Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel

High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America
By Tim Shey

Excerpt from Chapter Seven:

Sometime in July 1998, the Lord wanted me to take a bus to San Luis Obispo, California.  Of course, it seemed to make not a whole lot of sense, so I said, why not?  I took the bus from Ames [Iowa] and went through Denver then LA and ended up in San Luis Obispo.  I slept in a motel the first night.  The second night I slept on a hillside just outside the city.  I was in a Burger King and the presence of God came down on me heavily and I believe the Lord was telling me to go to Santa Fe.  So I got a bus ticket to Santa Fe.

I touched down in Santa Fe in the evening and walked to a motel room and I was not a happy camper.  I have wrestled with the Lord before and I was really wrestling with Him now.  I just couldn't understand why I had to take a bus here and take a bus there, hitchhike here and hitchhike there.  Later, I calmed down and realized that God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts and that I have shared my faith with lots of people on the road.  So I might as well shut up and put up.  I am here to take orders.  The Lord tells me to jump and I ask how high.

I started hitchhiking north out of Santa Fe on the road to Taos.  I got a few rides to Dixon and stopped by to see Mike and Pat Johnson who owned La Chirapada Winery.  I met them back in 1984.  Nobody was home, so I continued north.

This guy picked me up north of Dixon and drove me north of Taos.  When he dropped me off, he shook my hand and said that his name was Israel and that he was Jewish.  He drove off and I stood there semi-stunned:  that is the first time I have ever heard someone called Israel (except Jacob in the Old Testament, of course).

I walked up the highway for a mile and this older guy picked me up.  He drove to his house just north of Questa and I said I would keep on hitchhiking.  I stood there for an hour and then it started to rain cats and dogs.  The guy ran out of his house and told me to get inside because of the rain.  We sat down and watched some TV.  We watched some Spanish TV and then a Christian station.  He told me his wife and daughter were gone and that I could sleep on the couch if I wanted.  The church he attended was just up the road and I was free to come along.

We went to church the next morning---it was a small Pentecostal church.  The text that the preacher used was from Genesis 32: 28:  "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:  for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed."  My jaw just about hit the floor.  Is God's timing perfect or what?  Israel.  Jacob.  Israel.  Lord, what are you trying to tell me?  Remember the guy yesterday whose name was Israel?  Later I looked up the name Israel in Harper's Bible Dictionary and it said, "Israel:  May God strive, contend or rule."

After the service, I got a ride into southern Colorado and, later, into southwest Kansas.  This Christian family picked me up outside Garden City and took me to Cimarron where they let me stay for supper.  The husband drove me to Dodge City and we had a little prayer before I got out.  I stayed in a motel that night.

The next day I walked out of Dodge five miles and this truck driver picked me up and drove me all the way to Hutchinson.  He was a Vietnam vet and had married and divorced twice.  He said something interesting:  he said that if Jesus ever came back, he would hitchhike all over the place just to take a look around before our Father let Him be the King of kings.  I thought that was pretty unique.  You never know who some of these hitchhikers were; they could be angels---or ex-sawmen.

_____

[Genesis 32: 24-30:  "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.  And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.  And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

Hosea 12: 3-5:  "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:  Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;  Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial."]

Intercession
High Plains Drifter:  A Hitchhiking Journey Across America
Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter (1973)
He Walks With a Limp (Jacob)
A Dream about General George S. Patton
The Struggle and the Crown

The Man Christ Jesus

Jacob wrestling with the angel

Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
17 February 2005

Genesis 32: 28: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

I Timothy 2: 5: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

When the Lord changed Jacob's name to Israel, I always thought of it as a foreshadowing of the born-again experience. But as I look at the two preceding scriptures, we can see that Jacob/Israel foreshadows or symbolizes Jesus. All scripture points towards Jesus. Israel is Jesus. Jacob wrestled with God and became a mediator between God and men. His immediate son, Joseph, helped save the world from famine when Pharaoh raised Joseph up into a position of power. Jacob's distant son, Jesus, saved the world from sin (if we believe in Him).

