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Genesis 32:28 " 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."

One of the things I love to do with my family is play card or board games. Uno in our home can be vicious, especially when we play Uno Flip, or when my sister comes over, we enjoy playing Skip Bo and recently my wife and I go at it with RummiKub. Playing these games can be intense especially because I am one who doesn’t like to lose. For example, playing Monopoly is just my all-time favorite especially when at the end of it all I own most of the properties like park place etc.!  I think you get the picture. But there is one game I have in our home called Faith Redemption and this game I just can’t understand. The object of this game is to give everything you have in order to win. To Lose is to Win, Really! How is this?  Is this even possible, and real?

In the scripture we are looking at today we see exactly this concept and understanding. Jacob all his life thought life was about getting the upper hand on people. Over-reaching is the meaning of his name, and that’s exactly what he did in life. He manipulated his way or did whatever he could to get the upper hand. But in this particular time in scripture, he finds himself with fear as he is about to face his own brother  Esau, to whom he has been trying to avoid for over 20 years because he used that same trickery on him, and Esau has been wanting revenge.

As Jacob finds himself alone before facing his brother, he finds himself with a certain man who then attacks him through the night until daybreak and doesn’t stop until this man hits him on the hip and hurts Jacob. It turns out that Jacob all along was not fighting with just any man but God himself. Just after Jacobs revelation of who it is, the man then tells Jacob that his name is now changed to Israel, because he had wrestled with God and man and has prevailed.

Now if we look at the name Israel, I’ve learned this:

The name Israel is a compound of two words: Sarah (meaning, fight, struggle, or rule) and el (meaning, God). Some take the name Israel to mean, He who struggles with God or He who rules with God. But in Hebrew names, sometimes God is not the object of the verb but the subject. Daniel means God judges not he judges God.

This principle then shows us that Israel likely means, God rules.

So, when God told Israel that he prevailed against God, it wasn’t that God told him he literally beat God, but was actually telling Jacob, the only reason you won Jacob, was because you no longer held on to your own understanding or your own strategies, but you held on to the only thing you knew, and it was that God was in Control. Jacob only prevailed against God, when Jacob lost to GOD! When he surrendered his will, when he surrendered all of himself, to hold onto all that God was, that’s when he prevailed against God. This is still true today. Paul states in scripture “to live is Christ, to die is gain”, (Philippians 1:21). When you and I learn to lose to God, that is when we Win with God.

What have you been currently wrestling with these days? Are you used to winning all the time? Or are you used to losing all the time? Well, it’s to win by surrendering all to God. Allow God to change your name today and call you Israel: God Rules!

Prayer: God today we take this time to say to you we surrender from our own selfish ways, and our pride. Please forgive us for all the times we thought we can just do things on our own. Help us today to turn to you and just leave everything in your hands and learn to walk under obedience so we can truly see the win in our lives! Amen!