Genesis 32:28

"Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Jacob has been honored in so many ways. The name given to him became the very name by which God would later be identified: the God of Israel.

As his latter name indicates, the life of Jacob merges with the destiny of the country of Israel. His very birth springs out of potential annihilation and all throughout his lifetime, he has to contend to inherit and keep what God has rightfully given him. Later on, under the threats of his brother Esau, Jacob leaves his birth place of Canaan for Babylon, where he is employed by his uncle to watch his flocks. He marries the two daughters of the uncle and secretly leaves twenty-one years later to return to Canaan. As Jacob arrives, he is met by an angelic host before hearing of his brother who stills seeks his life. It is then that a mysterious powerful ‘messenger’ meets Jacob, changes his name and thereby his heart (Genesis 32).

How is it possible not to see the birth of the nation of Israel in Jacob’s life’s story: sprung out of Egyptian slavery and persecution; pursued by Pharaoh; fought by the Amalekites and throughout their history struggled to preserve their independence and autonomy, only be found expelled from their country for not twenty-one years, but so far, twenty-one centuries. Now Israel is returning to its land where Esau meets and wants to kill him. This battle will end in a bloody war with all the countries in the world gathered against Israel (Zechariah 12). At that time the Messiah, God’s Messianic Messenger will return and …

The rest of Jacob’s story tells us the end from the beginning. Jacob’s Messianic Messenger fights against him and Jacob prevails. Jacob does not let Him go; he hangs on to Messiah at any cost until he gets the blessing causing him a deep wound in his thigh. When Jacob now Israel meets Esau, they make up and Israel enters Canaan, the land of his future, the land promised to his grand-father Abraham.

In the distance, we can already hear the Messenger, the galloping hooves of his horse. He comes in greatness and strength from Bozrah in a garment dipped in blood (Isaiah 63:1). He will fight, wound and bless Israel, change his heart as that of his brother, and carry him to his country with an angelic welcoming committee.

That my friend, is Messiah’s roadmap to peace in the Middle-East. May it come soon, even in our days!