Genesis 33 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Genesis 33.

Meditate on verse 20.

Then he erected there an altar

 and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Wrestling with God changed Jacob; so much so, God changed his name to Israel. And even though he walked with a limp, he was no longer crippled by fear of man because like his grandfather, Abraham, now he feared God (Genesis 22:12).

Jacob divided his family into 3 companies in Genesis 33, and rather than using them as human shields, he walked in front of them and led his family to meet Esau. Miraculously the reunion was joyous, and after Jacob and Esau met, they went their separate ways without animosity between them.

Jacob traveled on to Canaan, to the city of Shechem. The last time Shechem had been mentioned in the Bible was when Abraham first arrived to the land of Canaan nearly 200 years earlier (Genesis 12:6- 7). When he came to Shechem, God appeared to Abraham and promised him and his descendants the land. Abraham built an altar there to the LORD. It was the first altar Abraham built in the land promised to him by God.

Shechem was also the first city where Jacob stopped after returning to the land that would someday bear his new name, Israel. In Shechem, like his grandfather Abraham had done, Jacob built an altar to God and named it El-Elohe-Israel; God, the God of Israel.

Jacob, now named Israel, acknowledged that God was his God, not just the God of his ancestors, Abraham and Isaac. God was personally his God. God had sojourned with him and wrestled with him. He had blessed him and been with him in the midst of joys and fears. He was God, the God of Israel!

What about you? Is there a time and a place where you have spiritually built an altar, a place of sacrifice, where you died to yourself and acknowledged that God is your God? If not, let today be your Shechem. If you already have, thank God for the privilege of living with Him.

Pray Genesis 33:20 over yourself and your family for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, You are El-Elohe- __________.

You are God, the God of ___________,

 the God of me and my family.

Because of Your name, Jesus~”

The WATCHMAN on the Wall ~ Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell