Names of God: El-Elohe-Israel

The name of God that we will look at today can be found in the book of beginnings…

Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan,

when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. 

He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent

from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father,

for one hundred pieces of money. 

Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. 

Genesis 33:18-20

El-Elohe-Israel, this name of God means God, the God of Israel.

Now to understand the full power of this name of God, of this passage of Scripture, we have to go back and look at the context. We have to back and look at Israel. We have to go back and remember that Israel was first Jacob.

Jacob got in a good bit of trouble with his dad Isaac and his big brother Esau. He let his mother lead him into deceiving his father in order to receive the blessing of the firstborn. The sad thing about this was that Rebekah had been foretold by God when the twins were still in her womb that the older would serve the younger, but instead of waiting on God and trusting in His word, she decided to “help” God out… just like her mother-in-law Sarah did.

This blessing deception ended with Esau ready to literally kill Jacob. So their mother, once again comes up with scheme before her husband. She has Jacob sent off to live with her family under the guise that she has sent him in the hope that he would find a wife.

Now on the way, Jacob stops to sleep on a rock in Beersheba. We read in Genesis 28:10-21 how God comes and speaks to him in a dream. We read of “Jacob’s ladder.” We also read how Jacob responds to this dream. He acknowledges that this is indeed God speaking to him… but pay close attention to his words.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying,

If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take,

and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, 

and I return to my father’s house in safety,

then the LORD will be my God.

Genesis 28:20-21

Did you catch that?

Did you just see that Jacob has not made God his God. He is still just the God of his father Isaac and the God of his father Abraham… He is not the God of Jacob. There is no relationship between God and Jacob. We even see here that Jacob has taken a bargaining mindset with the Creator of the universe and the Sustainer of his very breath.

If God will do A,B, and C then Jacob will do God the honor of letting Him be his God…

Wow.

Yeh.

Unfortunately that mindset is still very much alive and well today in the hearts and minds of men and women everywhere.

Now over fourteen years later, after Jacob has found not one wife, but two, his beloved Rachel and her sister Leah, he has finally decided it is time to leave Uncle Laban and return home. We read in Genesis 31 how Laban’s other sons and servants are not to fond of Jacob… basically because God has been blessing him like crazy and he has gained a lot of livestock and made his Uncle quite prosperous. So Jacob goes to his wives and tells them it’s time to move on… in this conversation we see once again that even though Jacob acknowledges that God has been with him and that it is indeed God that has blessed him… he still does not claim God as his personal God.

“I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly,

but the God of my father has been with me.

Genesis 31:5

Now after Jacob has separated from his Uncle Laban and is traveling toward home he gets word that his big brother Esau is coming after him with 400 men. This kind of shakes Jacob up a little bit. He gets a little scared. So he actually did what a lot of us do when we get scared… he prays.

Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,

O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country

and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’ 

I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness

and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant;

for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. 

 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother,

from the hand of Esau; for I fear him,

that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. 

For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea,

which is too great to be numbered.’”

Genesis 32:9-12

However, in his prayer we see that God is still the God of his fathers… not his God.

But we also see Jacob beginning to take a different attitude with the God of his fathers. This time he is not bargaining with God. He is on his face before him acknowledging that he has not deserved any of the kindness that God has shown him. He is begging God to keep His word even though he does not deserve for Him to keep it.

This is one of the awesome things about our God… the keeping of His word, His promises, is not dependent upon us. He keeps His word because He is God not because we are good.

Now later in this chapter Jacob sends his family across a stream and he stays behind… to just be alone. This is where God has to get all of us. He has to get us alone. Away from all distractions, excuses, false senses of security.

While alone a “man” shows up and begins wrestling with Jacob. Jacob holds tight and keeps fighting. He finally grabs hold of the man and says that he will not let him go until he blesses him. (Now I hope you have picked up that this was not just an ordinary man that showed up while Jacob was alone)

 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 

When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh;

so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 

Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.”

But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 

So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 

He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel;

for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 32:24-28

Why on earth did this man want Jacob to say his name?

Jacob’s name meant deceiver… and that’s exactly who Jacob was. He was a deceiver. He was a con-artist. He was selfish and set on himself… Jacob had to admit who he was. The real A, B, and C that Jacob needed to address was..

A– admit that you are a sinner

B– believe upon the Word

C– call upon His name and confess him as LORD

Now God was getting somewhere with Jacob. He had made it to step A. He had admitted that he was indeed a deceiver, a sinner. There were no excuses, no justifying his actions, no bargaining games, he was admitting I am the problem. It was here that Jacob was beginning to see that God needed to be his God, not on the basis of earning his worship, but because God was worthy of his worship, and he (Jacob) just needed to be thankful that God was willing to accept his worship.

So now when we read El-Elohe-Israel we see the true impact of this confession of Jacob.  He was a man with a new name… and a personal God. A God that was no longer just his daddy’s God, no longer just his grandaddy’s God, but his God. God, the God of Israel.

Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 33:20

So the question is… is He your God?

For such is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will guide us until death.

Psalm 48:14