Why do you think God re-renamed Jacob? Wasn't once enough? After all, when Jacob wrestled with God before his meeting with Esau, God renamed him Israel then? Perhaps Jacob didn't live up to the name change, or perhaps it didn't really "stick": Jacob still went by Jacob. Or, perhaps it was a confirmation of God's blessings and plans after a harrowing experience. After all, it is just before God moves Jacob to Bethel that Levi and Simeon massacred Shechem, his father Hamor, and his father's city. He feared the Canaanites' response. God stepped in, advised him to move to Bethel, and as Jacob and his family traveled, a fear of God fell on the cities so that they wouldn't go near Jacob. Remember, God changed Abraham's name when he made it clear that He was blessing Abram/Abraham, and that He was giving Abraham a new purpose. It seems the same is happening here: Jacob at last tells his family to put away their household gods and hold to the one and only True God, whom he had previously acknowledged had blessed him and cared for him. Now it was time for the whole family to live like it. And, God blesses Jacob, passes on the blessings and promises given to his forefathers, and renames him: Israel. And it is from Israel that the nation of Israel and the Israelites take their name: it all goes back to Jacob.
Sadly, at this time Rachel dies. This sets up a very important precedent: Joseph and Benjamin are Rachel's only children, and now she is gone. They are all Jacob has of his beloved wife, whom he loved (unlike Leah or his concubines). This means all kinds of favoritism fall upon these two, and jealousy then lays in wait for them from their brothers. This is a complete set-up, foreshadowing, for things to come: Joseph being sold into slavery; Joseph using Benjamin as a bargaining chip with his brothers while in Egypt. Yeah, it's all coming.
Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 36 (not actually about Joseph, though)
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