Tag: Jacob

Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 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. 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 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.  (Genesis 35:9-12, NASB)

The Bible passage above from Genesis 35 tells of the second time that God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel”.  The first is in Chapter 32, when Jacob wrestles all night with God:  “[God] said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.'”  (v. 28)

Now this time, God told Jacob to go to Bethel (“house of God”), where God first appeared to him.  There, God again states that his name is Israel, and reiterates the Abrahamic Covenant, which God had previously made with Israel’s grandfather Abraham, and his father Isaac.  Among God’s promises:  “A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. 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.”

God does not, and has not, failed on any of His promises.  The Nation was and is named after Israel.  Abraham was told that all the nations of the world would be blessed by him.  A line of kings descended from him, beginning with King David, and ultimately to culminate with the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The sons of Jacob, the sons of Israel, indeed inhabited the land after a long captivity in Egypt, and returned in 1948. 

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel is a Promise Keeper.  Many of His promises are yet to come.  One of His promises is that “whoever believes in [Jesus] shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)  We can count on this!