Genesis 35:9

Jacob's steps to Bethel had been slow indeed. His stay in Paddan-aram was long. Then came delay in Succoth and in Shechem. At last sin and sorrow, shame and fear drove him out — yet God was always faithful and true.

Everything shows that now he has really reached the goal. All his journeys in the land are passed over in the quiet words which treat him as just come back to it.

He appeared to Jacob, and there was no wrestling. He appeared to him and blessed him. It all comes from God. God speaks freely and fully. He does not ask, "What is your name?" He had called his name Israel before. That was part of the discipline and exercise, though it gave him strength. Now He takes it into His own hands and gives it of Himself. It is not Jacob wrestling for the blessing; he does not even have to ask God His name.

God at this hour speaks with Jacob, without saying anything at all about his experiences. He had been unfaithful, so these experiences were needed to chasten him and empty him of himself. God Himself appeared to him now, unasked... He gave him the name of Israel, as if He had not given it to him before. And He reveals His name to him, though Jacob never asked for it.

As if to show how practically ineffective Peniel had been, He gives him afresh the name which He had given him there. "And God said to him, Your name is Jacob" — still Jacob! — "no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So we learn this: if weakness is the secret of strength — and it is — that strength is only for walking in God's ways. Israel must come to Bethel to be Israel.

The same grace that refused to call him Jacob any more declares his name from now on to be Israel; and He who loves to roll away every reproach from off His people writes this new name upon him, sealing it as His own act, for "He called his name Israel."

It was no longer Jacob begging God for His blessing: God of His own accord appeared and blessed him... The blessing is gracious, but it is in a lower key and more general in character, as suited the name God (Elohim) rather than the name LORD (Jehovah). Still, God truly revealed Himself to Jacob, unasked, as He had to Abraham and Isaac, by the title that belonged to those fathers: El-Shaddai, God Almighty. None of them needed that assurance of protecting power as much as that "worm" Jacob.

In some respects this is almost a repetition of what God said the first time at Bethel, except that He did not say, "I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land." God had accomplished His purpose in Jacob. All He did then was to tell him two things. First, He drew attention to His own Person: He was God Almighty. Second, He drew attention to His promise, which could not fail. He remained as He was, and His promises could not change.

At Shechem, Jacob called his altar "El-elohe-Israel," that is, "God, the God of Israel." But at Bethel, the true standpoint, he called his altar "El-beth-el," that is, God — the house of God. This was true restoration. Jacob was brought back, after all his wanderings, to the very point from which he had started. Nothing less than this could ever satisfy God regarding His servant.