JACOB BECOMES ISRAEL — WONDERING AND WANDERING TOWARD HOME

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Michael so wisely takes two of the ideas in this week’s title, wandering and wondering, and transforms them from their pejorative connotations into something positive , something spiritually rich. He says of Scripture’s stories,

 

“It’s not for us to judge, but we can always wonder. Wondering about life is never really knowing. It’s just not a knowing thing or you wouldn’t be wondering about it. To wander through life and to wonder about life are pretty much the same thing. Both are lessons to be learned.”

 

The Bible speaks of this in Isaiah, where it is written,

 

“For your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Isaiah 55: 8-9) NIV

 

As Michael beautifully and understandably sums up:

 

“The Bible is God’s story, We are on His path. The turns that this path takes are, very much, God’s business.”

 

As we return to Genesis, where God’s story continues, these truths are so important to remember.

 

This week, Michael and I will showcase Jacob and the circuitous road his life took before God, Himself, showcased him in a central role in Scripture.

 

But first, we want to set the scene with both divine and human context. Let’s begin with God’s divine plan.

 

How crucial it is to keep in mind the big picture of what God intended in establishing Abraham as a Patriarch. You recall that after The Fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, God began the solution to this and its consequent entry of death for His creation, a creation whom He had intended to live forever.

 

Pivotal to God’s rescue plan, was the institution of a Chosen People. For this People, God chose Abram. Later, after a substantial number of failures on Abram’s part, God changed his name to Abraham and declared him the Father of Nations.

 

 Abram’s wife, Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah and she became the Mother of Nations.

 

Before we consider Jacob and the change of HIS name, we ask ourselves, “Who was Jacob?” Genetically, this is easy to answer.

 

Jacob’s parents were Abraham’s and Sarah’s son, Issac, and his wife, Rebekah. Their children were twin boys, Esau and Jacob 

 

As an aside, and with regard to Issac, there is something significant about which to wonder. After these twin sons were grown, Isaac, in an amazing example of generational sin, represented Rebekah to be his sister, exactly as his father Abraham had done regarding Sarah, his mother. Isaac did this for the same reason Abraham had. While living among the Philistines,

 

“He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she was beautiful.”

(Genesis 26:7) NIV

 

When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek, king of the Philistines, saw Isaac being intimate with Rebekah and confronted him. Rebekah was rescued before any harm came to her. ( Genesis 26:8-10) NIV

 

Later, when Isaac and Rebekah moved away, God, this God of love and forgiveness in the Old Testament, appeared to Isaac and renewed His covenant to bless and multiply his offspring. (Genesis 26:23-24) NIV

 

But, returning to this week’s central subject, who was Jacob, really? What kind of man was he? As serious as misrepresenting Rebekah to be his sister was for Isaac, the foibles of Jacob make it pale in comparison. Jacob convinced his brother, Esau, the elder of the two,  to give up his birthright for a bowl of stew. (Genesis 25:27-34). Later, in league with his mother, Rebekah, who greatly favored Jacob over Esau, Jacob stole his brother’s blessing from their father, Isaac, in a deception of monumental proportions.

 

It is often said of Jacob, that he was a “deceiver.” This is inarguably true but what a sterile word. What was he really? Jacob was blatantly dishonest! He was nothing less than this. We almost put a pretty touch on who he was to call him simply a deceiver.

 

And to make matters worse, the people to whom he was dishonest were his twin brother and his now quite elderly and fragile father, Issac – a man in close vicinity to his deathbed. We hear of honor among thieves. This certainly cannot be said about Jacob.

 

The consequence of this was for him to have provoked Esau’s extreme and understandable anger. In fear of his very life, Jacob had to leave town, basically run out on a rail.

 

After these occurrences, Jacob received a taste of his own medicine when he was hoodwinked by Laban, the father of two sisters, both of whom eventually became Jacob’s wives. Laban, for whom Jacob worked for seven years, in order to win the hand of Laban’s beautiful daughter, Rachel, found himself married to Leah, Rachel’s older, more matronly sister. Some would say Jacob’s karma had caught up with him.

 

During the course of Jacob’s years in the employ of Laban, trickery was traded back and forth between the two. As a result, Jacob was again on the run, now between the devil and the deep blue sea. Laban chased him from behind and Esau waited to exact his revenge from Jacob’s pathway ahead.

 

Is it likely that this Jacob would ultimately have his name changed to Israel, as high an honor as possible? Yet, this is exactly what happened!

 

Genesis 32:22-32 records his wrestling with a man. Many Biblical scholars say that this person was actually God. Hosea 12:33 references this man as an angel. Wherever your theology takes you, the consensus of all is that this individual renamed Jacob, Israel:

 

“Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

(Genesis 32:28) NIV

 

Additionally, God renewed the Abrahamic covenant with Israel, placing him solidly in the iconic line of his grandfather, Abraham, and his father, Isaac. God chose him to play a central role as one of the Chosen People.

 

As Michael says,

 

 “We are often left wondering. It is ok to not have a pat answer to every question the story of the Bible raises in our minds. As we wonder, we are saying that we don’t know it all.”

 

We are reminded of Isaiah, of the fact that God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours.

 

Yes, Michael says that this God of mystery is writing the story.

 

We should make no mistake about the fact that about much, we are left to wonder and that this, in itself, is quite…well, quite wonderful. Counterintuitive and wonderful.

 

At the end of the day, we know enough. We cannot see around the next curve in the path before us but how well, and very well, we feel our hand in His. We wonder. We wander. Above all else, we trust. We are so very safe on the path.

 

Postscript:

Next week we turn to the significance of Bethel in the life of Jacob. We go back in time, to his dream there, and then forward in time, to his return — to Bethel. God met him at both times. Once again, there will be much to wonder about.