Genesis 35:9-11
And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

I love that little word again.

“God appeared unto Jacob again.”

Jacob needed that. After all the wandering, all the compromise, all the unnecessary detours, the Lord appears to him again. God does not act as though the promise had expired. He does not say, “Jacob, you blew it too many times. You took too long. You made too many messes.” No, He comes again, and He blesses him.

That is grace.

And then the Lord says something Jacob had heard before, but now he is in a position to hear it differently. “Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.” In other words, “You are not going to be defined by what you were. I have put another name on you.”

Jacob means heel snatcher. Con man. Supplanter. The one always figuring, grabbing, maneuvering, working the angle. But Israel means governed by God. Mark that. Jacob had spent so much of his life trying to run everything himself, and now the Lord reminds him, “Your future is not in being clever. Your future is in being governed by Me.”

That is a word for all of us.

Because the enemy loves to call us by the old name. He loves to drag up what we were, what we did, how we failed, where we wandered, what has marked us at our worst. But when God steps in, He says, “I know exactly who you have been, but that is not the deepest truth about you anymore. I have put My hand on your life. I have spoken another word over you.”

That changes a man.

Then the Lord goes on: “I am God Almighty.” El Shaddai. Not “Jacob, try harder.” Not “Jacob, pull yourself together.” Not “Jacob, make something happen.” The whole thing rests on who God is. “I am God Almighty.” That is where the promise stands. Not on Jacob’s strength, but on God’s sufficiency.

That is comforting, because Jacob is not standing there as a polished giant. He is standing there as a man who has cried, stumbled, buried idols, lost people he loved, and taken the long way around. Yet God still says, “Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.”

After the personal name comes the promised future.

I like that. God does not merely tell Jacob who he is no longer. He tells him what grace is going to do through him. He reminds him the promise is still alive. Fruitfulness is still ahead. Kings are still coming. The plan of God has not collapsed because Jacob took a crooked path for a while.

That ought to encourage somebody.

Maybe you know what it is to carry an old name. Maybe not literally, but inwardly. Failure. Hypocrite. Mess. Addict. Wanderer. Compromiser. The Lord knows how to meet a man in that very place and say, “I am not finished with you. My promise over your life is not dead. I have a name for you that My grace is writing, and I have a future for you that your past cannot cancel.”

That is how God talks.

He does not deny Jacob’s history. He redefines Jacob’s identity in the light of His own calling. And He anchors the whole thing in Himself: “I am God Almighty.”

So Jacob can breathe again. Not because Jacob has become mighty, but because God is.

And that is where real stability comes from. Not from staring at ourselves and trying to feel more promising. Not from replaying our failures until we collapse under them. But from hearing God say, “I am still here. I still know your name. I still have My hand on you. And I am still God Almighty.”

That is enough to move forward on.