HE Can Change Your Name!

By faith, Jacob…blessed, worshipped and leaned…

In life, we go through good times and bad times.  

Learning to live for the Lord and having faith in God, consistently, helps us enjoy the good and weather the storms.

Jacob, early in his life, definitely lived by his own rules, his own wiles, and trusted in his ability alone.  If he was in a “fix”, he would, by hook or crook as they say, get himself out of the situation.   

However, since Jacob was God’s child, he could not remain that way.

He indeed had to learn the lesson of faith in God!

God, being the great teacher, puts Jacob through a serious of lessons, wherein he learns to trust God in all situations good and bad.  

The first we hear of Jacob in the scriptures, he is being devious and stealing his brother’s birthright.  He is taking advantage of someone in an effort to get something he rightly did not deserve. 

Forgoing faith in God and hard work may get you something you want, but it will only be temporary.

The next episode of Jacobs’s actions comes in with him tricking his brother in order to obtain the first-born blessing from his father.  This action bears dire consequences, in that the result is he angers his brother and ultimately loses contact with his family, for quite some time.

Jacob, the trickster, now through his own actions, has been thrust out, and is alone and I am sure he is questioning himself and the decisions he has made to get to this point.  I am sure he feels worthless.  He most certainly feels the weight of failure and possibly even some self-loathing is taking place.  

Enter God.  

During this time of despair, God now chooses to show Jacob, that he is his child. Moreover, if Jacob will follow him, He will keep him, bless him, and use him.  

The process is now starting to turn Jacob from who he is into who God wants him to be.  

In our lives, God is working in us the same processes.  He wants to change us from who we are into who He wants us to be.

Jacob wisely states, If God will keep me in the way to go, if He will give me my “daily bread”, and raiment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God.  

He was stating his trust in God for his path, which is to say the direction and goals his life will be set in. His bread, which were those things he would need daily to survive. His raiment, not just a change of clothes, but those things, spirits, attitudes, mindsets that we “put on” and adorn ourselves with that others see in us which truly identify who we really are.

The next part of Jacobs’s life we see how God allows Jacob to go through a series of situations, where similar tactics that Jacob would have used were used against him - treachery, lies, etc. 

These lessons would work a process in his life to help him come to a place of complete faith. A place of trust and reliability on God, rather than on his own self.

Next we come to the climax in the story of God’s training with Jacob. 

He has now left and is returning home.  You can see his spirit is now meek, and he has been humbled.  At one point, he even finds himself alone.  

It is here that he wrestles with the angel.  He is determined to hold on and not let go until he gets his blessing.  He perseveres through the battle and receives his blessing. 

After the lesson is over, the Lord tells him he is no longer to be called Jacob, but Israel.   No more would he be identified with his old life, past mistakes, or failures.  He was no longer the trickster, but God assigned him a new name.

This too is true in our lives.  If we allow God to work in us, He will change our name, and we no longer need to identify with who we were.  We can fully embrace who we have been changed into by the grace of God.

The next chapter of Jacobs’s life, you find Jacob a more humble man, more dependent on God than himself.  We see he suffered much loss and heartache in the ensuing years, yet his confidence in God remained.

The great Hebrew hall of fame sums up the remaining years of Jacob after his “meeting” with the Lord.

Hebrews 11:21 “…by faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning upon his staff.”

Jacob was dying and he died as he lived.  Worshiping and leaning upon his staff.   He was at the end of his life, and even though he had his fair share of trials, disappointments, loss and setbacks, he was still worshipping the Lord.   

He was also leaning on his staff.  When he wrestled with the angel in his youth, he was smote in the hollow of his thigh. From that time until the time of his death, he leaned upon his staff.  This is a representation of someone who once depended on their own wiles and ability, but after meeting the Lord, they now could only lean on and depend on the Lord for strength.

Jacob died, surrounded by family, able to bless his grandchildren, and he was able to see happiness in the great sorrow of his loss.   

If we want to die like Jacob, we must live like Jacob.  Worshipping in spite of circumstances, loss, setback, or disappointments.  Leaning on our staff, the Lord - trusting Him, confiding in Him, and getting our strength from Him.    

We cannot live like Esau, and die like Jacob.