I have always revered Abraham because he is the father of faith, but there is more written on Jacob than anybody else in the Book of Genesis. The Twelve Patriarchs came from Jacob (12 means "to rule"), so in Jacob you have a more enduring foundation for Moses, the Prophets and the New Testament. It is true that the Lord changed Abram's name to Abraham, but when Jacob became Israel, I believe there was a deeper transformation--from death to life--or maybe a deeper meaning (you can't pass from death to life without the Blood of Jesus). Jacob came from Padan-aram (a strange land, death) to Canaan (the Promised Land, life). Jacob had to change to Israel because now he had to live by faith in God and not faith in himself. Jacob means "deceiver"; Israel means "prince". The Lord now wants a prince to rule Israel, not a deceiver.

Jacob's words hold much power even to this day: look at Jacob's Prophecy regarding his twelve sons in Genesis Chapter 49. Verses 1 and 2: "And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father." If we abide in Christ, we hearken unto Israel. Jacob's Prophecy over Judah was definitely Messianic, but Jacob also gave Joseph a powerful blessing that also points towards some future ruler: "But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)."(Genesis 49: 24).

Before Jacob could pass into Canaan (the Promised Land), he had to confront Esau. Before Jesus could proceed to accomplish his work on the Cross, die and rise from the dead, he had to confront Herod. Herod was half Edomite (Herod was a descendant of Esau). There was enmity between Jacob and Esau and there was enmity between Jesus and Herod. Jacob was a true son of Isaac and Abraham; Esau was a real heathen--he married two daughters of Heth. Jesus was truly Jewish--he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets; Herod was not truly Jewish because he was half Edomite. Jesus was a son of Jacob; Herod was a son of Esau. You can't mix heaven with hell or heaven with the world: the love of the world is enmity with the Father. Jacob/Israel ultimately overcame and defeated Esau (the world) when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Esau is a term of derision; Israel is a term of endearment. During King David's reign (1000 B.C.) there was a nation called Israel; in the year 2005 A.D. there is a nation called Israel.

Jacob came, Jacob saw, Jacob wrestled, Jacob conquered. Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever. Jacob still endures and Genesis Chapter 49 is just as alive today as it was when it was first uttered from Jacob's mouth: "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father."

Bereshith

Abraham from Macedonia - Hitchhiking in Nevada

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
27 March 2008

This morning I walked around five miles east on I-80 and finally got a ride to Fernley, Nevada with a Christian. I was broke, so he gave me a ton of change—nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies—and I got a couple of sandwiches and something to drink in Fernley. From there I walked two or three miles and got a ride with a truck driver named Abraham. We had a great talk. Abraham was originally from Macedonia. He has been in the United States for eight years. He asked me a lot of questions about my Christian faith. Abraham told me that he was a Muslim. We talked a lot about Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael.

I told him that it was important to know that Isaac was the son of promise (faith) and that Ishmael was the son of the flesh (non-faith). The Messianic Line came through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Twelve Patriarchs. Abraham (the Macedonian) was very receptive as I spoke to him about having faith in Christ; how His blood cleanses us from sin and that the Kingdom of Heaven is a spiritual kingdom. I wanted to tell Abraham that he was not far from the Kingdom. It was a very edifying conversation and I am very grateful to the Lord that Abraham gave me a ride. He dropped me off here in Winnemucca and was going to take his tractor-trailer all the way to Lewiston, Idaho.

Hearing From God; Obeying God

Gleanings in Genesis
By Arthur W. Pink

Chapter 32. "Jacob’s Departure from Haran"

Page 278: "Jacob was in a strange land. He had been there for twenty years, yet he knew he was not to spend the remainder of his days there. God had assured him he should return to Canaan. How much longer then was he to tarry at Padan-Aram? When was he to start out for his old home? How could he be sure when God’s time for him to move had arrived? Pressing questions these. Note how the answer to them is found here in three things: first, a definite desire sprang up in Jacob’s heart to return home—this is evident from Gen. 30: 25. But this in itself was not sufficient to warrant a move, so Jacob must wait a while longer. Second, circumstances became such that a move seemed the wise thing; the jealousy of Laban and his sons made his continued stay there intolerable. (Gen. 31: 1,2.) This was ordered of God who makes all things “work together” for the good of His own people. But still something more was needed ere Jacob was justified in leaving. So, in the third place there was a clear word from God—'The Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers.' (Gen. 31: 3.)"