What's In A Name

“What’s your name?”

He sat there, tired, beads of sweat dripped down his face.  He could feel the touch on his hip, and the limp in his step.  He had wrestled with Him all night long.  Never had he struggled so much, so long.  It wasn’t just the physical wrestling, but the spiritual struggle taking place in his heart.

It echoed again in his mind, “What is your name?”

He knew his name.  This wasn’t the only time there had been a wrestling in his heart, a struggle in his mind.  Yet tonight, it all came to this one life changing, life altering moment.

“What is your name?”  “Deceiver” raced through his mind.  He knew why God was asking him this.  It was more than just the name, it was what the name meant;  Deceiver.  His life had been filled with it.  Deception was his name, and he lived up to it well.

“What is your name?”  His mind raced back to the smell of fresh meat broiling on an open flame out in the fields.  It was fresh hot stew that he had just made after a long day of work.  In the distance, he saw his brother approaching.  “Can I have some?”  Quickly Jacob said no, and continued to prepare his meal.  Again Esau asked.  This time a thought came to Jacob’s mind.  But hesitant, he again said no.  Finally Esau, starving after a long day of hunting ,but with no success, pleaded with his brother.  “I will give what ever you want, I am hungry!”  The Deceiver saw his opportunity, and in a moment he had stolen his brother’s birthright.

“What is your name?”  In another instant, Jacob was taken back to his father’s bed.  His deception this time was not his alone, but his mother’s as well.  To complete the process of stealing a birthright, Jacob, with the help of his mother, prepared to gain the blessing from his father.  As he approached the frail image of who his father once was, Jacob, covered in thick fur, and smelling of Esau’s garments, approached Isaac.   Kneeling down, he altered his voice, and prepared in his heart to deceive his own father, for a birthright that was not his.  In that moment, he reputation as a deceiver was sealed.

“The man said, "What's your name?" He answered, "Jacob."  Jacob knew what his name meant, and he knew he had lived up to it well.

 He realized that his life had been nothing more the a deception to others and himself, and surely now, in this moment, God was seeing the same.  His life had reached this moment of fear, frustration, anger, pain, doubt and anguish.   He knew he was about to face the brother he deceived so long ago, the one who’s very existence he had taken away so many years ago.  He feared the rumors he had heard, his brother was seeking revenge.   It was this night, that he wrestled with God.

It was in this moment of struggle, God gave Jacob hope.  He changed his name.  He changed who he was, and changed history.

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Jacob glimpsed.  Israel?  Prince of God?  What about my deception, my sin, my past?  God had taken this all away, and in its place God gave birth to hope, and created a nation.  Israel, the “Prince of God, “the Righteous Man,” the one “Of God,”  the one who once was “the deceiver” would rise to become the father of a nation, and the seed of Salvation.