Genesis 32:28

A NEW NAME

‘No more Jacob, but Israel.’

Genesis 32:28

I. The very twofold name of Jacob and of Israel is but the symbol of the blending of contradictions in Jacob’s character. The life of Jacob comes before us as a strange paradox, shot with the most marvellous diversities. He is the hero of faith, and the quick, sharp-witted schemer. To him the heavens are opened, and his wisdom passes into the cunning which is of the earth earthy.

II. The character of Jacob is a form which is to be found among the Gentiles no less than among the Jews. There are in our own day prudential vices, marring what would otherwise be worthy of all praise. And that which makes them most formidable is that they are the cleaving, besetting temptations of the religious temperament. The religious man who begins to look on worldlings with the feeling of one who gives God thanks that he is not like them is in the way to fall short even of their excellences, (a) Untruthfulness, the want of perfect sincerity and frankness, is, it must be owned with shame and sorrow, the besetting sin of the religious temperament. (b) It is part of the same form of character that it thinks much of ease and comfort, and shrinks from hardship and from danger. Cowardice and untruthfulness are near of kin and commonly go together, and that which makes the union so perilous is that they mask themselves as virtues.

III. The religious temperament, with all its faults, may pass into the matured holiness of him who is not religious only, but godly. How the work is to be done ‘thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,’ when thou too hast wrestled with the angel and hast become a prince with God.

—Dean Plumptre.

Illustration

(1) ‘It was in prayer specially that Jacob showed his princely character. What a nobility is attributed to prayer in this episode of Jacob’s life! What a description the text gives us of the royal attributes of prayer—that it sets in motion the sovereign agency which settles all human events! Jacob had in the midst of all his worldly sorrows and depressions a religious greatness. While to human eyes he was a dejected man, in the presence of God he was a prince, and prevailed.’—Mozley.

(2) ‘Now at last we have the answer to the question. Wherein is Jacob, the plain man dwelling in tents, superior to Esau, the skilful hunter? Jacob becomes Israel. The Supplanter, the Fraud, is changed by discipline and the fear of God into the wrestler with God, the man of Faith. Esau’s name was changed also. And the change from Esau into Edom, what did it signify? It signified his choice of the miserable mess of pottage for the magnificent birthright. He came home hungry from the hunting, and the smell of Jacob’s pottage was savoury in his nostrils, and he cried out like a great spoilt baby, “What good shall my birthright do me? Give me some of that red stuff there.” And so they called him Edom—Edom the red.

We see the difference between them now. Jacob has become Israel, Esau has become Edom. Jacob has given himself to trust in God; he turns now in his deepest trouble to God for help, and prays so fervently and so faithfully. Esau has gone to live in the hunters’ Arcadia, the land that is rich in venison, and open to the wild chase. Outwardly he is far stronger than Jacob. He can summon his four hundred warriors around him, and overawe his brother utterly. Really he is far weaker, for Jacob can summon God.

And yet at this very time, when we see the difference between these brothers clearly, Esau never looked so noble and so admirable: Jacob never seemed so mean-spirited and contemptible. Esau comes with his four hundred men, and Jacob bows in the dust before him, calling him Lord, and praying abjectly for mercy. Esau magnanimously forgets the past, and takes his brother to his heart. But Esau is Edom only, and the wild life will drag him lower and lower down. Jacob is Israel, and he has prevailed with God, and God is on his side for ever.

Never was it more clearly seen, the vast difference that God makes. It is the one word “God” that makes the Bible differ from all other books. It is the one word “God” that makes Jacob differ from Esau.’