Jacob and Israel

[jgilberAZ]

disclaimer: I'm posting this same question in both of the forums I frequent ... a dispensational forum and a reformed forum.
I expect I'll get quite different responses.

I've often been confused about the passages that have both Jacob and Israel.

I've tried to study it out, but I can't make any sense of it.

For instance:

While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it.
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
(Genesis 35:22 ESV)


And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”
(Genesis 46:2 ESV)


After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’
(Genesis 48:1-4 ESV)


“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
(Genesis 49:2 ESV)


How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!
(Numbers 24:5 ESV)


Then Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
(Psalm 105:23 ESV)



What is the significance of calling him either Jacob or Israel?



Why is God sometimes called the God of Jacob, and sometimes called the God of Israel?


Same person, right?

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
(Exodus 5:1 ESV)

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
(Psalm 20:1 ESV)

I don't get it?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Certain passages such as Psalms, are "poetic," and so they give one name and the other for variety.

I do think frequently there is more to it than that, especially in Moses' writing of the history. Clearly, the man went by both names, after he received a new name. And indeed, it seems that immediately the name he was given "Israel" was passed on in effect to his family, for they are not so long after referred to collectively as "the sons of Israel."

The two names, in my estimation, are a reflection of the holy man's two relations--one primarily in reference to men, the other primarily in reference to God. Jacob is the sinner (saved by grace), the man who deals with other men as men. The name "Israel" should bring to mind Jacob's covenant-identity. Especially in the story of the rest of his life, as the name "Israel" is used, we should think of the fact that this is the covenant-man, the blessed man, who is being spoken of, who is speaking, who is acting. This makes much more sense of Moses' choice of name, instead of thinking he just varied the terms for spice; or worse, that the use of the two names indicates two "strands" of tradition that someone in King Josiah's day just wove together to make a longer story.

We might be able to find an intimation of the two-natures of Christ in the two names, Jacob and Israel. At many places in the narrative, Jacob/Israel is a type of Christ (as are most of the major OT figures). Jacob is the seed of promise, the elect of God, the Covenant man. Jacob is the first individual to possess the name "Israel" (alone), and Christ is Israel-reduced-to-One. Christ is the promised Seed. Christ is really the only one who truly embodies the name, Israel, "God strives." In the name "Israel," is a daily reminder that God's people can never succeed by their own striving. Man cannot be saved if he must strive for his own salvation. God must do the striving, and he shall.

So, we always go along, bearing the name of "Israel," or of "Christ-ian," but knowing that in ourselves we are only Jacobs: liars, deceivers, really no better than Esau. But, as Paul so brilliantly puts it in Rom.9, we aren't saved and given a new name because we are better than our brother; instead we are saved because of his Sovereign Mercy, before birth and without reference to how my life will be lived out. So, I am Jacob; but I am also Israel. Israel, but also Jacob. Christ alone is the perfect man, in dealing with other men. And he is the perfect Covenant-man, a Mediator for us with God.



Food for thought.

 

[jgilberAZ]

Thanks.

That was helpful.

 

[Pilgrim]

Jeff,

What significance do some dispensationalists ascribe to this? Or was this simply a question that came to mind while reading?

 

[jgilberAZ]

Here's some of what was said on the other board:

I've heard people say that when he is called Israel, then he is being addressed according to the spirit, and when he is called Jacob, he is being addressed according to the flesh. And the same for the nation.

When I look it this, that seems to work in many instances, but not all.

It seems vital to understand that Jacob and Israel are one, their inheritance is given as one, the person and the nation are one to God. I also wonder if it's a picture of Christ and the Church. God fulfills His promises to us in fulfilling His promises to Christ, same as promises to Israel are fulfilled in His promises to Jacob.

the first thing that comes to my mind is that the most obvious meaning of the use of his name Israel would be in his more public role as Father of a nation, while the use of his name Jacob would be in reference to his more personal and private role as an individual.

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------

This question has been on my mind for some time.

One of those things to which I just can't quite come up with a consistent answer.