Israel: The Man Whose Name Outgrew His Story

Who he is, and when he lived

Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Strong's H3478) is a man of the patriarchal era, the son of Isaac and Rebekah and the brother of Esau. His first appearance in Scripture is Genesis 25:26. The era assigned to him runs around 1996 BC to 1635 BC, an era placed on Ussher's chronology (1650). That single line of dating is all we have, and it is worth saying plainly at the start: what the record here holds about this man is a name, a family, and a first mention.

A footprint that is mostly not his own

The name Israel touches 2,578 verses across 621 passages, from Genesis 25:26 to Revelation. It is spread more widely than almost any name in the record we have: 210 occurrences in Numbers, 186 in Genesis, 171 in 1 Kings, 170 in Ezekiel, 167 in Exodus, 162 in 2 Chronicles, and on through Judges, 2 Kings, Joshua, 1 Samuel and the prophets. Yet the dossier itself flags the crucial caution: this name also carries a people, a tribe and a land, so most of the places where it appears are not about this person at all. An honest reading has to hold that line. The overwhelming weight of the word Israel in Scripture is corporate, not biographical.

The family recorded around him

What the record does give in detail is a household. His parents are Isaac and Rebekah; his brother is Esau. Four women are listed as his partners, each first appearing in Genesis 29: Rachel (Genesis 29:6), Leah (Genesis 29:16), Zilpah (Genesis 29:24) and Bilhah (Genesis 29:29). Thirteen children are named, and their first mentions fall in a tight run: Reuben (Genesis 29:32), Simeon (Genesis 29:33), Levi (Genesis 29:34), Judah (Genesis 29:35), Dan (Genesis 30:6), Naphtali (Genesis 30:8), Gad (Genesis 30:11), Asher (Genesis 30:13), Issachar (Genesis 30:18), Zebulun (Genesis 30:20), Dinah (Genesis 30:21), Joseph (Genesis 30:24) and Benjamin (Genesis 35:18). That family list is the seed of everything the rest of the Bible means when it uses his name.

What the quoted passages actually show

The passages set before us under this name are not scenes from the man's life. They are scenes from the life of the people that bear it, and they should be read as such.

In Judges 20 that people goes to war with itself: "The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, 'Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?' Yahweh said, 'Judah first'" (Judges 20:17-27). The answer from Yahweh did not spare them: "The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground" (Judges 20:17-27). Only after ambushes set around Gibeah and a feigned flight to the highways does the tide turn (Judges 20:29-36).

In 1 Samuel 7 the same people come back: "Then the children of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only" (1 Samuel 7:2-11). At Mizpah they "drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, 'We have sinned against Yahweh'" (1 Samuel 7:2-11).

Later the name belongs to a divided kingdom and its kings. A king of Israel disguises himself for battle at Ramoth Gilead while Jehoshaphat wears his robes, and the captains of the chariots turn on the wrong man until "Jehoshaphat cried out, and Yahweh helped him" (2 Chronicles 18:28-34). Jeroboam the son of Joash reigns in Samaria and "did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight" (2 Kings 14:23-29), and yet the same passage says, "For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter," and "he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash" (2 Kings 14:23-29). The end of that road is stated without softening: "Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only" (2 Kings 17:18-24).

The failures the text names

The sins recorded in these quoted passages are the nation's, and they are named without cover: idolatry with the Baals and the Ashtaroth, put away only after twenty years of lamenting (1 Samuel 7:2-11); civil war with staggering losses (Judges 20:17-27); a king who did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (2 Kings 14:23-29); and a people of whom it is written that Jeroboam "drove Israel from following Yahweh, and made them sin a great sin" (2 Kings 17:18-24). Of the man Israel himself, no failure is set before us in any passage quoted here.

What we do not know

We do not have, in what is quoted, a single word spoken by this man or a single deed described. Genesis 25:26-31 is listed as his opening passage, but its text is not before us, and the silence will not be filled here. No account of his death is carried. Nothing here explains how one man's name came to stand for a people, a tribe and a land, though the whole rest of the record assumes it.

The line to Christ

The name does not stop at the Old Testament. It stands in the genealogies at Matthew 1:2 and Luke 3:34, and again at Acts 7:8. It is sounded through the opening chapters of Luke at Luke 1:16, Luke 1:33, Luke 1:54, Luke 1:68 and Luke 1:80, and again at Luke 2:25, Luke 2:32 and Luke 2:34. It appears on the lips of the Gospels at Matthew 2:6, Matthew 10:6, Matthew 15:24, Matthew 19:28, Matthew 22:32 and Matthew 27:42, at Mark 12:26, Mark 12:29 and Mark 15:32, at Luke 22:30, and at John 1:31, John 1:47 and John 1:49. It runs through the preaching of Acts at Acts 2:22, Acts 2:36, Acts 4:10, Acts 5:31, Acts 13:16-17 and Acts 13:23-24. Paul reasons over it at Romans 9:4, Romans 9:6, Romans 10:1, Romans 11:1-2 and Romans 11:25-26, and names himself by it at 2 Corinthians 11:22 and Philippians 3:5. It stands at Hebrews 8:8, Hebrews 8:10, Hebrews 11:9 and Hebrews 11:20-22, and at the last at Revelation 7:4 and Revelation 21:12, written on the gates. Twenty-eight times in Acts, sixteen in Luke, fifteen in Matthew, thirteen in Romans, eight in John: the name given to a man of the patriarchs is still being spoken when the New Testament closes.