Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 in Genesis 35, and we will read Genesis 35:9-15: 

And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we were looking at what God said in Genesis 35:10:

And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

We saw that the Lord was confirming the covenant, and this whole passage from verses 10 to 15 should sound very familiar to us because we read of these things recently in Genesis 28 and Genesis 32, and they have been compiled here as a reaffirmation of the covenant.  Historically, it was a good time to make it known to Jacob that the terrible sin that his sons, the children of Israel, were involved with in Shechem had not caused God to remove His blessing from Jacob, or from the children of Israel.  Of course that blessing was pointing to spiritual blessing upon spiritual Israel, but God uses the nation of Israel to illustrate that.

Last time I also mentioned that this was the point when Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died.  Deborah represented the Word that gave suck, and spiritually her death identifies with the death of the “two witnesses” at the end of the church age.  It was well understood that God’s covenant blessing (the Gospel blessing) was upon the churches during the church age when His Spirit was actively working to bring the blessing of salvation.

But what about after the church age had ended and the people of God went out (at the command of God) into the world?  Many were isolated, and they were no longer part of an outward visible congregation that they could gather with, so was there still blessing upon the elect of God at that point?  Yes.  And that is one of the spiritual pictures here, and one of the reasons that God is reiterating the covenant at a point after Deborah (the Word) had died.  The Lord is letting it be known that it is still the same Gospel.  It is still the same salvation program, and the eternal blessings upon the seed of Christ still remain.  They will inherit the land, and that is a strong emphasis in Genesis 35:12:

And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

God will give that land.  There will be eternal life and a place of eternal habitation, the Promised Land of the new heaven and the new earth.  God will give it.  It would not be lost when the house of God, the corporate church, would be destroyed with not one stone left upon another.  Canaan was not the Promised Land, but it was only a representation of God’s kingdom.  The eternal kingdom of God wherein each true elect child of God has citizenship has not been cut off.  It is as if God is addressing His people: “You have not been cut off from heavenly Jerusalem.  It is only earthly Jerusalem, the earthly corporate church that has been cut off, and not the eternal invisible church.  You are still full-fledged members of that heavenly community, and the blessings of God are upon you, now and forever, and can never be taken from you.”  You see, once we look at it in that light, it makes perfect sense, spiritually, for God to give the same blessing in much the same language as He did when Jacob left the land of Canaan.  That is when Isaac blessed him as he was leaving the land of Canaan, and then he came to that place he would later call Bethel, and God had an encounter with him and gave him the dream of a ladder upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending.  And we mentioned back then that this was a good time for such a blessing in the life of Jacob as he was leaving Canaan (which can picture the churches) and going to Haran (outside the Promised Land in the nations).  So this is a similar thing, especially in the context of Deborah Rebekah’s nurse dying, considering what she represents.

I want to talk a little bit more about the name change from “Jacob” to “Israel.”  In Genesis 32, God asked Jacob what his name was, and then He said to him in 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 mentioned before that the statement, “as a prince has thou power” is a translation of one Hebrew word.  It is Strong’s #8280, which I would pronounce “saw-raw',” like “Sarah.”  Actually in the concordance we can see that the word “Sarah” is “#8283, and it has identical spelling.  Also, there is another word, Strong’s #8282, and it also has identical spelling, and that word is translated as “lady,” “princess,” or “queen.”  The word for Abraham’s wife Sarah is the feminine, and it would be related to this word “lady,” “princess,” or “queen,” and it comes from the masculine form, Strong’s #8269, which is the word “sar.”  (The “ah” ending is what makes it feminine.)  This word “sar” is translated as “captain,” “prince,” “ruler,” and so forth.  It has the idea of royalty and of authority and power, or leadership. 

