What's in a Name?

Jacob and Israel

Last year I was in a Bible Study group where we read through the book of Genesis out loud. When we read the story of Jacob in chapters 25-39, one of the gentlemen in the group posed an interesting question: If God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, why is He called “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”? 

This question struck me in a profound way. This thought had never even occurred to me! Why was Jacob still called Jacob? God changed his name – so why didn’t his name change? I found myself pondering this question for several weeks and started searching Scripture for an answer. 

This journey became very significant for me because the search resulted in the first personal thing I had written in over a decade. I had gone through tremendous burn out. As I shared in my previous post, I had suffered from severe depression and anxiety, practically sequestering myself at home for many years. But about 8 months prior to this Bible Study night, God had brought me to a church community where I felt safe and seen. I felt His presence and His love for the first time in so long. I was starting to rediscover my identity in Him – which, I realize now, gave me the confidence to start writing again.

Recently I started asking myself why it was this question that broke my writing hiatus. Over the last several months, God’s been impressing on me the importance of identity – the importance of seeing ourselves the way He sees us. And what could be more of an identifier than someone’s name? Searching to understand the Jacob/Israel identity actually started me down a much longer journey to a better understanding of my own. 

In ancient Israel, names were incredibly significant. In the Bible, names communicate the character of a person, their purpose in the narrative, or convey promises God has made. Many names speak to the events surrounding the person’s births. Names in the Bible are weighted with meaning. So, if God gives you a new name, that has to be pretty significant – right? Abraham and Sarah are never again referred to as Abram or Sarai after their names were changed. So why is this different for Jacob?

We meet Jacob in the second half of Genesis. The beginning of the story shares God’s creation and ordering of the universe, His creation of humanity, and their purpose to co-rule the earth with God. Tragically, the humans decide to take matters into their own hands instead of trusting their faithful and good Creator. They are sent out of the garden in Eden so they won’t eat from the Tree of Life, which would cause eternal separation from God. The next few chapters show how all humans continue to make the same choice – taking matters into their own hands, deciding what is good and evil for themselves, and spiraling into more and more violence and bloodshed – until chapter 11, where God chooses one family, Abraham and Sarah, through whom He will bless the entire world, and reunite us all to Himself.  Genesis 11 to 50 traces the first generations of that family.

We find Jacob’s narrative starting in Genesis 25:19. Jacob is the younger twin of Esau, son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. He follows the familiar path of broken humanity and takes for himself not only the birthright of Esau by cunning, but also the blessing of Esau by outright deceit. In fact, his name “Jacob”, means “deceiver” (biblegateway.com - footnote "e" on Genesis 25:26). Then he runs away from Esau out of fear, but he trusts God for provision and protection. Later he wrestles with God, gets a wound, another blessing, and the new name “Israel” – which he is sometimes called.

In my research, I found verses all throughout the Old and New Testaments that refer to both the individual Jacob and the great nation that he would become as both Jacob and Israel – often in the same sentence or verse. According to a search on Bible Gateway, the name Jacob appears 261 times after he is given the name Israel (biblegateway.com - quick search "Jacob" NIV). And 81 of those verses refer to both Jacob and Israel in some way (biblegateway.com - quick search "Jacob, Israel" NIV).

After Genesis, the rest of the Old Testament continues the story of Jacob’s descendants, the nation of Israel, and their cyclical journey between trusting God and abandoning Him for idols. They become enslaved, cry out to God, are rescued, brought into the Promised Land and back into relationship with God – only to fall away to idol worship again and be exiled. Then they cry out again and are saved, only to restart the same cycle and be brought under oppression again and again.   

Looking at the story as a whole, one might argue that the use of both names for the patriarch and the people group is a portrayal of this constant struggle to choose between wanting to be in control of our own fate and being fully submitting to God and all His ways. Israel does mean “a man who wrestles with God” after all (biblegateway.com - footnote "b" on Genesis 32:28 CEV). This may be one of the main reasons he is given the name Israel; but this does not explain why the name change isn’t permanent.

A quick online search, offered only one explanation: the idea that “Jacob” refers to the patriarch’s character prior to the name change (again, Jacob means “deceiver”) and “Israel” signifies a transformed, more faithful person/people. Basically, when Jacob or the people are called “Jacob”, they are behaving “badly”; but when they are called “Israel” they are acting righteously. However, in my opinion, looking at the context of the narratives, I don’t agree with this line of thinking.

