Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 32:22–31; Hos. 12:3, 4;
Jer. 30:5–7; Genesis 33; Gen. 34:30–35:29.
Memory Text: “And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called
Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men,
and have prevailed’ ” (Genesis 32:28, NKJV).
The family saga of Jacob continues, both the good and the bad.
Yet, through it all, the hand of God and His faithfulness to the
covenant promises are revealed.
This week follows more of Jacob, now that he had left Laban and,
returning home, had to face Esau, the victim of Jacob’s treachery. What
would his brother, so grievously wronged, now do to him?
Fortunately for Jacob, amid the fear of what was coming, the Lord
God of his fathers appeared again to him in an incident that was a
precursor to what would later become known as the “time of Jacob’s
trouble” (see Jer. 30:5–7). And that night Jacob, the supplanter, became
“Israel,” a new name for a new beginning, a beginning that would ulti-
mately lead to the creation of a nation itself named after him.
In other words, despite all that happens, the story of the patriarchs
and their family is told in Scripture in order to show us that God is
faithful to fulfill what He has promised and that He will do so despite
what, at times, seems to be nothing but His people doing all that they
can to stop that fulfillment.
