Genesis 32:28 RSV — Then he said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Matthew 5:11-12 RSV — “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This chapter addresses the difference between Jacob and Israel. Although referring to the same man and his descendents, Jacob wasn’t renamed Israel until he wrestled with an angel of God in, perhaps, the most vulnerable moment of his life. Jacob was alone, having sent all his posessessions with his entire family to give them to his brother Esau for forgiveness. After having his birthright stolen by Jacob, Esau grew strong enough to kill his brother. As Jacob waited to learn whether his gifts would spare him his life, an angel appeared to wrestle him through the night.
After surviving the match and suffering a dislocated thigh, Jacob is given the name Israel. It is unclear what “Israel” means exactly, one source provides this guess: “He Has Become A Receptacle In Which God Can Be Received And Retained.”
This rings more true to me than the frequently used, “He Who Strives/Struggles/Wrestles With God.”
Israel became a new man in his striving.
We become new in our faith when we struggle with the Word.
But God reminds us that the old self, the Jacob, is a pattern that still exists as the fallback position when we cease to strive in our faith.
This chapter chides the descendents of Israel as they have fallen into the patterns of Jacob.