For example, Psalm 14:7b says “When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” (NIV). But one thing to note in this verse is that both Jacob and Israel are happy. Or look at Psalm 78:21, which says, “When the Lord heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel” (NIV). This shows both names as recipients of God’s anger. So in these two references both are experiencing the same things.

In fact, a sampling of the verses citing both names speak of God creating both Jacob and Israel (Isaiah 43:1), of Him chastising them both (Isaiah 43:22), of Him saving them both (Jer. 46:27); they speak of both names being innumerable (Num. 23:10), both being taught by God (Deut. 33:10), both being safe (Deut. 33:28), both being given decrees and statutes (Psalm 78:5, 81:4 and 105:10), and both being a remnant (Isaiah 20:20). So, scripture does not seem to be portraying the names or the characters as different - one name as “good” and the other as “bad”. But these verses really point to a sameness.

This makes sense considering that Jacob didn’t actually change after he was given the new name. Almost immediately after the first name change section, Jacob lied to Esau, saying that he would meet him in Seir, but instead he went to Sukkoth and settled there (Gen 33:14-17). He was more worried about being attacked by the Canaanites than defending his daughter after she was raped (Gen 34). Later he favored Joseph, the son of his favorite wife Rachel, to the point that all his other sons wanted Joseph dead (Gen 37:1-20). And after he was told that Joseph was dead, he favored Rachel’s other son to the point that Benjamin was the only child he tried to protect from Egypt (Gen 42:1-3; 42:29-43:14). So, he was not exactly an architype of “righteousness”, by either name.

Perhaps then there is another purpose for these names being used in conjunction instead of Israel replacing Jacob’s name the way Abraham replaced Abram. To get a better understanding, it might be helpful to look at Abraham’s name change.

It seems that the purpose of Abraham’s new name, at least in part, was to demonstrate the promise God made to him in covenant: “…your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations” (Gen 17:5 NIV). The name Abram means “exalted father”, while the name Abraham means “father of a multitude” (Abram Renamed Abraham). So the name change represents the promise given to Abraham – that his descendants would out number the stars in the sky (Gen 15:4)  But while the meaning of his new name spoke to God’s promise, the name change itself did not activate the covenant, nor did it bring about a transformation of character in Abram/Abraham.

God gave Abraham the promise of blessing while he was still Abram (Gen 12:1-3). He protected Abram from Pharaoh (Gen 12:10-20). He initially came into covenant with Abram (Gen 15:1-21). The name change came in the midst of his journey with God. And Abraham still did things wrong after he came into covenant with God and after his name was changed. He slept with Hagar after entering covenant (Gen 15-16); he offered Sarah to Abimelek, after being circumcised and becoming Abraham (Gen 17, and 20).  The name change did not change him.

So, neither Abraham or Jacob were changed by their new names. So, if God changing your name doesn’t represent a change in you, what does it signify? With Abraham, we can say his new name signified the promises of God. But Jacob’s name change did not have such an obvious purpose. It had nothing to do with what was promised to him or his forefathers. God gave him the name Israel because he wrestled with Him. He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have contended [wrestled] with God and with men and have prevailed” (Gen 32:28 NASB, italics added).

But is wrestling with God a good thing? The opinion in the Bible Study group was mixed. Some saw Jacob’s “prevailing” as a victory and the name change as a reward for his persistence, which is a very Western point of view, in my opinion. After all, wouldn’t overpowering someone to get a blessing just be another way of taking matters into your own hands? Of choosing your own way over God’s? Isn’t this the same choice that all of humanity has been making since the garden?

The whole idea of Jacob wrestling with God has always bothered me – why did he think he had to wrestle? Why did he think he needed to force God to bless him? God had already blessed him with children and flocks, and He promised to protect him. What exactly was he looking for when he demanded this blessing?

I believe at least part of the answer to why Jacob wrestled with God can be found in Jacob’s state of mind just before this encounter. Immediately before, Jacob was on his way back to his homeland and was afraid that his brother Esau would come out and attack him, his wives and his children (Gen 32:1-21). The reason he had fled from home in the first place was because he was afraid Esau would kill him for stealing the blessing Isaac their father was planning to bestow on Esau (Gen 27). Perhaps he was trying to force God to legitimize the blessing he had stolen?

But God had told Jacob’s mother that Esau would serve Jacob (Gen 25:23). God was the one who had told Jacob to return home – and He promised to be with him (Gen 31:3). As he left to go home, Laban pursued him, but God delivered Jacob from Laban (Gen 31:22-55). God had intended for Jacob to be the blessed one from the beginning and had provided for him and protected him all along the way. Yet Jacob was afraid of Esau.

