all the way from "Jacob" to "Israel"

The Word for today:
Genesis 34

mark this: Genesis 32:10-12 --
I am unworthy of the kindness and continual goodness you have shown me. (32:10)
Save me, I pray… (32:11)
Remember that you promised to make everything go well for me and to give me more descendants than anyone could count, as many as the grains of sand along the seashore. (32:12)

Jacob's story is the closest the Old Testament comes to a conversion story. There are other conversions, but we don't know the stories behind them to the extent that we know Jacob's story.

A lot has happened to Jacob in the twenty years since he ran away from his self-induced problems. A lot happened, but nothing really changed. Jacob remains Jacob, until he admits his sinfulness:
I am unworthy of the kindness and continual goodness you have shown me. (32:10)

In the next verse, he asks God for salvation:
Save me, I pray… (Genesis 32:11)

In the next verse, he trusts in God's promise:
Remember that you promised to make everything go well for me and to give me more descendants than anyone could count, as many as the grains of sand along the seashore. (Genesis 32:12)

***

Jacob believed the same promise that Abram had believed:
The Lord brought Abraham outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
And Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5-6)

The righteousness of God, which had been credited to Abram and now is credited to Jacob, is pictured in 35:2--
So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments."

Throughout scripture, salvation is depicted by the change of clothes:
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)

***

These are Old Testament pictures of coming to the cross of Jesus Christ for salvation from our sins. When we do, Jesus becomes sin for us, and we are imbued with the very righteousness of God himself:
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Just as Abram became a new man (2 Cor. 5:17) with a new name (Gen. 17:5), Jacob is now a new man, with a new relationship to God and a new name:
"Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel." (Genesis 32:28)

***

How did he get all the way from "Jacob" to "Israel?" Let's review his first steps:

32:10:  I have sinned.
32:11:  Save me, I pray.
32:12:  I am trusting in your promise to save me.

The kingdom of heaven is never more than three steps away, and today is a perfect day:
God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 6:2)

So go ahead: Rise, and walk.

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