Again, Strong’s #8280 is the word for “prince,” where it says, “

…for as a prince hast thou power,” and it identifies with royal power and authority.  But where does this royal power and authority originate?  It was not in the man Jacob, as he was not of royal blood.  But God did say that he would make “kings” of  the line of Abraham, which is actually stated here in Genesis 35:11:

And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Kings would come from Jacob…but he is no more Jacob, but Israel, “

…for as a prince hast thou power with God.”  Again, this is a continuation of the promise that was first given to Abraham and his seed; and then it was confirmed to Isaac and his seed; and now it is confirmed to Jacob and his seed.  It is the seed that Galatians 3 very clearly, and wonderfully, spells out for us.  As far as the promise given to Abraham, we read in Galatians 3:16:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Then it says in Genesis 3:28-29:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Christ is the seed (singular), and in Him we are counted for the seed. 

But more than this, we must understand that Jacob is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.  First, he wrestled with the “man,” who was really God, and the proof of that is that Jacob called the name of that place in Genesis 32:30:

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

He wrestled with a “man” who was God.  God wrestled with Jacob, and He allowed him to prevail, historically, in order to paint the proper picture because the real “wrestling” took place earlier.  Remember that this word translated “as a prince thou has power with God,” is only used one other place, and that is in Hosea 12:3:

He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

Or, “as a prince hast thou power with God.”  That reminds us of Jacob and Esau struggling in their mother’s womb, and she went to God about that, saying, “If it be so, why am I thus?”  And God said in Genesis 25:23:

…Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

And Esau was born first.  He was the elder, and the birthright and blessing of the firstborn son was his, but he lost both to Jacob.  And spiritually that is teaching us something.  “Esau” is “Edom,” which is closely related to “Adam.”  Esau represented Adam, who was the firstborn as far as this world is concerned.  Adam was created, and he was the first man to walk on the earth, and he had the blessing of God.  And God calls him His son in the chronological account of the generations of man in the Gospel account which traces mankind back to Adam, who was referred to as “the son of God.”    Again, he was the firstborn into this world, and therefore he should have received the blessing, and he had the birthright, and all was his, but he lost it due to sin.  So God had another Son, did he not?  And that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we understand that Christ was declared “the Son of God” long before the man Adam.  He died at the foundation of the world for the sins of His people, and He resurrected, declared to be God’s Son.  But as far as this world is concerned, the order was Adam, followed by Christ who entered into the world as a Messiah, and that was another important reason that God had to perform that demonstration. 

But there is also the matter of the Law in regard to the “law of the firstborn.”  So there was this struggle between the two that represented mankind, and the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ for the “new creatures” that would be made as a result of Christ’s atoning work.  So there is the struggle, and this is where Christ prevails, as it goes on to say in Hosea 12:4:

Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed…

That is, Christ was victorious in the atonement.  He was faithful.  He was obedient in all points on which He was tested, even unto death, the death of the cross.  The Lord Jesus was obedient to the will of the Father and the commandments of God, unlike Adam.  Therefore He did not lose His Sonship; He did not lose the blessing.  He usurped the “first man” Adam, and He received the blessing where Adam had failed.  So this is all in view with this word, and this is why God ties together the language of Jacob taking his brother by the heel in the womb along with his having power with the angel and prevailing in the wrestling match.  It all fits together in a beautiful spiritual picture.

Let us go back to Genesis 35.  So Jacob is a type of Christ, and Christ is a Prince.  He is certainly of royal blood.  He is the King of heaven, and God says of Christ’s future birth into the world, in a tremendous verse in Isaiah 9:6-7:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the JEHOVAH of hosts will perform this.

Christ is the Prince of peace, and it is His government.  He is the Ruler that Micah foretold in Micah 5:2:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

He is the Ruler.  He is the Prince.  He is the One who would sit upon the throne of David and establish His kingdom for all eternity.  And this is why those that are of the seed of Christ are of spiritual royal blood.  We have been adopted into the family of God in Christ, and God has made us “kings and priests” unto our God, as declared in Revelation 1:5-6:

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

So God has made us “kings,” and that is what is stated after God said in Genesis 35:10-11:

And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Out of Christ would come the great multitude, and it is a “royal priesthood,” because we have been made “kings and priests” to do service to God.  So this is the explanation the Bible gives for this name change from Jacob to Israel.  And again, the name change has everything to do with the covenant given to the people of God in God’s magnificent salvation program.  That is fully in view in this passage.