FROM JACOB TO ISRAEL

FROM JACOB TO ISRAEL The history of Israel started inside one seriously complicated family. Jacob loved Rachel, but Laban tricked him into marrying Leah first. Jacob eventually married Rachel too, and both women gave their handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah, to him. Out of that mess came the twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Leah bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Rachel bore Joseph and Benjamin. Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. Zilpah bore Gad and Asher. God later changed Jacob’s name to Israel. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel” Genesis 32:28 KJV That is where the name came from. Jacob’s family went into Egypt as seventy people. Their descendants came out centuries later as a nation. God gave them the Law, brought them into the land promised to Abraham, and established Jerusalem as the center of the kingdom under David. After Solomon died, the kingdom split. The northern kingdom kept the name Israel. The southern kingdom became known as Judah. Assyria conquered Israel in 722 BC. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. Judah eventually returned and rebuilt, but Rome destroyed Jerusalem again in AD 70. The Jewish people were scattered across the world, but they never disappeared. Then came May 14, 1948. Israel declared independence in the same land tied to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The name God gave one man was back on the map as a nation. “Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once?” Isaiah 66:8 KJV #MoreJoyMinistries