Till We Are Home

On Sunday, I returned to teaching at our church. It’s been almost a year sabbatical rest from my responsibilities as an elder. Lord willing, I may return in July if the church continues to call me to this office. As part of the process, the elders asked me to teach Sunday School and cover seeing Christ in the story of Jacob. 

I’ve missed teaching. It’s been a good rest, and I’m thankful to the elders and the church for granting me time to recover and find renewal. But, I’m thankful to be working my way back. 

What I love about teaching is the opportunity to dive deeper into God’s Word, mining it for the amazing truths and revelations of our God. Researching the life of Jacob and finding the instances where Christ is evident played this out amazingly well. I pulled from three different stories of Jacob: his dream of the ladder to heaven (Gen 28), his time of wrestling with the man (Gen 32), and the Lord’s renaming him Israel and his return to Bethel (Gen 35).

I would like to share with you some of the insights from Genesis 35 that I gleaned in my studies. Reading through Genesis 35:9-15, we hear that Jacob returns to Bethel after spending 20 years in Mesopotamia serving his father-in-law Laban. Bethel is where he received the dream of the ladder, and Bethel is part of the Promised Land that God swore to his grandfather, his father, and himself as an inheritance for their descendants. In Bethel, God visits Jacob and reconfirms his new name of Israel (which means “one who struggles or prevails with God”) He gave to Jacob in Genesis 28. Afterward, the Lord reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob to make him into a great nation and give he and his offspring the land he was on, then the Lord leaves.

It’s a nice story. It’s nice of the Lord to reaffirm His promises and renaming of Jacob. But…why?

Why does God repeat this blessing to Jacob?

One wonderful tool to use when studying the Bible when you want to know why some things happen the way they do is to look at the context around the passage. Jacob just returned home. After wrestling with the Lord, wrestling with Laban for twenty years, then coming face-to-face with his brother who he thought may try to kill him, Jacob finally comes home. When you come home, especially after stressful and hectic events, don’t you just want to put your feet up and rest? Jacob went through a lot; it was time to rest and watch his family grow. However, the Lord had not planned rest for Jacob’s life. His woes would continue. 

Right away, we learn Jacob’s wife, Rachel, the one he loved dearly, dies in childbirth after Benjamin was born.

Reuben, his firstborn son – his boy – betrays Jacob and brings great shame upon them by having an affair with Jacob’s concubine. 

Then, Isaac, his father dies at the age of 180 years old. 

Also, and quite significantly, Joseph dies…well, at least as far as Jacob knows. One of his two sons from his marriage to his now deceased and favored wife is gone. 

And, finally, after a period of time, a great famine hits the land.

It looks like Jacob’s final years will know nothing but great heartache and pain. Of course, we know the reality of what happened to Joseph and how the story ends, even with the “resurrection” of Joseph to Jacob. Yet, Jacob does not know any of this at the time. He will walk through each of these very difficult experiences one painful day at a time.

We now see what path lays ahead for Jacob, so let’s return to our question from before. Why does God repeat the blessing of renaming and reconfirming His promises to Jacob? 

What God does for Jacob here in chapter 35 is nothing short of significant…nothing short of amazing…nothing short of incredible love. God tethers Jacob to Himself to say…hold on, my son. Your new name and my promises will be the ballast that keeps you afloat, that keeps you upright in the turbulent sea to come. When you pass through the waters to come, I will be with you (cf. Isa 43:2). 

You are mine and I will never leave you. 

That new name was a new identity. God reminded Jacob he no longer belonged to the world…he belonged to God. For Jacob, his new identity and assurance of God’s faithfulness would carry him through the great pain and agony he would experience in the coming years and decades. 

But, what about Jesus? How do we see Christ in this passage? Let’s go back to what God just did for Jacob. 

God gave him the new name of Israel. In doing so, he gave him a new identity as one who belongs now to God. And, one that will receive all the blessing promised to his father and his father’s father. 

Jesus in a greater way fulfills this for His people. We see Jacob’s new name and reminder of God’s promises as foreshadowing the One who would one day rename Peter (Mt 16:17). Even further, Jesus will one day give all His people a new name. Revelation 2:17 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Names are significant. Our new name signifies our new identity, our redeemed identity. For when we get home, just like Jacob arrived back home and received a new name, we, too, will receive our new name signifying our new identity as belonging to Christ for all eternity and no longer part of this world. 

I don’t know what you may be walking through this day, this very moment. You may be experiencing great sorrow, anguish, fear, anxiety, or a host of other difficulties. If you are a Christian, hear the testimony of Scripture in this passage – through Christ, you receive a new name, a new identity. That new identity speaks that you belong to Him. And, He will be faithful to fulfill His promises to you. Hold on, dear brother or sister. You belong to the King.

There’s so much in this passage, but I want to wrap this up with one more point. Jacob’s return to Bethel is a foreshadowing of the second Exodus…that exodus when Christ will return and bring His people home. Jacob’s return to Bethel…to the Promised Land…to his home foreshadows Christ bringing us all the way home – to the greater Promised Land in heaven – in the second Exodus.

One day Christ will bring us all the way home to be with Him, our God, for all eternity. Christ, through His death and resurrection, made a way to lead us out of death to bring us life eternal in Him. And when we get there, we’ll shed this mortal coil, our struggle with sin and death will end, and upon a white rock we’ll find our new name etched out to say…you’re Mine…you’re home. 

Like God encouraged Jacob, may we cling to our new identity…may we cling to God’s promises…may we hold on…

Till we are home…