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Then He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 32:28, LSB

God had chosen Jacob from his birth, not because Jacob was an upstanding man deserving of God’s love and would be the greatest representative of the faith. This is how God works. In our brokenness, God chooses us. He chooses us to reflect His light and His glory, as He is the one who transforms us. God’s plan for restoring creation was at play, and it was written in the Garden. Out of all His people, He chose Abraham, and from Abraham, Isaac, from Isaac He chose Jacob. Jacob was crafty and having a name that means “heel,” he often was a heel of a man. Yet, God still chose Him to be the father of a nation, not just any nation, but His chosen. After striving with the God-man, Jacob was given the name that would become known by all creation as God’s chosen, Israel. It is God’s mercy on full display. Through Jacob, our redemption path was sealed. God desires for our hearts to strive with Him against all adversity and to proclaim His saving grace to all nations. As Abraham was blessed to be a blessing, so are we as beneficiaries of the promise given to him by our Lord and Creator. In Christ, we are given new identities, a new purpose, and a new life. It is through His promises and the mercy He has given that we find our peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.