Read Genesis 33

God Is The God Of Israel

Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32 shows the signs of humility that God desires all of His children to possess. Finally, Jacob recognized “the mercies…which You have shown Your servant” (Genesis 32:10). Jacob shows even more progression in his meeting with his estranged brother Esau in Genesis 33. When Esau asked who all the women and children with Jacob were, Jacob answered, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant” (Genesis 33:5).

Yes! God is merciful! God is gracious! No longer does Jacob rely on his own wit and wisdom to provide for his family; he acknowledges the source of all of his blessings is God. Even today, the same truth stands. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with who there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

And yet, there is an even more momentous declaration of Jacob’s faith at the end of the chapter. When Jacob arrived in Shechem and purchased property, we read, “Then he erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel” (Genesis 33:20). This phrase when translated means, “God, the God of Israel.” No longer is He merely “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac” (Genesis 31:42). God is now the God of Israel himself! Now it’s personal!

This concept of a personal God was always intended in the mind of God. He prophesied through Jeremiah, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:33-34; cf. Hebrews 8:10-12).

God wants you to be a part of the spiritual “house of Israel,” the church. He wants a personal relationship with you so He can forgive you. This can only be accomplished according to His plan. Are you in Christ, where redemption is found? Is God your God?