“God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.’ Thus [God] called [Jacob] Israel.”

What’s with God doing all the name changing. God renamed Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. Here God renames Jacob to be Israel which means either “God strives” or “he struggles with God.” The nation that would come from Jacob’s descendents would take on this identity of “Israel”.

What is a name? A name becomes more than an identifier, it becomes a descriptor. In our culture this becomes obvious when we add the suffix ‘ian’ to a name. To be Keynesian is to follow the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. To be Rockwellian is to draw in the style of Norman Rockwell. To be Orwellian is to be similar to the ideas of the writing of George Orwell.

For a nation to be named Israel is to suggest that the nation shares some of the characteristics of Jacob/Israel. This is not necessarily a good thing. Jacob has some major character flaws that Israel may share in. Jacob wrestles or struggles with God which can be a good thing, but can also create a barrier or cause harm.

Israel would follow in the footsteps of Jacob’s successes and failures throughout her history.