R.C. Sproul

Because in this combat, in this struggle, in this close quarter endeavor that we've gone through here, I have touched you and I have changed you and I have changed you permanently.

Yes, there's continuity with who you were before this meeting and who you shall be ever after.

But there's also radical discontinuity now for the rest of your life.

And so your old name is no longer appropriate.

The old name, which meant supplanter, the old name for which you were so well-named because of your crooked, hypocritical, devious tricks that you pulled on your own family.

No more Jacob.

Jacob is over.

From now on, your name shall be called Israel, the one who wrestles with God.

So what a beautiful name, because the whole rest of the Old Testament is the history of a nation that never stopped wrestling with God, that never stopped combating and contending with the Lord.

Not always in the positive sense that Jacob does it in this context.

And so the angel of God pronounces the blessing of God

upon his servant.

And with that blessing, he gives him a new name.

Now, what is Jacob now Israel?

What is Israel's response to that?

He's still fighting.

He says to the angel, you tell me your name.

And what does the angel do?

He doesn't give his name.

Jacob's looking for a draw.