We also see that Jacob was aware of God’s promise to prosper him and make his “descendants like the sand of sea, which cannot be counted” – we know this because he recites this promise back to God (Gen 32:12 NIV). He had seen the provision of God over the years, and yet he was afraid of Esau. He had just been delivered from Laban unharmed, and yet he was afraid of being killed. He knew that God had told him to return home, where Esau lived, and that God said He would be with him, and yet he was afraid losing his blessing.

When we stand in fear, we tend to take matters into our own hands instead of standing on what we know about God, instead of standing on the promises we’ve heard directly from Him, or standing on the promises and protection we have already received. Fear causes us to forget who God is. And it is in this mindset of fear that we come to this strange interaction where “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak” (Gen 32:24 NIV).

We are not given many details about this interaction. There is no qualification or justification for what happened – we are just told that it happened. We don’t know who instigated this wrestling match, just that it went on all night. We’re told the man put Jacob’s hip out of joint with just a touch, yet somehow the man was not able to overcome Jacob? We see Jacob would not let go, even after being injured. We know the man told Jacob to let him go, and Jacob refused to until the man blessed him (Gen 32:22-26).

We find out later “the man” was actually God when He comes to Jacob and states the name change again a second time (Gen 35:10). And it isn’t until after this second declaration that Jacob is at least a little more consistently referred to as Israel.

It really seems that his descendants are more consistently called Israel, or the Israelites, than the individual Jacob. Another search on Bible Gateway confirms this, as “Israel” is found 2,431 times in all of scripture (biblegateway.com - quick search Israel NIV), while “Jacob” scores a mere 363 references in comparison, which includes all mentions prior to the name change biblegateway.com - quick search Jacob NIV).

One could deduce that the new name is meant more for the people of God rather than for the patriarch himself. After all, “deceivers” is hardly an appropriate name for God’s chosen people. Yet, even with this new name, the people are depicted in a resistant nature. “Wrestles with God” aptly denotes a people who constantly struggle to keep God’s covenant. They consistently choose their own way and call out to God only when they are in the midst of the dire consequences caused by their own selfish choices. Despite ample history of God’s goodness, they constantly turn away, they constantly forget His goodness. They constantly wrestle with Him.

Starting in the garden in Eden and throughout the entire biblical narrative, God beautifully and mercifully demonstrates that choosing His way brings life, joy, prosperity, and peace; while choosing our own way brings death, exile, scarcity, suffering and strife. Yet even though God knew that humanity, left to themselves, would consistently choose their own way despite all the evidence of His better way, He still entered an everlasting covenant with humanity to provide a way for us to enter back into His plan, His path, His way – through His son, Jesus.

I believe the use of both Jacob and Israel throughout Scripture, points to the fact that entering into and fulfilling a covenant with flawed, selfish humanity was always God’s plan – even though He knew that no human would ever be able to do what needed to be done to fulfill that covenant. He knew Jesus would have to die for us to be saved.

So, calling His people both “deceivers” and “wrestlers” somehow solidifies the understanding that our salvation must somehow come from outside of mere humanity – demonstrating the need for Jesus to come to us as fully human and fully divine. Because humanity, without God, is totally incapable of keeping His covenant; we are totally incapable of bringing about God’s promises without His intervention; we are totally incapable of changing enough to redeem ourselves, or anyone else. This is who we are without Him.

What I have been realizing these past several months is that knowing our identity in Christ is enormously important – we need to know who we are in Him so we can stand in faith – but I think knowing who we are without Him, might be just as significant.

I know who I am without Christ. I have experienced it. I had walked away from Him. And during that time, I was a depressed and anxiety ridden ball of sadness, curled up on my bed, incapable of the smallest of tasks – someone with all the potential in the world, but without the capacity to see anything through. But with Him, in Him, I can be bold and speak His Word. I am His daughter, a princess in His court. In Him, I am righteous and pure. I am sent. I am able to do all the things He calls me to – full of potential and with access to His capacity, which is infinite.

Knowing that without Him we are deceivers and wrestlers, yet He gave Himself for us anyway, makes His gift of redemption even more amazing. God loved us all totally and unconditionally before we were even created. He knew we would be selfish and rebellious, but that did not change His mind. He knew we would be both Jacob and Israel – deceivers and wrestlers. Yet still He created us; still He gave us free will; still He endured our rejection over and over again – so that through His covenant faithfulness, through Jesus’s covenant sacrifice and resurrected life, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we could finally be transformed into His righteous covenant partners. Through Him, and only through Him, we could finally be what He created us to be – the beloved family of God.