But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (ESV Genesis 32:26-28)
This is one of those landmark events, a manifestation of God in scripture that we could dig a deep well, like the transfiguration of the Lord in the gospels. What I had not noticed before, or in fact in my recent reading of this, was the fact that the man who Jacob wrestled with asked him "What is your name?" till today listening to a remark about it by Ravi Zacharias.
This is of course the question we must hear, and must answer ourselves. What is your name? Who are you? We have to own up to our character and our past if we can be blessed. But what God does is just insane, because when Jacob owns his past, and his future, God breaks in and completely redefines him, renames him, and remakes him.
I am continually doing this very thing, every day, going to God, owning up to who I am, and how its been informed by my past. I am an unclean man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips. I cry out search me O God, see if there is any offensive way in me, I wonder if it would ever take all night to find yourself, and the exact ways your screwed up, and have fallen short of the glory that He made you. I wonder if I can say as I long for the light of God on his word's in scripture "i will not let you go, until you bless me."
It's easy to judge men like Jacob and evil he did, and wonder how God used him so powerfully that even today, people on the other side of the world in a language not yet conceived of yet like ours may worship 'the God of Israel"
May we walk walk with a limp Lord God, may we be the broken and contrite that you can not refuse, may we wrestle with you, search your word, cry for blessing, and may we have the humility to admit who we ultimately are without you, and the grace to see ourselves in the light of the gospel, and live up to our new names in this world.
