How did the children of Israel get their name?<\/p>\n\t
They were descendants of Jacob who was a son of Isaac who was a son of Abraham (Exodus 19:3). Jacob, when concerned about his brother Esau’s possible approach to kill him, stayed behind to pray all night. There he was visited by an angel. He clung on to the angel and refused to let him go until he was told that his request was answered:<\/p>\n
“Then Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about my name?” And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved”<\/em>” (Genesis 32:24-30).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The name “Israel” means “wrestles with God.” It turns out to be a very appropriate name for his descendants because they constantly struggled against God for the entire existence of the nation as Stephen pointed out in his sermon in Acts 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: How did the children of Israel get their name? Answer: They were descendants of Jacob who was a son of Isaac who was a son of Abraham (Exodus 19:3). Jacob, when concerned about his brother Esau’s possible approach to kill him, stayed behind to pray all night. There he was visited by an angel.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[557,998],"class_list":["post-18535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-israel","tag-names"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2959,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-was-the-angel-that-jacob-wrestled-with-at-jabbok\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":0},"title":"Who was the angel that Jacob wrestled with at Jabbok?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who was the angel that Jacob wrestled with at Jabbok? Answer: \"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41096,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-jacob-know-he-was-wrestling-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":1},"title":"How did Jacob know he was wrestling with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please, how did Jacob know he was wrestling with God, saying that \"I won't let you go until you bless me?\" Answer: \"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":77994,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wrestling-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":2},"title":"Wrestling with God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The narrative of Jacob includes the intriguing account of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32). Jacob had been out of the land for a few decades and finally returned. The night before meeting Esau again, Jacob was left alone, and the text says, \"a man wrestled with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18713,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-long-did-it-take-for-jacobs-children-to-be-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":3},"title":"How long did it take for Jacob’s children to be born?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: At our Wednesday evening class, the teacher said all of Leah and Rachael's children were born within 7 years.\u00a0 Another man in the class, who is very intelligent, was puzzled by that and asked several questions for clarity. After about 5 minutes of discussion with the teacher, who is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-mahalath-a-canaanite-and-did-esau-marry-her-to-get-back-at-his-father-isaac\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":4},"title":"Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac? Answer: \"When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-christ-be-equal-to-the-father-when-he-submitted-to-the-father\/","url_meta":{"origin":18535,"position":5},"title":"How can Christ be equal to the Father when he submitted to the Father?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read the article, 'Who was the angel that Jacob wrestled with at Jabbok?', and I was a bit confused. If Christ was called a messenger of God before he took a lower form (Philippians 2:6-8), how can we argue objectively with the Jehovah's Witnesses that he is equal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}