We have to begin here in order to set the stage because of the way the translators have chosen to render Jacob's name change into English. It is misleading because it hides much of Jacob's character and God's purpose in providing this wrestling match. In so doing, it hides much of the instruction that is available here.
The chapter began with Jacob's preparations for meeting Esau. He arranged the parties into two groups, and he gave Esau about 550 animals. But before that meeting actually took place, God intervened by forcing Jacob into this wrestling match. We know that it was God he was wrestling. It says angel, but Jacob knew better. He said, "I have seen God face to face," and he said, "I lived." We will find confirmation for this in another place as well.
Look how he wrestled with the Angel yet. He wrestled gamely, and with great courage. But I think that we can understand that God exerted just enough strength to keep things under control and to get His point across. It was God who ended the match, because Jacob demands a blessing. The blessing conferred was a change of name that suited Jacob's personality, and a lesson that he had to learn, and the painful putting of his hip out of joint as a constant reminder of that lesson. He limped for the rest of his life, apparently with some measure of discomfort, because we find him later needing a staff to get along with.
Now, how can something like that be a blessing? It was, though, because it was intended by God to keep Jacob humble. What was the lesson here?
Jacob knew that he had not won. "My life is preserved." He knew in his heart of hearts that if the One who was wrestling with him wanted to, He could have made Jacob a grease spot right there, and that would have been the end of it. Jacob did not win, but the translation here makes it look like he won. Nobody wins against God. God's will is done in every case. We do not have enough wisdom, enough experience, enough knowledge to know what is good for us, like God does.
Jacob did well in the wrestling match, and he prevailed only in that he did not give up, and that was admirable. He did not give up, but he did not win. Think of this. Satan, a spirit being of far greater powers than Jacob ever even dreamed of, could not beat God. How is a mere man going to beat God? That is what I am telling you when I said that the translation here is misleading. He prevailed only in that he did not give up, and that is to his credit. Jacob only got as far as God's suffering of him would allow.
We are going to look at the name Israel. It is variously translated in Bibles as "prince with God." That is not too bad of a translation. Or it is translated as "He who strives with God." That one is not good at all. Or it is translated as "He who prevails with God." That one is a bad translation, and yet that is the most common one that you will see in Bibles. Sometimes it is even translated "God prevails." Hey! That is the best one yet. That last one, according to Bullinger, is the one that comes the closest to what the word really means.
The root of the name Israel is two words: El. Everybody knows El means God. The other word is a word that transliterates into English as sar. Do you know what sar means? It means "one who arranges, one who orders, one who commands." It has the usage "prince." A prince is one who orders, who arranges, who commands. Abraham's wife's name Sarah is derived from this, and it means princess. She is a person of authority and power.
This same word sar is translated in modern Bibles "princes." The same verse, in like the King James, might read "officials." (See Genesis 12:15, "The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.")
We are all familiar with the name Potiphar. Potiphar was a captain. That is the word sar, translated captain. Pharaoh's butler had a chief. The word chief is sar. The king's cattle had rulers. The … . . .
I do not know why we need to do all this He, He, He stuff. We knew exactly that He was God.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel due to this quality that he possessed. He showed it in this wrestling match with God. All night he struggled. He wrestled with God all night long and would not let go until he received a blessing from God. Jacob was a character. Jacob was unusual. He had a tenacity. He had a fighting spirit, if you will. He had a desire to win, a desire to win in the Hebrew sense.
Now, this episode that we just read marks the turning point in Jacob's life and in his character. He is a changed man after this. This is what his name did. He changed his name and it marked a change in character. He went from heel catcher or supplanter, which is what Jacob means, indicating nefarious, underhanded dealings. If you go and read the chapters before this, he was always trying to trick Laban out of something. And his own brother Esau, his own father. He was a tricky man. But then God changed his name to prevailer, or overcomer with God.
Do you know what Israel actually means if you break it down into its etymological roots? Technically it means "God fights." But the way it has come to be understood was "fights God" or "struggles with God," "strives with God." It is not that he is fighting against Him. He is fighting with him because he wants what God is willing to give him. So he fights God. You have to get your mind into a kind of Hebrew way of thinking. But that is what it comes out as. It is folk etymology because it really should mean "God fights." But the way the Hebrews thought of it after this occurred was that you fight with God, meaning on His side, for Him, not against Him.
But anyway, it is also interesting that when God gives His little spiel about the name Israel, He says, "You prevailed with God and with men." He added, "and with men" in there. Now he did fight with a Man, but this was Jacob's character. Jacob fought with everybody. Jacob tried to prevail with everybody. That was just the kind of man he was. But it shows that Jacob had the same tenacity in overcoming and combating the ideas and plots and temptations of other people, as he did trying to be a warrior of God and overcome the spiritual things. So he was trying to overcome everything.
Everything was stretched out in bands across the desert toward Esau. Last of all, at the very back of the procession, was Jacob. All alone and trembling. He had given up his possessions, even his family, but he was still the same old Jacob, and he had not given up his self quite yet.
Jacob now, at the point of true personal commitment, cried out for a blessing and was blessed. He was now continuing to change his life. As a symbol of that commitment and resulting blessing, the Eternal changed his name. Before, it had been Jacob, the heel-grasper, the cheat, the supplanter; and now it became Israel, which meant “one who had struggled with God and been overcome.”
Finally Jacob demonstrates one more character trait that we need in the process of overcoming—endurance, persistence, stick-to-itiveness, enduring to the end. He never gave up. With his hip out of joint, and the pain coursing through his body, he still clenched with God until He would bless him. He struggled even with God to succeed, to prevail, to conquer, and overcome. And God marked the fact that he had left his old nature behind by giving him a more appropriate name—Israel—Prince with God, Prevailer with God.
