Faithbase

After wrestling with the angel of God and coming to understand his ways of manipulation would no longer work, Jacob humbles himself before his brother Esau. Esau, surprisingly, miraculously, forgives his brother Jacob and allows Jacob and his family to enter the promised land of Canaan. If we'll remember from yesterday, when Jacob wrestled with the angel of God, the angel asked, what is your name? God wanted Jacob to remember the meaning of his name was manipulator, but he no longer needed to manipulate situations and needed to realize that this way, Jacob's way, only led to unnecessary struggling, aka decades of living in hiding. God needed Jacob, the one inheriting the promise God gave to Abraham and passed to the father Isaac, to understand who God was, how mighty he was, and how trustworthy he was. If Jacob could learn to believe in God enough to trust him as his grandfather and his father before him had done, God would be able to do the work. Jacob must simply believe and obey God when he told him to do something. Jacob's heart is changed and so God changes him saying, your name is no longer Jacob, the manipulator. You are Israel, the father of my nation, the father of the nation who will know me and tell the world who I am and how much I love them. You are Israel.