ve done my fair share of striving with God. Of doing my darndest to do things my way. He always knew I would do that, but thousands of years ago, He made the decision to be the God of knuckleheads like me. The ones who sometimes only do His will while kicking and screaming. Or the ones who sometimes don’t do His will at all.
Knowing what He has always known about us, it is a miracle to me that He would go a step further and choose to be our God. Choose to commit to us despite how often we turn on Him.
This week, let’s keep this miracle at the forefront of our minds. It’s not only incredibly humbling, but it can also be such a source of peace and joy! No matter the mistakes we make, He’s chosen us anyway, and He is faithful!
To read the first post in this series, click here!
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